Beauty And The Brains

It’s been an impressive few months for students of Lüderitz High School who have not only received sterling exam results but also have held their annual Miss Lüderitz High contest for the young and beautiful Lüderitz youth.

On Friday the 6^th of March the ever popular German Hostel at the YACC hosted the Miss Lüderitz High contest; an annual event in which young women from Lüderitz High School are invited to show off their physical attributes and personality traits.

Unlike in previous years the 2009 pageant had both a preliminary round and a final, allowing the judges of the contest to spend more time with the ten contestants. The prelims were held at the Nest Hotel on the Saturday prior to the final and consisted of a series of interviews and a free photo shoot for each girl, in order to provide a basic portfolio for any of them hoping to become models in the future. “We wanted the focus to be on both looks and personality this year” said Mr. Zony Swartz, a member of the event committee, “by having prelims the judges were able to interview the girls and get to know them as people”.

Held in the elaborately decorated German Hall, the final itself gave each contestant a chance to show off their visual appeal by strutting down a makeshift catwalk (artfully constructed from a row of tables covered in a red carpet and dotted with coloured lights) wearing casual clothes and evening gowns. The girls were judged on their dress sense (all the clothes they wore were their own), personality and looks. “The idea behind the contest is to provide students at the high school with a role model, someone to guide them”, commented one of the judges, “we are looking for someone with a bright personality, a knowledge of world events and good social skills.” One would have thought that this was a tall list of requirements for a group of High School students to possess but not so, for by the end of the night not one but four of the ten competitors had been awarded a crown. The winners are as follows:

Miss Lüderitz High- Lindi Masala.

Lindi enjoys playing netball and listening to music, she believes that a beauty queen should have respect for herself and the people surrounding her and her role model is her mother.

First Princess- Rashadi Amunjera

Rashidi loves dancing and socialising and describes herself as ‘out going and fun’.

Second Princess- Vilencia Binga

Vilencia says her role model is her mother because she raised her alone, she enjoys reading and networking and describes herself as ambitious and sexy

Miss Personality- Bentolien Filleman

‘Adventurous and vivacious’ are the words that Bentolien would use to describe herself. She believes that a beauty queen should be able to take on any challenge that comes her way and she looks up to Barack Obama for his motivational speaking.

However it isn’t just beauty that Lüderitz High School students posses it’s brains as well; congratulations to all students who took exams last year for the great results. 96% of student papers were graded and the school received a promotion rate of 63% for Grade 10s moving into Grade 11. Lüderitz Secondary School has moved up 33 places and now ranks as 164^th for Grade 10 exams nationally. Similar improvements were made in the National Secondary School Certificate results and Lüderitz S.S. has clung to its position of 19^th place nationally. The school is now the best in the Karas region and is hoping to stay that way in years to come- congratulations!