Meet the star students from the Limestone Coast in the 2022 SACE
They put their nose to the grindstone and the hard work has paid off — meet the Limestone Coast’s highest achievers and see their plans for the future.
Mount Gambier
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The results are in and after a nervous wait school leavers received their year 12 SACE results on Monday.
Graduates around the Limestone Coast have risen to the occasion and recorded incredible results. Meet the 2022 duxes of the South East.
Tully McShane, Mount Gambier High School
Tully McShane from Mount Gambier High School aced her year 12 subjects, recording an ATAR of 92.85.
Ms McShane has a broad range of passions she’s interested in pursuing and is not 100 per cent sure on what she will study in 2024.
After taking a well deserved gap year, Ms McShane may either study psychology, marine and wildlife conservation or occupational therapy.
After losing her twin brother, Tyson, at five, Ms McShane said she wanted to pursue a career centered around “helping people”.
“Being a twin is a special thing — it was really tough growing up without him,” she said.
Ms McShane said becuase of Tyson birthdays were always bittersweet, particularly milestones, such as her 18th, which she celebrated in November.
“We always go out to the cemetery to take some balloons out to him,” she said.
Tyson who lived with angelman syndrome helped teach Ms McShane be more empathetic towards others and though she’s unsure of what exactly she wants to do with her future — she does know she wants to be in an industry centred on helping.
Zoe Brown, Naracoorte High School
Naracoorte High School’s Zoe Brown, 18, topped her school with a 82.9 ATAR.
Ms Brown is still unsure of what she wants to do, but has deferred a bachelor of early childhood education, selecting the coarse as she enjoys “teaching young minds and inspiring others”.
Over her gap year Ms Brown will be working and saving her money in the hopes to do some travelling abroad.
“I’m hoping to do some spontaneous travelling — anywhere overseas — I really am excited to adventure and explore different places,” she said.
Year 12 can be an incredibly stressful time for young people, with Ms Brown revealing she felt like giving up at times.
“There were times I thought to myself, I can’t do this anymore,” she said.
“It’s something that I suppose everybody can relate to, but I just kept pushing.”
Seeing her result, Ms Brown said she was shocked, with the title of school dux still not “quite hitting me yet”.
Amelia Ballantyne, Millicent High School
Coming from a family heavily involved in the medical field, Amelia Ballentyne, 17, is a step closer to joining their ranks after she was named dux of Millicent High School.
Bringing home a whopping ATAR of 97.6, Ms Ballentyne said the result left her mum in tears of joy.
Wanting to jump straight into university next year, Ms Ballentyne said she would be heading to Adelaide to either study midwifery or nursing.
With a number of her family working as nurses and paramedics in the Limestone Coast, Ms Ballentyne said it was likely she would move back after completing her studies.
“I wouldn't really want to get too far away from home,” she said.
The youngest of four, Ms Ballentyne said her supportive family helped her massively through year 12, particularly when she felt “overwhelmed”.
Paige Hillier, St Martins Lutheran College
Aspiring midwife, Paige Hillier, was over the moon after she was named dux of St Martins Lutheran College achieving an ATAR of 92.50.
The 18-year-old will spend the next year working full time at the recently opened Wulanda Recreation and Convention Centre.
Though she was not able to get to the booked out preview over the weekend, Ms Hillier said she toured the $62.5m facility when she went in for her interviewing, labelling the centre a game-changer for Mount Gambier.
Ms Hillier is hoping to study midwifery and nursing at the University of South Australia.
“I like helping people and I feel like I’d be good working with people — especially in midwifery,” she said.
After spending her life in Mount Gambier, Ms Hillier is excited for the city life.
“I definitely want to stay in a city, whether that be Adelaide or I was looking into Queensland maybe, just definitely in a city somewhere,” she said.
“I prefer the city — it’s more busy — I like Mount Gambier but it is quiet.
“I do enjoy the country. I just prefer the city and want to experience the city lifestyle.”
Aaron Zerk, Penola High School
Footy gun Aaron Zerk said performing so well off the field has “opened up” more doors and options, with the teen now tossing between doing an apprenticeship or heading to university.
After lining up a carpenter apprenticeship Mr Zerk said his ATAR of 84.0 had made him consider pursuing his other career goal of becoming a physiotherapist.
The gun midfielder, who played in the SANFL for Glenelg’s U18 side, said working with physios following a serious knee injury piqued his interest in the field.
“I love my sporting and I've had injuries, which has led me to need physiotherapy,” he said.
Battling a torn right meniscus, Mr Zerk has had three other corrective surgeries on his right and one on his left for the same injury.
“There’s still a bit of problem, which I’m sorting out with surgeons at the moment, but hopefully I can get back out there on footy field,” he said.
Juggling work, school and his sporting commitments, Mr Zerk said he didn’t have the luxury of wasting any of his precious “free time”.
However, the teen did say it was important to take the occasional break to give his “brain a rest” and the chance to recover from its heavy workload.
Gemma Ralph, Grant High School
After struggling with feelings of self doubt, young entrepreneur Gemma Ralph, 18, smashed her final year at Grant High School, achieving an ATAR of 99.05.
Ms Ralph said picking science-based subjects was a risk, as they are not her strong suits. However, she opted for a STEM based load to open up her university of options.
Despite smashing her subjects, Ms Ralph is looking at pursuing a business degree and masters in financial planning — after a horse riding business she started took off.
“I was already working at a coffee shop and I decided that I wanted a bit more money to start putting some away for uni,” she said.
“Instead of getting more hours, I thought it’d be cool to try and do something on my own.”
Geared at kids aged 5-15, Ms Ralph said she had to “scale back” Sunnyvale horse riding during year 12 — after the business grew beyond her expectations.
Spending her life in the pines, Ms Ralph will take a gap year working in forestry fire brigade for Gildera.
“It kind of fell into my lap a little bit and I just like really being outdoors — I also wanted a change from sitting at my desk all the time,” she said.
“I (also) thought it just be a cool skill to have.”
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