St Mary Hall Report
Background
St Mary’s Hall was established in 1941, and underwent many changes in its first few years of existence, but it has always been an all-women’s hall. Today the hall is known as a place of sisterhood and caring, where academic excellence is valued, but more importantly all students in the hall feel comfortable and at home. The hall even has its own song, set to the tune of “Lean on Me”, which re-iterates the commitment of the St Mary’s women to supporting each other. The four residences of John Kotze, Phelps, Lilian Britten and Olive Schreiner Houses form a close-knit community, collaborating together for many hall events throughout the year.
Students singing hall song at the Leavers’ dinner
Values of the DSA
Academic Excellence
The wardens and students of St Mary Hall take their academic future very seriously and believe in a holistic way of life. The hall is proud of its 3rd place on the academic rank list for halls with Phelps being 3rd, John Kotze 9th, Lilian Britten 23rd and Olive Schreiner 35th out of 49 residences. Academic excellence is achieved by mentorship programs within each residence with the house committee members being mentors to the first years and also with a mentorship program where students with excellent academic results volunteer to be mentors for other students within the hall that may be studying the same degree. By having both programs the hall ensures that seniors are also included in a program where they can turn to someone for assistance with their academics at any time. The hall also arranges faculty talks during second term and started a system a few years ago where students donate their old books and notes to their residence. Every residence now has its own small library where students can easily access this resource. This also assists students who do not have the financial means to buy all the prescribed books.
Academic awards at the Leavers’ dinner
Wellness approach to Life
The house committees in each residence have their own fitness regime for example Zumba classes, walking and hiking. With charity starting at home, but not wanting students to feel embarrassed the hall started an exchange “closet” in each residence. Students are welcome to donate clothes, toiletries, etc by putting it in the drawer allocated for the specific item. Any student is then welcome to either exchange something they don’t want for an item in the closet or to take an item they need. This is working extremely well and allows all the students to feel and know that they are treated as equals.
Getting fit
Valuing and embracing diversity
As a hall it was decided a year ago to start using other languages, apart from English, on our residence notices and welcome letters. The letters and notices are translated in English as well to ensure that everyone understands what is meant. This has been helpful in showing that we embrace different languages and that we are willing to learn from each other. International students enjoy this as they are offered a chance to learn sentences and words from other languages in an informal manner and in their own time. House events are also used to embrace and value diversity in that indigenous games are played to allow, once again, students to learn from each other. During our formal dinners there is also a time allotted for students to dance and sing to different rhythms, songs and languages. This part of our formal events has become very popular and you see both staff and fellows joining in the festivities. We also have an annual staff appreciation day where students voluntarily assist our housekeeping and catering staff with their duties to show our gratitude for their hard work throughout the year. Phelps House had a large map of Africa on their notice board this year and during one of their events at the beginning of the year they gave every student a chance to put a colored thumb tack on their home city/province/country. This was a very visual way to show the students in the house that they came from every part of Africa and even from outside Africa. This was followed up by everyone given a chance to share something about themselves.
Different but still the same International student enjoying Students enjoying dinner
African music
Environmental Awareness
The Hall takes great care to share environmental awareness with all its students through projects run by the environmental reps and from the hall itself. Notices are put up to educate students about the water crisis and every residence has boxes specifically for waste paper, bottles, etc. The hall also recycles in the form of residence décor that is not thrown away at the end of the year but recycled to other residences. The hall also recycles décor for their hall events and uses old bottles, wood and other recycled articles. The goal for every event is how much of the items needed for said event can be made from recycled articles and this has worked very well so far, allowing the students to use their imagination and to think out of the box.
Community Engagement
St Mary Hall is paired with Little Flower pre-school. The students engage with the little ones weekly by setting up play dates, helping them to learn to read and write and to assist with reading for them. Mbali, a student residing in John Kotze House, has also started her own project called, Girls Club, whereby she and a group of girls go to different schools in the surrounding areas and have talks relating to careers, how to complete university applications, how to be successful and other relative topics. The students of the hall were also very active during the Give 5 campaign where they assisted Founder’s Hall in selling tickets for their event, shadowing at Spur, selling home baked articles and raffles. The students also have an ongoing sanitary pad and toiletry drive to ensure that students within the hall who do not have the means to buy their own are given said items. The hall also have their own “dream dress/formal wear” closet where students can borrow formal wear for interviews or social events on campus if they don’t have their own.
Little Flower Comm Engagement Award Little Flower
Any future plans
The hall committee is thinking of possible changes to the format of formal events to make it more accessible to all students. At the moment there are problems with many students writing tests at the same time as the events. The hall committee would also like to investigate slight changes to certain menus such as the braai menu to allow for more traditional food. The hall is also planning on taking the Phelps idea of the world map and make it something which the whole hall can take part in.