Helping others is important for this high achiever

Hirsch Lyons matriculant Sara Fine almost spent more of her matric year ensuring that less-fortunate scholars achieved academic success than she did her own. Fine was involved in a programme with other Hirsch Lyons girls to tutor underprivileged high school students from Alexandra.

It all began when Fine participated in a school chesed day at the end of her Grade 11 year, when she helped a student with maths. She exchanged numbers with the student, and when matric started in 2023, he asked her if she could tutor him in his Grade 11 year.

“I had to think about [tutoring him] because I knew that matric would be a lot of work and a big commitment as I wanted to get eight distinctions, but I enjoyed helping him, and I could see that he wanted to learn,” Fine said.

Fine, with the help of her Life Orientation teacher, put together a programme in which a group of girls would go to the Union of Jewish Women every Thursday afternoon to help this group of students.

“I would make sure that everyone had lifts to get there as we didn’t have transport,” Fine said. “We tried to make sure that every student had the same girl tutor them every week, but sometimes that couldn’t happen and we would be understaffed so we would have to split time between different groups.”

Fine dedicated herself to the success of this programme in spite of her academic commitments. Amidst the stress of her matric studies, she was inspired by how keen these students were to learn and listen to their peers helping them. “Most of the kids there tried their best, and I saw so much good come out of it,” Fine said.

Even when Fine stopped going on a weekly basis because of the stress of prelims, she kept up to date with her student’s progress and his constantly improving marks.

“I’m honoured that I could be a part of their academic journey, and I learnt that though academic success is important, it’s not the be all and end all, and that it’s extraordinary to be able to help people,” Fine said.

She achieved her eight distinctions, saying, “I enjoyed the results I witnessed, and wanted to go into something similar while contributing to Israeli society.”

So, she’s participating in an Aardvark Israel gap year programme this year, in which she’ll be a volunteer teacher in a school in Israel helping students to learn English.