ECAs, IT or Internet – she conquered every trend in education

Give Stella any challenge and you can rest assured that she’ll come out tops. When Extra Curricular Activities were introduced in schools in 1970s, she was given the task of leading the Gymnastics Team. She had no professional training in the sport, but doggedly attended various workshops, training sessions and camps to train her pupils in gymnastics without any professional training. From 1977 to 1986, her Junior and Senior teams won Gold for the District Gymnastics and National Gymnastics Competitions for almost every year. She scored these achievements even though she could not master any of the gymnastics skills except to forward roll!

When IT became a buzzword in schools, she rose to the occasion again to master the technology. She went from computer-illiterate to Powerpoint Queen in no time even though she was already in her 50s. That led her to be assigned to handle the Media Resource Library at her school, Marymount Convent. Now she is fast acquiring new skills to train students to be broadcasters. So good is she at her work that she has been called on to share her skills with other teachers on how IT can be harnessed creatively to engage students. She’s even presented a paper at an ‘IT in Education’ seminar. Stella has certainly shown that age is no barrier to staying ahead at the workplace.