A Champion for Every Boy

The tension between sporting ambition and academic achievement faced by many of our boys is one that Hilton College’s Director of Wellness, Dr Janna de Gouveia, knows intimately. As a teenager on the national gymnastics squad, she made a decision that would shape the course of her life.

In her matric year, Janna stepped away from the national squad to focus on her academics. It was a move that could have cost her the scholarship she had been awarded to Durban Girls’ College. But training for up to six hours a day had begun to compromise her academic performance, and something had to give. Her decision paid dividends: she matriculated with an A aggregate and honours in academics, sport and culture.

Yet neither school nor university was plain sailing. At school, Janna’s academic potential was overshadowed by her gymnastics achievements. And when she arrived at the University of Pretoria, she had no idea what she wanted to study.
At critical junctures in her life, compassionate teachers and caring counsellors were beacons of light.

Durban-born, Janna started gymnastics in Grade 2 and within a year was on the Olympic Development Programme. She continued competing until her third year at university, when she laid it down once again for her studies. It was only at the end of her bachelor’s degree that she knew she wanted to become a psychologist.

“My parents got divorced when I was 10, which was tough. And my brother is severely dyslexic and has ADHD. I grew up seeing him struggle and be labelled ‘stupid’ when he was just so terribly misunderstood.”

That experience continues to shape the way Janna works with young people and their families today.

“It can be extremely frustrating for a parent to know that their child has so much to give, but the system doesn’t bring that out in the child. And to have someone saying, ‘But I see it too,’ or sitting with the learner and saying, ‘You’re not stupid. I know you’re not. I’m telling you that you’re not.’

“I love being able to sit in that space with parents and teenagers, who are wonderfully complex human beings.

“I always tell parents: the purpose of the diagnosis is really just to direct intervention, because once you know what’s going on, you can move towards treating it.”

In a school that is not academically selective, the support offered by Janna and her department is life-changing for pupils with barriers to learning. This specialised support, which comes at no additional cost to families, makes help more accessible to boys who need it.

“When boys know it’s covered in their school fees, they’re more comfortable coming back.”

Janna counts it a privilege to be the “custodian” of the knowledge of what is going on with a boy so that she can be his champion.

But being a child’s champion is not the same as being his cheerleader.

“Sometimes they need to be disciplined or called out on their complacency, but always with an ‘unconditional positive regard’. In other words, I may not be very happy with how things are going, but I’m still here for you.”

Not every boy is cut out for academia or knows what he wants to do with his life. And that’s okay, says Janna. But every boy needs a next step.

“I say it to the boys all the time, and I speak with absolute conviction because I have been there: you just need a next step.”

For Janna, success looks like instilling in boys independence, responsibility, accountability, discipline and the humility to ask for help. These qualities, she believes, matter more than many of the conventional measures of success.

Calm, kind and astute, Janna is also quick to laugh at herself and be silly: a much-needed quality when working with teenage boys.
Janna is married to Robby and they have two children, Sofia and Noah.

This is the 21st post in our Humans of Hilton College (#HOHC) series, inspired by the lovely human beings in our community. They are people of character and often behind the scenes: kind, curious and sometimes quirky. #HOHC is modelled on Humans of New York.