Aspiring farmer made Dux

Caption: MICHAEL House matriculant, Steven Clowes (CORR) who says despite getting 9 distinctions and studying for a degree in Business Science and Economics with Law, deep down in his heart he wants to come back to Underberg to farm with his father and brother on the family farm. Picture: Colleen Dardagan

Caption: MICHAEL House matriculant, Steven Clowes (CORR) who says despite getting 9 distinctions and studying for a degree in Business Science and Economics with Law, deep down in his heart he wants to come back to Underberg to farm with his father and brother on the family farm. Picture: Colleen Dardagan

Published Dec 31, 2013

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Durban - Despite scoring 99 percent for maths and an aggregate of 91 percent, top Michaelhouse matric Steven Clowes, 18, really wants to be a farmer on his father’s dairy farm in the Drakensberg.

The gentle youngster from Underberg, who towers over most of his classmates and prefers to walk barefoot, achieved nine As.

While Steven will take up his place at the University of Cape Town to study business science and economics with law, which could take up to seven years, ultimately his heart is on the farm where his happiest times are spent on his horse, herding cattle.

And to add to all his school awards, which include being made Dux at his primary school in Underberg, Steven was also announced as Dux of Michaelhouse.

The honour is based on the boy’s accumulated results starting from Grade 8 and including his final marks.

“I have always been in the top five at Michaelhouse; it was only from Grade 10 that I managed to come first,” he said.

Unlike his father, Peter, 56, who took two extra years to finish his schooling at DHS and hated school, Steven told The Mercury in an interview that school was fun and he would miss it.

Although his father jokes that it was those two extra years which resulted in Steven’s getting the “clever genes”, the youngster said he probably inherited his brains from his mom, Meg, who was also Dux at Underberg Primary School.

Steven singled out the maths paper 2 as the most difficult.

“Usually, when I get the paper I turn over the first page and then I get a pretty good idea whether it’s time to panic… Most of the time I just go for it, but in maths paper 2, I just couldn’t get one of the questions. I wrote 3 pages of workings and hoped I would get some marks for it,” he said.

The Mercury

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