Candice and Sasha-Lee are teachers at the Combined Technical Skills School. Candice is the Head of Department of skills, as well as being the Hospitality and English Teacher and Sasha-Lee, who has been with Sparrow for the past 3 years, is the Wholesale & Retail teacher.
Candice started her journey at Sparrow in 2018 as the Grade 5 English teacher in the Foundation School. Her incredible work ethic resulted in her being placed as the Head of Department of the new skills programmes. She has loved being able to work with learners and watch them grow, develop and acquire necessary life skills. Candice grew up in the south of Johannesburg and is the oldest of three children. She studied at Wits Hotel School and worked in various industries before joining Sparrow.
She also has a Diploma and Bachelor’s degree in theology and was ordained as a pastor this year. Candice has a passion and drive for always learning new information which contributes to her being the incredible teacher she is. The woman that has been the biggest inspiration in her life, is her mother. She is her mentor and support system, as well as being her best friend.
Her motivation and support has shaped her into the woman she is today. Candice’s advice for any young women would be “Work hard, give life your all. Never let the opinion of others cause you to doubt yourself. Be kind and be the difference in other’s lives. Philippians 4:13 says I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Sasha-Lee grew up in a small Indian community in Lenasia. Upon completing school, she was unsure of what she wanted to do but her ambition meant that she wasn’t detoured from figuring it out. In 2011 Sasha-Lee went to UJ where she did a BCom marketing and realised that she hated it and so dropped out.
From there she took a gap year to figure out where her passion was and found an interest in hair so she completed her diploma in hairdressing. At this point, her parents could no longer fund her confusion and so when Sasha decided to go back to studying, to get her degree in education, she did it through UNISA and funded herself with a mediocre job in admin. She is now currently doing her Honours in education while she teaches.
During her gap year, Sasha-Lee took herself to China and this was both the proudest moment of her life but was also the biggest mistake. She was proud of doing it all herself but she used all of her savings while there and when she got back, had to build herself from scratch. Despite this, it was an experience she will never forget and a huge learning curve in her life. Sasha-Lee’s advice to any young women who can relate to her story is: “We have opportunities our mother didn’t have, we can’t live the life they lived. We need to be better. Better for them. Make yourself proud.”