Lower Gwelo Adventist High School, Zimbabwe
During the summer, l interned at Lower Gwelo Adventist High School (LOGAHS), a boarding school belonging to the Seventh-day Adventist denomination. The school was established in 1902 with a total of 750 students and is situated 30 miles from the city of Gweru, Midlands Province, Zimbabwe. LOGAHS enrolls students from form one to form six, and its mission is to provide a well-rounded education that incorporates formal and informal education, all rooted under Christian values. The school motto is in Latin, “Lux in Tenebris,” meaning light in darkness. Students are taught to shine wherever they go and be exemplary.
At LOGAHS, l had the opportunity to work with the A-level physics and statistics teachers as a part-time physics tutor. My responsibilities entailed providing one-on-one and class lectures, and assisting students with review as they approached the national exam period. I also helped with grading, administrative tasks and monitoring class attendance. When the teacher was present during class, l helped by providing support and reinforcement, such as setting up materials and equipment to aid in instruction. I also helped in the structuring of the new school curriculum and the calendar. I attended all training classes, staff meetings and parent conferences. My core responsibility, however, was working with higher-level students, motivating them and organizing career workshops. To succeed in this role, I had to eloquently open the minds of students and show them that, regardless of their background, the sky’s the limit.
I also had the opportunity to work with the school IT specialist on the design and development of the LOGAHS’s new website, which was to be managed by students. One of the policies we pushed for was aiding students in appreciation of the field of programming. I learned new skills in collaborating with other developers including version control, Git and GitHub and also front-end programming languages such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript. I enjoyed the statistics classes and working on web design, which aligns with my passion for computer science related fields. l hope this is just the first step into computer science and look forward to taking more computer science and statistics courses, with the end result of majoring in computer science.
This internship experience gave me a different perspective on how organizations are managed, strategic planning and operations. It also gave me an invaluable lesson on how hard it is to keep any organization operational without any bottlenecks. As a future leader, I think this experience helped me in revealing some picture of managing an organization.
I would like to thank the ’68 Center for Career Exploration for their support throughout this internship process, as well as to the Palmers for their generosity in sponsoring this internship and making this summer experience possible.
Megamenu Social