A passion for science is in St Judes' DNA.

Following our three consecutive, successful years competing in the Tanzania Young Scientist (TYS) competition, sponsor and major electricity supplier Songas has awarded St Jude’s a special Passion for Science Award.

“This is a major honour for our school,” St Jude’s Head of Department for Physics and Assistant Academic Master Nzinyangwa Mcharo said.

“For the past six years, St Jude’s has shown its passion for science through the annual Science Day, which brings together young scientists from around the region to work on projects that will solve the problems facing many Tanzanians.

“We are so honoured Songas has recognised our Passion for Science and this award will inspire our students to continue the work they’ve been doing.”

Songas also awarded St Jude’s 2.5million Tanzanian Shillings (Tsh), which was used to purchase two desktop computers.

The awards kept rolling in for 2015 Science Fair winners Venance and Martin, who earned a 400,000Tsh prize from Songas for their Smart House with Raspberry Pi entry. 

It’s another exciting step for Venance, who has been at St Jude’s since Standard 1 (Grade 1) and always valued his education, using his time to pursue passions for science, computers and engineering.

It’s no wonder he and Martin are good friends, as Martin also began at St Jude’s in Standard 1 and is enthusiastic about engineering and physics.

Having come from homes without plumbing and electricity, both students’ families have also instilled the value of hard work. This, combined with dedication to their high-quality educations, has seen Martin and Venance on track to successful futures.

When their TYS entry took out first place in the Technology category last year, it capped off a great run in national science recognition for St Jude’s. Ntekaniwa and Hashim won a special award for SMS Voting software the year before and in 2013 Liston and Riziki won second prize in the Technology category for their Hybrid Generator.

St Jude’s has emerged as a national leader in science, with last year’s inaugural Form 6 graduates placing in the top 10% of chemistry, physics and advanced mathematics in the national exams.

Tanzania Young Scientists’ Dr Goziberth Kamugisha, Songas Ltd representative Dr Mkodo and Songas Community Relations officer Nichodemus Chipakapaka came to our secondary campus in February to personally deliver the special award and speak to students. 

Support St Jude’s commitment to academic excellent by donating here, and keep an eye out for more on our 2016 Science Day in late April.

St Jude’s is raising the standard of essay writing in Tanzania, with our students taking out six of the top 10 spots in a recent national competition.

Our talented students placed 1st to 3rd and 5th to 7th at the 2015 annual World Standard Day Essay Competitions ceremony in Dar Es Salaam. The competition is open to all secondary school students, college and higher learning institution students under 35 years and pursuing their studies in Tanzania.

The win is yet another example of how St Jude’s is battling, and winning, Tanzania’s education crisis.

Our students regularly win national and international essay competitions and are consistently ranked in the top 10% in national exams.

The achievement is even more amazing considering our students come from some of the poorest families in Tanzania, where only 7% of people have a secondary education.

Form 5 student Ayubu finished 1st, followed by 2nd-placed Pius (Form 5), 3rd-placed Arnold (Form 6), 5th-placed Denis M (Form 4), 6th-placed Denis T (Form 5) and 7th-placed Damson (Form 5).

Quietly spoken and shy about their achievement, the six students explained how they were able to complete their entries in just “a couple of weeks” after the competition theme was changed last-minute.

“Our essays were all about Standards: The World’s Common Language,” Denis T said.

The six students were proudly acknowledged and cheered during an afternoon assembly upon their return from the three-day trip to Dar, where they were accompanied by teacher Lightness Isojick. The top three were presented with high-tech rewards - Ayubu with a tablet for his efforts, Pius a laptop and Arnold a smart phone.

Lightness, who often coordinates academic competition entries for St Jude’s, was very proud of how they performed.

“(The students) have done so well. Everyone wanted to know the secret behind our victory,” she said.

Lightness responded by reminding people of St Jude’s track record in the annual competition – six top 10 students in 2012 (including Denis T, who came second) and three last year (including Pius).

She said it would not have been possible without the support from school management, and so many individuals who can “share our students’ victory, and that is the best reward we could get”.

Help us create the next generation of Tanzanian leaders. Donate to The School of St Jude.

Our Standard 7s have been put to the test and aced it!

From more than 16,000 schools in the country, our 135 final-year primary students placed in the top 2% for national exams, and we could not be more proud.

“The results are really wonderful, with 68 students achieving A’s and 67 achieving B’s,” upper primary headmaster Peter Manjalla said.

St Jude’s provides scholarships to students from the poorest homes in Tanzania, helping families who would not be able to send their children to school.

Since opening with just three students in 2003, the school has grown to offer almost 2000 scholarships and consistently ranks as one of the top schools in Tanzania.

Our commitment to world-class teaching standards paid dividends in May when our first ever Form 6 (final year of high school) graduates finished in the top 10% in Tanzania.

These students, who come from impoverished families, will now have an opportunity to go to university and develop into future leaders in their communities.

Help St Jude's produce future leaders in Tanzania by becoming a sponsor today.

Debate about the most hotly-contended presidential election in Tanzania’s history didn’t just come from those old enough to vote.

Our Upper Primary English department hosted the final of its three annual school debates, with the rousing subject of ‘Who Would Make the Best Tanzanian President?’.

The debate prompted students to educate themselves on Tanzanian politics and reflect on national policy and the qualities of good leadership.

In a country that has been ruled by the CCM party for the past 54 years, rival CHADEMA has proven to be a rare, worthy opponent to contest the current Government.

/Hands held high, in either the form of a ‘peace’ sign for CHADEMA or a ‘thumbs up’ for CCM, the school audience was quick to show their support to the 20 or so students arguing their cases on stage.

CHADEMA’s popularity rose to great heights in the area around St Jude’s recently, as their leader is a former Prime Minister and CCM member who hails from the Monduli region of the Arusha district.

This popularity was reflected in the debate, which focused primarily on CCM leader John Magafuli and CHADEMA leader Edward Lowassa.

Senior primary principal Peter Manjella said the English department encouraged students to focus on the qualities they wanted in a leader. Edmund Mutajuka, English Department head and organizer of the debate, has also been leading students in practicing their public speaking).

The hour-long debate was critiqued by students and teachers alike, with the event more a chance to air opinions than decide on a winner.

Meanwhile, eight of our Form 6 graduates showed their community leadership by working at polling stations during the general election. We’re proud of Alfani, Judica, Justin, Negi, Elizabeth, Hosiana, Erick and Mrema doing their bit to facilitate voting!

Peter, who passed on the news, said he was thoroughly impressed.

“This is really leadership, these positions were really competitive,” he said.

“More than 6000 people applied for the 2860 positions, but they made it.”

Tanzania's governing CCM party candidate Magufuli won the presidential election with 58% of the vote, the electoral commission said on October 29.

Support a rising leader today and sponsor one of our politically-engaged students.

One hundred and thirty-nine promising Form 4 St Jude’s students reached an exciting milestone in their education by graduating over the weekend.

Proud parents, fellow students, special guests and staff made up the hundreds who attended the jubilant ceremony at Smith campus and enjoyed celebratory performances by the Ngoma Club, Africanas’ group and traditional dance graduates.

“The stage that we’re at has built us a good foundation,” Form 4 student Christina said.

“The education we’ve been provided has improved our chances in numerous sectors including political, social and economic.”

Christina’s words, spoken on behalf of her fellow graduates, are all the more striking considering the gross school enrollment rate in Tanzania drops from 93% in primary to a staggering 35% in secondary. Just 2.4% of the Tanzanian students who entered Standard 1 in 2002 completed secondary school.

Professor Patrick Ndakidemi, deputy vice chancellor of The Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology, was also struck by the significance of the event.

Touched by the occasion, he opening his speech by saying he was so excited he could cry, “because (the graduates) are the future”.

Prof Ndakidemi supported the sentiment by announcing he would personally give 1 million TZS Tanzanian shillings ($637 AUS equivalent) to reward students for discipline.

St Jude’s founder Gemma Sisia encouraged graduates to take this time to carefully consider their opportunities.

“Every single university we’ve visited in Africa recruits on marks. It’s as simple as that,” she said.

“If you want to do medicine, you want to do engineering, or you want to do teaching... If you want to get into university you need to get very high marks in the subject you are studying.”

Gemma also impressed the importance of aiming for a scholarship.

“The Form 6 graduates who finished in May and are doing community service are currently filling out scholarship forms,” she explained.

“Many of the questions on the form are about what you have done, spirit-wise, that makes you deserving of that scholarship. How many community service hours have you done, how many hours have you given tutoring to younger students, how often have you helped people in your village? They’re the types of things you need to get ready for your scholarship forms.”

Vice-chairperson of the Secondary School Board, Jacqueline Mkindi, also had advice to share.

She said the “remarkable” performance of last year’s 126 Form 4 graduates, with 70 distinctions and 55 merits, should be an inspiration to them all.

“The school was number three out of 146 schools in the region, and 24th out of 2322 schools nationally,” she said.

“It doesn’t matter where you’re coming from, what matters is who you become tomorrow. If you want be a success in life you have to be focused, you have to work hard, you have to continuously train yourself and you have to include those principals in each and everything you do in life.”

See how our Form 6 graduates are giving back to their communities in the Beyond St Jude’s Community Service Program.

“There is nothing more exciting than seeing a woman doing something she is passionate about,” St Jude’s senior secondary (Form 6) student Emiliana said.

And she would know.

Emiliana and secondary (Form 3) student Neema are fresh from three weeks of non-stop excitement at the inaugural, invite-only Women in Science (WiSci) STEAM Camp.

The two were among 120 eager young minds from eight African countries and the US, who participated in intensive workshops run by international industry leaders in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM).

“I met different girls who are really passionate about science, and there was this lady, a mentor from Intel called Kay, who impressed me so much. When anything went really wrong with coding all the men would say ‘where’s Kay let’s bring Kay in here’,” Neema said.

“I was very inspired by her and two counsellors from Rwanda, Elodea and Anabella. Those ladies, they are only 19 or 20 and are in university; they are computer majors and they made me think I can do it if they have done it."

Sub-Saharan Africa lags behind the rest of the world when it comes to gender equality in STEAM fields. The UN’s 2013 MDG Report shows the gap increasing as female enrolment rates in STEAM drop at the secondary and tertiary levels.

Neema and Emiliana are bucking the trend and proving they have plenty of promise, by taking out two of the three prestigious prizes during STEAM.

The first week of the camp, coordinated by Microsoft, saw the students design multilevel computer games. It was Neema’s time to shine with her game being voted best of the week!

The second week had Intel build on the girls’ programming skills by being instructed in engineering robots, and the third, themed around entrepreneurship and design, saw Emiliana’s nous for problem solving awarded with a prize for creativity and innovation.

“We had to come up with a problem in society and show how we could use our knowledge of technology to solve it; in my group we solved a problem on deforestation which is a really big problem in Africa,” Emiliana said.

“Our focus was on Madagascar because in the last 20 years it has lost 70% of its trees; we designed a sensor, you could put in a tree and it could monitor around 400 other trees. When someone is trying to cut down a tree or burn in the area the sensor would go on and it would alert officials.”

Neema’s group project addressed the prevalence and under reporting of rape in South Africa.

“We decided to make an app to help people report rape cases. The app had GPS which can show you nearby hospitals and clinics, psychology resources and it had a place for psychologists to volunteer and talk to victims,” Neema said.

“For the final presentations, Janet Kagame came, and we also had a letter from Michelle Obama with encouraging words.”

After an overwhelming final day, it was a bittersweet farewell as the girls stayed up late in their dorms, singing, dancing, crying and hugging.

“We were lucky to get that experience at the camp and we promised to share what we learned at our schools and in our societies,” Neema said.

The girls are keeping in touch with their international peers via Facebook and as being official members of The United Nations Girl Up initiative. Girl Up engages adolescent women in the places where it is hardest to be a girl, empowering them to take action and transform their world.

Neema is currently putting together a programming club at Smith campus and is intent on pursuing computer science at university, while she and Emiliana are running a workshop on sensors and starting a GirlUp branch at St Jude’s.

“Because of STEAM, now I really want to follow my passion, I know I can do it and I want to encourage other girls to do the same,” Neema said.

Sponsor a student like Neema or Emiliana and help them achieve more.