Help get Julia to Singapore
A local schoolgirl is hoping people will help sponsor her trip to Sinpapore, where she will represent her school at the International Abacus Championship.
LOCAL schoolgirl, Julia Marnewick has been chosen to represent South Africa at next year’s International Abacus Championship, where the grade four pupil will represent Glenwood Prep in Singapore in 2016.
At the annual AMSASA Nationals Championship in October, Julia won a Champion Trophy and was also awarded the Attitude is Everything prize at the event, following her nomination by her Abagility Maths instructor, Yzzil Hattingh. This is an award given to children who have come a long way, not only in class, but also in their own personal capacity; it is not reflective of their abacus skill.
“This award was presented because of her exceptional attitude towards her work, teacher and fellow students, and also because of her enthusiasm to enhance herself as an individual and her positive attitude toward overcoming difficulties in life in general,” explained Tracy Hauptfleisch, founder of Abagility Maths Club.
She added that Julia had shown great advancement in the two years she has been learning the Japanese Abacus technique.
“Julia has shown amazing focus, determination and drive for a nine year old, which resulted in her taking the Champions Trophy. Taking second place in her category is a great achievement as she competed against other children from Grade 3 up to 6,” she said.
Abagility Maths Club had 37 children who attended the first AMSASA Abacus and Mental Arithmetic National Championship in Roodepoort, Gauteng, where Julia joined 103 children from all over the country who took part in the event
At the National Championship, each child wrote a six minute competition paper using their abacus, and a two minute paper using their mental maths skill.
The competition tested her ability to add and subtract sums up to double digits on her abacus, and to mentally calculate single digit addition and subtraction sums of varying length in just seconds.
“We enrolled Julia into the Abagility Maths Club to try improve her general mathematics ability when it became clear that she was not coping at school,” explained her enthusiastic parents Michael and Candiese Marnewick.
“The results she has achieved academically and now competitively have been incredible and the confidence and enthusiasm she has gained will add to her academic improvement as well. From a child who hated maths and any extra learning, she has embraced the subject with enthusiasm as well as the hard work it takes to achieve what she has. We are extremely proud of her!”
Yzzil Hattingh said: “I have been teaching Julia since 2013, when she arrived as a nervous, shy, insecure little girl. Maths does not come naturally to her and she has to concentrate twice as hard as most other children – but she does. With her positive attitude, she has overcome obstacles that have made her a stronger, confident person.”
Julia was diagnosed with ADD in Grade R, which just makes her accomplishment that much greater, given that concentration and focus is at the foundation for developing maths proficiency.
If you would like to offer support as far as fundraising goes to get Julia to Singapore next year, email her father Michael at: Michael@mmvii.co.za.
Follow the facebook page GetJuliaToSingapore.
