CGA's Best High School Class Yet!

One of our biggest roles at CGA is overseeing the Secondary Sponsorship Program.  Since CGA does not have its own High School, we continue to support and assist all of our 8^th Grade Graduates as they move on to secondary school.  Through the support of each student’s sponsor, we help pay the school fees and provide a little extra for uniforms and other school needs.  We help them in finding a good school and preparing them to begin high school.  Additionally, during every school term break (April, August, December) we organize a week of “Reunion” to provide spiritual encouragement, advice, life skills and other things to help them be successful in school and in life.  We also review their report forms each term to check-in on their academic performance and counsel them when they are having problems.    

Joe has not only taught these kids while they were in primary school, but he also developed the Secondary Program for CGA from scratch in 2007 and continues to follow them closely throughout their 4 years of high school.  In fact, I can remember getting into my vehicle and driving all over the region to find these students the best schools possible back in 2009, begging Principals to give these students a chance at their school.  I told them they wouldn’t be disappointed.  Though we don’t see the students on a day-to-day basis while they are away at secondary school (most of them attend boarding schools), we do our best to give them the support they need to succeed!

In last year’s National High School Exams our CGA class was outstanding!  446,696 12^th Grade students around Kenya took the exams last October at 7,600 different high schools.  Among them were 23 CGA students representing 16 different schools.  This was the 4^th group of CGA graduates to take the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (K.C.S.E.) Exams, and they had more top performers than any of the other previous CGA classes.  14 of the 23 CGA students (61%) qualified for University with a grade of C+ and above, and 9 of those (40%) qualified to go to University through Government sponsorship with a high B or above.  That is drastically higher when compared to the rest of the country where only 27% qualify for University and only around 10% go through Government sponsorship.  19 of the 23 CGA students (83%) reached the minimum requirement of mid-level colleges compared to 68% across the country.    

Daisy Magero led the CGA students with an A- of 80 points.  She had an A or A- in all 7 subjects, and she was only 1 point away from getting a Mean Grade of A which is the highest possible grade.  Daisy finished in the top 2% of all the students in the entire country!  Back in 2009 in the Primary School National Exams Daisy was disappointed to finish 5^th best at CGA.  Though she has always been very bright, she didn’t work as hard as she needed to in primary school.  She was determined to do better in high school and live up to her potential, though she has faced many challenges in her life.  Joe will never forget back in 2006 when Daisy’s older siblings ran up to his office in school to say that their mother had passed away.  Their mother was a Kindergarten teacher at CGA and she died unexpectedly in her sleep.  Her mother’s death was, of course, hard for Daisy because she was young and very close with her mother.  In her 2^nd year of high school, her dorm room was burned down and she lost all of her belongings.  In her 3^rd year, her father passed away unexpectedly and now she was left without anyone to care for her except her older sister and brother, and a few uncles that live very far away.  Her determination and perseverance enabled her to exceed most people’s expectations.  

Some of the individual success stories from this class include 2 girls who had to drop out of secondary school because of pregnancy, but went back after 2 years and now have passed and qualified for university.  Another girl had left school after her parents passed away and she became a housemaid before CGA helped her enroll in school again.  Though she was old for her class, she managed to work hard and also qualify for University.      

Another special one is one of our Suba Laker Football players (who also happened to be a CGA student).  Irine Achieng was told by many people, including teachers in her school and people from the community, that she wouldn’t pass because she was playing too much football.  She showed all of them that it is possible to balance sports with school and succeed in both! She finished with a B- and hopes to attend university to study Mechanical Engineering. 

Getting such a good result is an encouragement to us that we are doing our best to provide the opportunity for these students to build a better future!  It shows that in the CGA primary school the teachers and staff are not only teaching them to pass the 8^th Grade exam, but we are also preparing them to be successful in high school and in life.  We are proud of how well they have done.  Each of them has a story filled with struggles and challenges, but through God’s faithfulness we are seeing them completing their education and moving on to higher levels. 

2009 CGA 8th Grade Class  --  High School graduates in 2013

This class was one that Joe worked with when he first visited Kenya on a Seacoast Mission Team in 2003.  Back then, these students were only in 2^nd Grade!  Now they are adults ready to join college!  It’s been incredible to watch them advance through life and succeed academically; and Daneen's loved getting to know them as secondary students and now Alumni! 

Joe working with Grade 2 in 2003!