From Bryden to Global Impact...

Overview: Sally Palmer (née Paterson) reflects on her cherished years at Bryden, crediting the school for shaping her character and laying the foundation for a remarkable journey in engineering, entrepreneurship, and leadership.

Image: Sally Palmer (nee Paterson)

Sally Palmer (nee Paterson)

I attended Bryden from 1984 to 1990 and look back at my time at primary school with fond memories.  I was a boarder and made some of my lifelong friends at Bryden.  I absolutely loved my time at this special school and my academic and sporting foundation at Bryden served me well in life. 

Bryden gave me a good solid grounding in life, taught me how to be independent and helped me to develop a strong character. 

I have fond memories of playing in the quad in the evenings, watching movies (even in the 80s), talking after lights out and travelling on the bus for sports.  I loved the sport, although the cross country course hill always challenged me. I remember competing passionately at the galas, sports days, on the hockey pitch and the tennis court.  It was so special that everyone got to play sport and also everyone got to learn music.   The music at Bryden sparked a piano career for me and I will never forget how to play a recorder!!

After Bryden I went to Girls College in Bulawayo where I was lucky enough to become the Deputy Head Girl, achieve academic colours and play Zimbabwe hockey which led me to getting a scholarship to study Electronic Engineering in the UK where I obtained a first-class degree and the best results in my university.

I worked in Ireland for a few years in the field of Electronic Engineering where I was blessed to get valuable exposure like travelling to the USA and Europe to train engineers and working with the design teams who developed the microchips that went into the early touch screen technology and NASA space shuttles.  

I eventually moved back to Zimbabwe to get married and start a business with my husband, Brendan, which over the last 15 years has grown into Sabre Business World, a company that teaches and inspires people to be more successful in business and in life and has a modern training and conference centre in Harare.  I am proudly and passionately Zimbabwean and my life’s mission is to unlock potential and create success in people and businesses and to positively contribute in my own way to building a promising future in our beautiful country.  I create training courses, am a High Performance Trainer and work with individuals, business leaders and teams to capacitate them with the skills to build, grow and lead sustainable, successful lives and businesses.

I am a very proud mother of 4 boys and as I watch them grow, I often share my stories of my days at Bryden with them and draw on my learnings and memories. 

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