On July 7th 2014, 20 teammates and 30 students gathered for the Pioneer Winter Programme. There were two programmes: we welcomed 15 Grade 00-1 “Young Pioneers”, and 15 Grade 6-8 “Pioneer Innovators”. It was the first time teammates and students would come together to do what we do: grow innovators and leaders! With that step, after many months of preparation and anticipation, our journey to develop innovators and leaders who will shape the African Century began in earnest. With that coming together, Nova Pioneer was born.
One year ago, as Nova Pioneer turned 5, we celebrated our birthday for the first time. What a year it has been since then! It has been a year that has led us to reckon with both a health pandemic and a global social justice movement that could well define our generation. It has been a year in which we have faced up to the challenges of learning to work, learn and live in new ways and most importantly of staying true and committed to our mission, our students and each other through the most challenging stretch yet of our journey together. It has also been a year of important achievements: the milestone of our first graduates, the growth of our students in all grades and teammates in all roles; and the welcoming of new campuses, teammates and students to the Novaneer family.
On a personal note
I have never been as challenged or encouraged by our journey as I have been this past year. I have felt greater extremes of strain and setback on the one hand, and gratitude and admiration on the other, than I have in any year of my life to date. In my birthday message to teammates last year, I wrote that I consider our team and culture to have been our greatest achievements of our first five years. I still do. Our collective response to the unprecedented challenges of this year — while remaining committed to our mission and each other through it all — will be a close second! Indeed, that too will also be a reflection of our team and culture.
Where will the world be, where will we be?
One year from now on July 7th 2021? How about July 7th 2022? I hope that one year from now we will be able to look back with a sense of accomplishment and pride at the year we will have led, the storms we will have weathered, the scars we will have endured, and the triumphs we will have earned. I hope that two years from now, with a world emerging from a long winter and looking forward with the exuberance and optimism of spring, we will once again pause and be able to take pride in our journey — our learning, our adaptations, our choices, our successes. As we do so, on both of those days, I hope that we will be able to look around at ourselves and feel an ever-stronger sense of unity and bond amongst ourselves, and look within ourselves and feel affirmed by who we will have individually and collectively shown ourselves to be.
From Paulo Coehlo’s The Alchemist — a book that met me at the right challenging moment in my life — I share with you: “No heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second’s encounter with God and with eternity.” I am grateful for every moment of this journey together with you, and look forward to the many years ahead of us!
Happy 6th birthday Novaneers 🙂
