One of Woodhill College’s high achievers in the matric Class of 2023, Cailey Sauvage, has described her last year of schooling as “fast-paced”, and filled with mixed emotions.
Speaking to The Star this week, Sauvage said it was a time of excitement, stress and anticipation. Despite this, the 18-year-old wannabe paediatric chiropractor says, she was not fazed by the challenges of the year 2023.
Sauvage hopes to fulfil her passion for alternative medicine. Chiropractic is a form of alternative medicine concerned with the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of mechanical disorders of the musculoskeletal system, especially of the spine.
“I applied to many universities. However, only two universities offer my dream career. These are the University of Johannesburg and the Durban University of Technology. I hope to be able to go study for a Bachelor of Health Sciences to achieve my dream in Chiropractic. If all goes according to plan, I would love to have my well-established practice and to focus mainly on paediatrics and athletes,” she says.
Her alma mater, Woodhill College, which falls under the Curro school group, and scores its exam under the Independent Examinations Board (IEB), is big on sports and academics. This, said Sauvage, shaped her into a well-rounded top achiever.
“During my fast-paced matric academic year, I experienced a mixture of emotions including excitement, stress and anticipation. However, all the other school activities such as sports and leadership made the matric year with its pressure much more bearable. My honest experience is that I started the year off with a lot of motivation and excitement, and decided matric isn’t that bad after all. However, a few months and exam sets down the line, I didn’t have the same perspective. Luckily, in the blink of an eye, it was all history.”
Having decided to work hard from the start of the matric year ensured that Sauvage achieved great results both in sports and academics, which was why even the dreaded preliminary exams did not derail her.
“The myth that the matric preliminary exams are the worst ensured that I put my very best effort into them. This led to my outcomes being better than expected. A tip I would give to others is to work hard for the prelims so that the bulk of the work is done, and then just find the shortcomings and improve on them in preparation for the finals,” she said.
Finding a balance between school, sports and other activities was tricky, but Sauvage managed to juggle all these and still achieve good marks.
Being a Head of House and winning the spirit and overall athletics winner trophies, were among the highs of her matric year...“My highlight for the past year was that I managed to keep up with my competitive swimming which on average required six days a week of training. I was also fortunate enough to compete in the Nationals in Gqeberha in April 2023. At school, I captained the swimming team as well as took part in athletics events,” she said.
Sauvage singled out her supportive family for praise, as they have stood with her throughout her journey to the top.
“I have always had a supportive family in whatever I do and while I wait in anticipation for my (final) results, the support has never been better.”
The Star