Blazing a trail from newbie to head girl

“A defining moment of my high school experience was the first day of Grade 8, walking into the hall to put on our blazers for the first time,” said King David Victory Park head girl for 2022/23, Hannah Evan.

“That’s quite a big Victory Park tradition, and it’s the first time you really feel amalgamated into the school. From that moment to being named head girl, it just felt that I had come full circle from becoming part of this community to eventually being selected to represent it.”

One of her highlights as head girl was organising a Heritage Day market with sustainable South African brands. “It was such a lovely, happy day, but it also gave local brands a bit of an opportunity to get their names out there,” she said. She also loved celebrating Jewish holidays and festivals as a school, such as Purim and Tu B’Shevat.

Evan won the Best All-Rounder Award, as well as Best Sportsperson. “I always did a bit of everything,” she said. Along with being head girl, she was on the public speaking team and played touch rugby and netball.

Though the role of head girl did add stress to her matric year, she said, “It was a growth experience. There was a lot to take on and learn from.” As for balancing academics and extracurricular activities, Evan said, “My time management has always been pretty good. For me, those activities were also a relief from everything that was so busy academically. It meant that I didn’t have to sit at a desk the whole time.

“It was also a way to improve on myself, which felt fulfilling,” she said. “It was always just such a stress relief to be social, to be with people, to work towards a different goal aside from exams.”

Evan said that the COVID-19 pandemic had a noticeable, prolonged impact on her and her peers. “I’m a firm believer that COVID-19 almost warped our social perspective,” she said. “We grow up learning that we need to be friendly and make lots of friends, and then COVID-19 made us scared of our friends and family. The post-COVID-19 dip in mental health was something you could see in work and school life throughout the grades.”

Evan’s accolades include awards for Jewish Awareness and Service; Best Student in Humanities; the WIZO Outreach Award, the Commitment & Dedication Award; as well as top student in English, further studies English, Hebrew, and history. Evan received nine distinctions.