By Shelby Brooks
Two local students have been honoured with the top VCE awards for their efforts in 2020.
Rhiannon Gallagher from St Francis Xavier College and Samuel Sail from Beaconhills College – Pakenham have received Premier’s VCE Awards for Sport and Recreation (VCE VET) and French, respectively.
Sam Sail was Beaconhill’s College Dux with an ATAR of 99.95 in 2020, with study scores of 50 for French, Physics and Math Methods.
Now studying maths and physics at University of Melbourne, Sam is also working as a casual language assistant as part of the French department at Beaconhills College.
“One of my favourite aspects of studying French while I was at Beaconhills was the freedom I had to use French as an outlet for many of my other interests,” Sam said.
“I tried to integrate the language into my daily life as much as possible through things like music, TV shows, books, or even just texting and talking to French speaking friends I made.
“I also had great teachers who consistently helped introduce me to new and interesting parts of French language and culture.”
His French teacher Yelena Pinchuk is now a work colleague.
Ms Pinchuk described Sam as a student who “loves leaning and respects competence”.
“To receive 50 out of 50 in French is almost like winning a gold medal at the Olympics,” she said.
“High achieving students are either native speakers or people with a particular set of skills. Sam Sail is the latter.
“I think it’s good for other students to see that their efforts are going to yield results. Sam is a great example of what can be achieved if you have a right mindset.”
Other students winners from Casey include Top All-Round VCE High Achiever Hasna Kazi from Nossal High School as well as fellow classmates Shalaaka Brahmavar for English Language, Lily Lunder for Philosophy and Neha Cherayath for Psychology.
Students from St Margaret’s School in Berwick also received awards, including Natalie Eu for Applied Computing: Data Analytics and Abigail Johnson for Further Maths.
Beaconhills College – Berwick student Sharni Seamons received a Premier’s Award for Extended Investigation while Melinda Rogerson from Narre Warren South P-12 College received one for Sport and Recreation (VCE VET).
Haileybury College award winning students from across Keysborough, Berwick, Brighton and City campuses include Raymond Zhang for Chinese Second Language, Thomas Vulcan for Drama, Nathan Betros, Aareni Haritharan, Jun Wen Lin, Anna Marais, Kyle McLeod and Seniru Mudannayake for English, Jack Holland for Further Maths, Tippipon Morgan for Indonesian Second Language, Duvin Nambuwasan for Latin, Geethan Pfeifer for Math Methods, Nathan Betros for Physics and Duvin Nambuwasam and Molly Vulcan for Psychology.
