Mirror Miglactic

By Courteney-Jade Gillespie

Julia Dowejko is nineteen years old, and in first year, has achieved more than most people do in their entire university career. She grew up in Krugersdorp and attended Krugersdorp high school, where she left Matric with six distinctions. She came to Rhodes, with the same reasons that many of us have, “I wanted to get away from home and expand. I have wanted to come here since I was a tiny-winy tot and love the historic feeling of the town.”

Miss Dowejko received a Bursary in order to attend Rhodes, this Bursary is from the Mogale City municipality which pays a sum of money for her overall school fees (work and residence related). It is a no-strings-attached bursary, Miss Dowejko smiles, “ I just had to do well at the end of matric to stand a chance of getting it. The top 10 students in Mogale City (where Krugersdorp is situated in) were offered bursaries by the mayor. I just had to fill out a form and speak to the mayor and that was that.”

Miss Dowejko has always been a hard worker and obtained above excellent results, in grade eleven and twelve she received her academic colours as well as the ‘Dux Scholar Trophey’ at the end of matric. All this work and no play? Unbelievably not, Miss Dowejko finds time to compete in almost every inter-res sport that has been held this year, as well as go out with friends, attend outrhodes protests, run for fun and play table tennis… all whilst obtaining marks over 70%. Julia Explains that her time management allows her to gain balance in her stressful life, “ I work hard, really hard, then relax a lot. You need to work hard to get somewhere in this life but it is worth the ride at the end when you have gotten where you wanted to get to. Otherwise, I don’t let myself get carried away: eat a lot of good, sticky food but exercise and stay healthy; work very hard but don’t sacrifice your friends, love the person you are in love with but don’t grow dependent on them; try be as different as you can but don’t get locked up in the loony-bin, Time management. You just have to get the work done as quickly and as best you can because there’s no point in trying to relax knowing that you have got a two-thousand word essay due the next day. I try to appreciate every minute that I have free”

Among the things that make Miss Dowejko outstanding and iconic is her achievement of becoming sub-warden in Oriel House for 2009, this is a prestigious title as she is the first, first year to ever claim this title. However with this achievement she states that she has received plenty of criticism and many people claim that somehow the elections were rigged, but remains positive and happy with her well deserved accolade. “I followed the same procedure as everybody else that applied for sub-warden. I managed to get short listed after handing in an, and writing a very dramatic, application form. I somehow made it through the interview unscathed and they must have thought I was competent enough for the job. It’s an amazing feeling knowing what I’ve achieved and knowing that, despite the negative remarks I received about applying as a first- year, I made it. I’m not sure why I was chosen but I don’t really think it matter whether you are first year or not. As my warden told me, there are some Honours students who she would never even consider for the job. I suppose it just depends on who you are, not what you are.”

Miss Dowejko is an inspiration to all first years and a hero amongst her friends, and as sub-warden next year will make many reliable and honorable footsteps for all her peers to follow in.