Latest news with #youthachievement
The Independent
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Duke of Edinburgh says awards mark ‘pride and success' in youth achievements
The Duke of Edinburgh has congratulated young people as they celebrated their gold awards in the gardens of The Palace of Holyroodhouse. The Duke of Edinburgh's Award (DofE) was founded by the late Prince Philip in 1956 and to achieve a gold award young people must complete physical, skills, volunteering and expedition sections as well as a residential. On Friday, the Palace of Holyroodhouse's gardens were transformed into a festival-style party, with games, food stalls, and various activities as around 600 gold award winners celebrated their achievements. Attendees heard from famous Scots including Olympic runner Eilish McColgan, singer Nathan Evans, and actor James Cosmo. The Duke of Edinburgh, who received his own award from his father, Prince Philip, in 1986, gave a speech and told attendees: 'It's really good to see you all here today, and particularly, congratulations to each and every one of you who have managed to achieve your gold DofE. 'This is for you, this is our recognition and celebration of your achievements. I hope that today is an excellent day for you and a real celebration for that.' Referring back to his youth when he began working towards his own award, he joked: 'I hope the experience of doing your award was a good one, that it was enjoyable. I'm guessing there were probably times when you were wondering why you were doing it, and if it was anything like mine that was probably about halfway through the expedition!' He added: 'But it's a great feeling when you get to the end and it's that feeling of pride and success in your achievement that we want to celebrate today and we want to capture.' Olympian and British and European record holder, Eilish McColgan, delivered a speech alongside Nerea Winchester, 18, from Glasgow, who celebrated her own gold award achievement. Ms McColgan said: 'There are many similarities between the DofE and my athletics club. Not just in the obvious areas like hard work and discipline, but that sense of community. Being surrounded by likeminded individuals, all striving to make themselves better. 'In 2011, I ran in my first ever live televised race. Dreaming of qualifying for the world championships. But with 600m to go. I heard a pop. I knew instantly I'd broken my foot. But me being me, and a typical stubborn Scot, I wasn't going to let a broken foot stop me. I kept running. 'Sadly, it wasn't the fairytale ending. Finishing the race came at a cost. A few days later the surgeon told me I'd never run professionally again but suggested I could 'hobby jog'. It was one of the toughest moments of my life, but like many of you on your DofE journeys, I'd learned the value of resilience, of showing up, and of not giving up when things get hard. 'I think if I didn't have my friends from the running club to distract me, my recovery would have looked very different. Instead, I really leant on my support network. Even when I couldn't run, I'd still go down to the track just to keep my motivation high. I truly believe that made a huge difference.' Nerea, also a DofE youth ambassador, volunteered for Oxfam for three years as part of the work towards earning her award. She said: 'Through my DofE sections, I found groups and niches of people who not only accepted my chatty, loud self, but embraced it fully. Without meeting these people through the DofE, I can't guarantee I would feel confident enough to unapologetically be myself. 'DofE gave me a purpose in life and let me express my creativity like never before. I never felt I was good at art or capable of creating it. 'However, when I picked up knitting for my DofE Skills section, I found an amazing creative outlet. It was challenging, but I learned to trust the process and, in doing so, built my resilience as well as rediscovering my creativity.' Speaking before he gave a speech to those attending, actor James Cosmo told the PA News Agency: 'If you are a parent listening out there, or a young person, you should really think about doing the DofE award. 'No matter what your circumstance is, there's something there to suit you and your future career, for your personal development, nothing beats it, it's fantastic.' He added: 'These people go through the bronze, silver and then gold and so a lot of the time they're doing voluntary work, nobody's paying much attention to them, they're just getting on with it and showing the dedication and stick ability. 'So it's nice at the end of it all, to recognise the effort they've made when clearly there was nobody there to cheer them on. They did it.'
Yahoo
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Duke of Edinburgh says awards mark ‘pride and success' in youth achievements
The Duke of Edinburgh has congratulated young people as they celebrated their gold awards in the gardens of The Palace of Holyroodhouse. The Duke of Edinburgh's Award (DofE) was founded by the late Prince Philip in 1956 and to achieve a gold award young people must complete physical, skills, volunteering and expedition sections as well as a residential. On Friday, the Palace of Holyroodhouse's gardens were transformed into a festival-style party, with games, food stalls, and various activities as around 600 gold award winners celebrated their achievements. Attendees heard from famous Scots including Olympic runner Eilish McColgan, singer Nathan Evans, and actor James Cosmo. The Duke of Edinburgh, who received his own award from his father, Prince Philip, in 1986, gave a speech and told attendees: 'It's really good to see you all here today, and particularly, congratulations to each and every one of you who have managed to achieve your gold DofE. 'This is for you, this is our recognition and celebration of your achievements. I hope that today is an excellent day for you and a real celebration for that.' Referring back to his youth when he began working towards his own award, he joked: 'I hope the experience of doing your award was a good one, that it was enjoyable. I'm guessing there were probably times when you were wondering why you were doing it, and if it was anything like mine that was probably about halfway through the expedition!' He added: 'But it's a great feeling when you get to the end and it's that feeling of pride and success in your achievement that we want to celebrate today and we want to capture.' Olympian and British and European record holder, Eilish McColgan, delivered a speech alongside Nerea Winchester, 18, from Glasgow, who celebrated her own gold award achievement. Ms McColgan said: 'There are many similarities between the DofE and my athletics club. Not just in the obvious areas like hard work and discipline, but that sense of community. Being surrounded by likeminded individuals, all striving to make themselves better. 'In 2011, I ran in my first ever live televised race. Dreaming of qualifying for the world championships. But with 600m to go. I heard a pop. I knew instantly I'd broken my foot. But me being me, and a typical stubborn Scot, I wasn't going to let a broken foot stop me. I kept running. 'Sadly, it wasn't the fairytale ending. Finishing the race came at a cost. A few days later the surgeon told me I'd never run professionally again but suggested I could 'hobby jog'. It was one of the toughest moments of my life, but like many of you on your DofE journeys, I'd learned the value of resilience, of showing up, and of not giving up when things get hard. 'I think if I didn't have my friends from the running club to distract me, my recovery would have looked very different. Instead, I really leant on my support network. Even when I couldn't run, I'd still go down to the track just to keep my motivation high. I truly believe that made a huge difference.' Nerea, also a DofE youth ambassador, volunteered for Oxfam for three years as part of the work towards earning her award. She said: 'Through my DofE sections, I found groups and niches of people who not only accepted my chatty, loud self, but embraced it fully. Without meeting these people through the DofE, I can't guarantee I would feel confident enough to unapologetically be myself. 'DofE gave me a purpose in life and let me express my creativity like never before. I never felt I was good at art or capable of creating it. 'However, when I picked up knitting for my DofE Skills section, I found an amazing creative outlet. It was challenging, but I learned to trust the process and, in doing so, built my resilience as well as rediscovering my creativity.' Speaking before he gave a speech to those attending, actor James Cosmo told the PA News Agency: 'If you are a parent listening out there, or a young person, you should really think about doing the DofE award. 'No matter what your circumstance is, there's something there to suit you and your future career, for your personal development, nothing beats it, it's fantastic.' He added: 'These people go through the bronze, silver and then gold and so a lot of the time they're doing voluntary work, nobody's paying much attention to them, they're just getting on with it and showing the dedication and stick ability. 'So it's nice at the end of it all, to recognise the effort they've made when clearly there was nobody there to cheer them on. They did it.'
News24
03-06-2025
- Business
- News24
How Mongiwa Hazel Ntuli bagged an actuarial science degree at 17
Mongiwa Hazel Ntuli began her university experience at 15. She found herself having to adjust to the large age gaps between herself and her university peers. Her family allowed her to have as normal a childhood as possible while encouraging her bright mind. ___________________________________________________________________________ While many at her age are still traversing through high school corridors, Mongiwa Hazel Ntuli has just bagged herself an actuarial science degree from the University of Pretoria at just 17 years old. The young and bright mind from Rosettenville, Johannesburg, started her first year at university at 15, having accelerated through primary and high school. How it all started Mongiwa explains, 'When I was in Grade 3, I mistakenly wrote a Grade 4 mathematics paper and scored the highest of all the actual Grade 4 students. My teacher identified this and allowed me to write more Grade 4 papers and saw that I performed exceptionally well.' Fast forward a few years and Mongiwa has pursued her passions in finance and mathematics, choosing actuarial sciences as a happy marriage of the two. Her undergraduate experience Mongiwa shares, 'Undergrad took up most of my time because I had to learn new study techniques because the ones I applied in high school were not sufficient anymore. I had a lot of help and a lot of tutors, which demanded a lot of my time. Spending so much time on my studies allowed me to learn to speak my mind more freely and to be more independent.' READ MORE | Meet the founder of Distinguished Living, an interior design business Undoubtedly, being the youngest in the lecture room is no easy feat and Mongiwa found herself having to find her place in the big world. She explains, 'I can learn about other people easily and I can observe their behaviour effortlessly, while blending in with the students around me. Disadvantages were instances where I could not engage with other people because of a larger, more intimidating age gap. Once people learned about my age, they started treating me more like a younger sibling than treating me like another student.' Mongiwa continues, 'I often felt out of place when attending big conferences or big events where serious topics are discussed and engagement was encouraged. There were highly intellectual people who I couldn't relate to or understand. They also didn't take into account that I only started learning about actuarial science relatively recently and didn't have an extensive background in that field.' Off the cuff What is the most important lesson you've learned from your journey so far? Never forget your roots but don't become your roots. What are five fun things that you like to do in your free time? I love watching medical or murder mysteries series, reading financial and/or self-help books and playing tennis. I also love spending time with my younger brother. He has an interesting point of view on life. I also like listening to music. If you could give advice to students aspiring to excel academically, what would it be? To never give up and to never stop learning. They should grab each and every opportunity they get and make sure that the decisions they make now don't come at the expense of the bright futures they could have. What strategies or habits have been crucial to your success? Making sure I talk to my guardians/family and remain grounded. Praying is a huge part of my life and connecting with other people from other cultures helps me define myself more. A strong support system Although Mongiwa was encouraged to keep her age a secret so as to not be treated differently, through it all, her family as her support system gave a chance to experience a normal, loving and fulfilling childhood. Mongiwa shares, 'I feel that my support system made it as normal as it could be. My age was not flaunted by my family members and I was protected by those around me. I never wanted to know another life.' On her greatest source of support and inspiration, Mongiwa says, 'Definitely my aunt who taught me that failure is not final and to keep going no matter what comes my way. There will always be opposition or adversity whenever you are successful at something. I just have to learn to ignore it and take pride that I am doing the best I can.' What's next for her? Mongiwa has plans to pursue honours and masters degrees and dive into the world of work. She explains, 'My short term goals are to actually pass my exams well enough to get an exemption and also have more job shadowing opportunities before I jump into anything long term. For the next few years I would love to have done something major for my guardians to show my appreciation, acquire some assets and have progressed in my academic and career life.'
