Potchefstroom Girls’ High’s number one matric achiever is from China. Yunzhao Emily Wang, was the top student from the Class of 2019 attaining a 91.9 per cent average and nine distinctions.
Last Wednesday, many congratulated the intelligent, multifaceted learner on her outstanding accomplishments, but it hasn’t always been plain sailing. That never stopped her from achieving greatness, though.
In 2010, Emily and her mother, Cuiping Dong, moved from China to Rustenburg in North West. The following year, she enrolled at a new school in a totally new country. The huge language barrier caused her to repeat grade four. “I felt trapped because I couldn’t talk to anyone. Everything was foreign to me,” she says.
However, with hard work and dedication, she could adapt to the new curriculum and eventually excelled. She says this was all because of her grandmother, Marie du Toit. Marie was a high school music teacher and helped her “pull-through”.
Together, they would stay up until 22:00, during which time Marie helped Emily with her homework. They also did other exercises to help her with her academics. She explains that in grade 4, term after term, her results kept on improving and since then, she has been excelling academically.
In 2015, she continued her schooling career at Potchefstroom Girls’ High as a grade 8 learner. From the first term, she was the top learner in her grade. “I was delighted because I was number four in grade 7. It was such a surprise that, of the crème de la crème, it was me.”
Emily aimed for distinctions because she then initially wanted to study at Wits; she set her sights on a particular scholarship. She decided to increase her number of subjects to secure it and added tourism and business studies. Her matric subjects were Accounting, Business Studies, Geography, Mathematics, Tourism, Afrikaans (First additional language), English (Home language), Life Orientation and Physical Sciences.
For five consecutive years, she earned certificates for her academic excellence.
Emily’s final results were classified as “superior”, but she also excelled in extra-curricular activities (in both sports and cultural activities). Here, she also won awards for her participation and contribution. Her testimonial letter states that she possesses leadership qualities and is a team player. She has also been awarded for actively supporting all the activities at school.
Emily advises matriculants to adopt a study method that will help them when studying. She says they should not look for excuses when they don’t do well. Achievement is not based on race or ethnicity. She proves that it can all be achieved through the drive, commitment, dedication, hard work, and perseverance.
She is also adamant that her success was possible because of God.
This year, Emily plans to study Actuarial Sciences at UCT. Despite all her achievements, however, she is facing challenges in funding her studies. When the time came for her to enroll in an institution of higher learning, she discovered that, since she wasn’t a South African citizen, her bursary application had been rejected.
Emily has desperately been looking for other ways to access funds for her studies.
She says she has even applied for funding at a company. Unfortunately, she believes her citizenship has prevented her from being accepted provisionally or being able to source funding. This was also why she couldn’t apply for the NSFAS grant at the time. Emily is devastated at the turn of events as she really loves the country and the people in it.
If any companies would like to help fund Emily, please contact her on her email address: Yunzhao.emily@gmail.com
