Character Building Activities

St Jude’s Girls’ Secondary School has a total of nine clubs. Each club is unique and provides a different experience to students.

Irene and Faith, charming and bubbly secondary students took the time to list all the clubs. “We have nine clubs namely Scouts, Journalism, Roots & Shoots, Entrepreneurship, Tembo, Fema, Computer, Youth of Tanzania Association (YOTA) and Art Club,” says Irene. She is the school’s Head Girl and also a leader of Scouts Club.

These clubs allow students to reach beyond academics and participate in activities outside the classroom; promoting character building, developing life skills and expanding students’ interests and passions. With mentorship and guidance from teachers in each club, students receive help in assessing their performance with club projects and acquiring skills they can use after they graduate.

“My favourite club is journalism because I feel like I am myself when I’m in this club. I enjoy it, and it’s so much fun. We have our newsletter that we are still writing. We haven’t posted it, but we will be publishing it soon,” says Faith, who belongs in the Journalism Club. She’s also a chairperson of the Entrepreneurship Club.

Ever since Irene joined her club, she feels like her personality and character has developed. Irene is more confident with herself than she was before.

“Scouts Club is everything to me. 90% of everything I do is all about that. I love it! The club gives me new experiences, more lessons and more skills. For example, before joining the club, I used to be scared of public speaking, but now I can lead the assembly without any stage fright,” says Irene with a bright, confident smile.

Irene and Faith believe that these school clubs can help students achieve more in their lives.

“After I graduate, I wish to become both a chef and a journalist. With the skills I’m learning from the Entrepreneurship and Journalism Club, I know I can work as a chef, open my own business while practising broadcast journalism,” Faith ambitiously says.

Teachers are also heavily involved in these clubs by supervising and assessing the students’ performance. Ms Judith, a librarian at the girls’ secondary school, explains more about the club activities, “We normally have club sessions as extra-curricular activities once a week after school hours. The main objective of introducing club activities in our school is to promote students discovering and experiencing their talents and passion in line with the school values.”

She adds, “Clubs have a huge impact on our girl's education, as it allows them to explore and learn more about their talents. The capability to go beyond academics helps them in their social life and especially to adjust to life after graduation.”

“Some of the skills developed in these clubs are self-reliance, volunteerism, and entrepreneurship, which will help them become responsible people in their communities and good ambassadors for the school.”

At St Jude’s, clubs not only give students the chance to sharpen their interests, hobbies and talents but also develop their leadership and social skills; in turn, creating community-focused leaders who will fight poverty through education.