Johannesburg - They studied together, and now they will flourish together.
Best friends Calvin Huysamen and Daniella de Figueiredo, both 18 and from Hatfield Christian School, passed with flying colours and with distinctions.
Huysamen emerged as a top achiever at the school, racking up nine distinctions. His elective subjects were science, life science, accounting and AP maths. De Figueiredo got six distinctions.
On Thursday Independent Media caught up with the “straight A” duo at their school, where they had gone to collect their results.
The two could not stop talking about their triumph. They also shared their future plans.
Huysamen could hardly string a sentence together he was so excited during the interview.
He said: “I’m really excited. I knew I would do well, but not like this. It’s really overwhelming.
De Figueiredo said: “I’m just glad it’s over and we can move on. I didn’t think I would achieve this.”
The two said they were headed for the University of Pretoria.
Calvin Huysamen achieved 9 distinctions and Daniella De Figueiredo 6 distinctions, making them the top two achievers from Hatfield Christian School in Pretoria. Picture: Bongani Shilubane/African News Agency/ANA
“I will be going to Tuks to study law and criminology while staying at home.
“I’m really excited and looking forward to having a great time at varsity, and studying hard, of course.”
Talking about the challenges they had encountered during the year, De Figueiredo said: “The workload was big, and it was challenging to balance sports and culture and academics, and trying to do the best I could.
“But with focus it can be done, no matter how challenging it might get,” she said.
Huysamen said: “When I started the year the workload was a bit too much, but after a few months the work was manageable and I’m just happy it’s all over now.”
The school, which had 64 candidates writing exams, obtained a 100 % pass rate, with 12 of them achieving six distinctions, and had an overall achievement of 153 distinctions.
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The Star