Headgirl Induction Speech
Another Name on the Wall - Head Girl 2025, Keke Litedu
Excellence. Prestige. Sisterhood. Legacy. Compassion. Empowerment. Involvement. Pride. Culture. Names—words so simple and so mundane yet holding the power to encompass some of the greatest ideas, the greatest movements, and the essence of the greatest people. Here’s another one— St Mary’s DSG.
My Grade 8 year of high school in 2021 is when I like to think that I first became acquainted with names—with the idea that a strange collection of syllables on a page could be the very identity that defines someone. Something. Because I, like many of you and many students before us, sat in this very hall, aimlessly reading the endless lists of school heads, dux scholars, sportswomen, and award recipients that decorate the boards on our walls, in awe and wonder of their stories. For in my eyes, like yours, each of these people—these members of our school—had been reduced to another name on a board. Reduced to another brick in the wall.
This humbling thought not only bewildered me—someone who dreaded the idea of being associated with mediocrity—but it left me with the shocking realization that I too would one day be reduced to another strange collection of syllables on a wooden board. Reduced to another brick in the wall. That we all would.
It wasn’t until I realized that these names—these bricks in our walls—were part of a line of students just like us. Students who had built this school by writing their own names in these walls, including the very students seated here this morning who led us to love and take pride in our school, that I truly felt the weight and power of a name. I’ll say it again— St Mary’s DSG.
It was then that this name echoed beyond the walls of this hall, beyond the grounds of this school, and deep into the veins of every part of our sisterhood. It was then that I felt St Mary’s DSG.
My name is Keketso Litedu. I’m your Head Girl for 2025. And in this moment in time—before I am reduced to just that name, before I become just another brick in the wall, before we all do—I believe that we will not only feel the name but be the name. Be the sisterhood. Be that school. Be St Mary’s DSG.
For it is not how we inherit the name’s culture and legacy that makes us part of this community. It is how you—members of St. Mary’s, parents, staff, and the Daughters of the King—are the very bricks in the walls that build your school. It is your names, written on these walls, that make up that name. That make St Mary’s DSG.
But a name on the wall becomes reduced to mere syllables on a page if the person behind it does nothing. It is not enough to merely exist within these walls—you must shape them and build them up, not tear them down in apathy. You must define what this name stands for. You have the power in yourselves not to wait to become part of something great but to choose to make it great. To refuse passivity. To reject complacency. To be more than just another brick in the wall. To empower yourselves. To Be St Mary’s DSG.
It is in seeing that I can. That she can. And when she can take the courage to speak up and stand out, we can.
And it is in empowerment that we turn words—strange syllables on a page—into action. That we immerse ourselves in the presence of each other. That we love and embrace our place in this school, lifting each other up as we do. It is in this wholehearted sense of communal involvement that we are St Mary’s DSG.
All it takes is one person. All it takes is you.
I can. She can. We can. The development of individuality for the growth of this community. Your community.
And so, I say these names once again. Excellence. Prestige. Sisterhood. Legacy. Compassion. Empowerment. Involvement. Pride. Culture. These aren’t the names that make St Mary’s DSG.
Yours are the bricks that build St Mary’s DSG—the names that define it. As 146 years of names before you have.
So be more than just a strange collection of syllables on a wooden board. Be more than just a brick in the wall. Because when you leave your legacy behind, writing your names in these very walls, and 146 more years of names follow in your footsteps, you will know that yours were what made this name. St Mary’s DSG.
So Be St Mary’s DSG.
