The Mundia family is celebrating a successful prize giving at Robert Louis Stevenson Secondary School, with 18-year-old Lute Mundia and her brother named as the big winners on Wednesday.
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The siblings, from Aopo, Savai’i, and residing at Vaitele-fou, walked away with the first and second places for Robert Louis Stevenson Secondary School.
Eighteen-year-old Lute Mundia was named top student while her younger brother, Talie Mundia, 16, won the prize for first runner-up.
Lute said it has been a challenging year for her, with her brother Talie describing 2015 as “overwhelming”.
Lute said competing with her brother was challenging for her.
“We don’t study together even though we took the same courses,” she said.
Talie couldn’t agree more, saying the whole purpose of them not studying together was so they could learn how to be independent.
“We know we will not be together for the rest of our lives, so I think studying on our own was good practice for us in trying to be independent.
“We wanted to do things on our own, so that we don’t have to rely on each other all the time,” said Lute.
Talie added: “We were like two strangers living in the same house, studying the same courses, [who] are related.”
Both of them studied science, but have different career paths in mind.
For Lute, she is aiming to be an engineer, while Talie is looking at taking up medicine.
Despite the differences they had during studies, the siblings were “overwhelmed” and “thrilled with happiness” because they had completed their journey at R.L.S.S and managed to put a smile on their mother’s face.
“We are so grateful to God for His blessings upon us,” they both said.
They wanted to thank their parents, families and teachers for all the encouragement and support they’ve given them.
Niu Mundia was proud of her ambitious children at the prize giving, and spoke of how they have always been competitive.
“My heart is full of joy and I am very happy,” she said. “I am especially grateful to God for guiding my children and by using them for His glory.”
Niu Mundia said the main challenge she gave to her children was to “put God first before anything else”.
The special ceremony began with a small service conducted by Reverend Fa’avevela Tuato from the Methodist Church at Si’usega.
The celebration commemorated the hard work done by teachers, parents and students throughout the year, said the Chairman of the School Board, Papali’i Wright, who addressed the audience.
He challenged the school leavers to think hard about their future and keep moving forward, not backward.
He also told the returning students to look ahead into their futures and take everything “step by step”.
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