Magazine 2019

114 Mindful Living Ivanna Chetty This is Mindful Living’s second year and it has been a wonderful journey! We are a group of people who are passionate about living a cruelty-free life. We brainstorm different ways on how we can do this, as well as share delicious vegan recipes with each other. We volunteered at Fallen An- gels Pet Rescue and made quite a few dogs happy over the course of a few hours.We also went to Farm Sanctuary where we had the enriching experience of interact- ing with farm animals saved from the meat industry. Mindful Living is a comfortable space for like-minded people who have a shared interest - a love for animals. Peer Support Michelle Mackrell The Peer Support team consists of a group of FET learners who sign up to take part in a training programme where they are equipped with basic counselling and com- munication skills. Once learners complete the training, they are able to offer general support to their peers and others in their immediate sphere of influence. This year, the training course was offered by a Social Worker from the well-known Non-Gov- ernment Organisation, ChildLine. We are proud of the learners who commit them- selves to be of assistance to others. Problem Solver’s Society Marcèl Erasmus Python is one of the world’s fastest grow- ing programming languages as indicated by the 2019 Stack Overflow Developer Survey. In PSS, students learn complex algorithms and strategies often encoun- tered in difficult programming challenges, using Python as a primary programming language. The main focus of the club is to prepare learners for programming Ol- ympiads - such as the South African Na- tional Computer Programming Olympiad. We were very proud to have had one of our members, Emile Tredoux, earn a Silver Medal at last year’s Computer Program- ming Olympiad Round 3. Emile also went on to represent South Africa at the Inter- national Olympiad for Informatics (IOI) last year, where he competed with some of the best young problem solvers in the world. Public Speaking Chanelle Conlon Public Speaking is an active club with mem- bers achieving many notable accolades within both national and international champion- ships.The most notable achievements in 2019 were attained byAbigailTshiamala, Jace Baines and Nthato Vilakazi who were a part of the South African delegation in the World Indi- vidual Debating and Public Speaking Cham - pionship (WIDPSC) hosted at Branksome Hall, Toronto, Canada. The Junior and Senior Inter-house Championships (hosted at Park- lands) in Quarter 3 were a huge success with many learners delivering powerful speeches. The National Champs (NIDPSC) took place later in the year with the results still being released at the time of this publication. Besides the NIDPSC and Inter-House Championships, our learn- ers take part in numerous Public Speaking Competitions which take place throughout the year and they are commended for their efforts and participation. The art of Public Speaking is a skill which stands pupils in good stead for life and all Parklands College learn- ers are encouraged to join us. President’s Award Don Duffield This multifaceted programme serves to ho- listically develop its participants by creating a structured platform on which they can devel- op new skills such as learning to dance, cook, play a new instrument; participate in one or more physical activities; engage in a social outreach project to uplift underprivileged communities and be challenged in an adven- turous journey. We create some opportuni- ties for the learners who are participating in the President’s Award, but ultimately the learners involved are very special and dedicated youngsters with enormous drive and big hearts. At present we have several Parklands learners who are enrolled on all three levels: Bronze, Silver and Gold. SANESA Jolandi Gibson This past year we had a strong team of riders taking part in the SANESA interschool competition in various riding disciplines such as Equitation, Show Jumping, Working Hunter as well as Dressage. Our team mem - bers are Storme Pike, Jamie Wil- liamson, Skye van Straaten, Cassidy Wilson and Rio Boyce. With many first places accumu - lated already for Parklands Col- lege, our girls go from strength to strength as they invest countless hours into their respective disci- plines. With one more qualifier left next quarter before nationals, we are sure the girls will fly our banner high and wish them all the best when it comes to Western Province team selection. Sound Engineering Richard Black Sound Engineering in the digi- tal age presents many oppor- tunities and associated path- ways.This year we are indeed fortunate to be joined by Mr Damian Philander who has been able to initiate many new processes. The learners have contributed to external live shows and studio re- CLUBS & SOCIETIES