Meet the top students from the Limestone Coast in the 2021 SACE
School’s out, the SACE results are in and now the Limestone Coast’s highest achievers are revealing their plans for the future.
Mount Gambier
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That’s a wrap — school is out and after an anxious wait students have received their Year 12 SACE results on Monday.
Graduates of the Limestone Coast have recorded remarkable results, introducing the region’s duxes for 2021.
Sarah Dally, Mount Gambier High School
Mount Gambier High School dux Sarah Dally achieved an ATAR of 97.30.
Sarah plans to go on to study a double degree in psychology and sport and exercise after taking a gap year.
Not one to sit idle, Sarah will spend her time “off” undertaking a traineeship at her alma mater and cycling at the South Australian Sports Institute.
She said cycling was what sparked her initial interest in sport psychology.
“It’s such a cool sport and there’s been so many amazing opportunities that have come along with it,” Sarah said.
Angus Edward, Langsmith Grant High School
Angus Langsmith was “pretty happy” with his final result of 97.55.
But the Grant High School dux is no stranger to high achievement taking home a merit for agricultural systems while in year 11.
Angus said his parents were proud of him, but he didn’t seem entirely too sure.
“That’s what they’ve said anyway,” he laughed.
Angus found out he had been accepted to study agricultural science at university in September based on his year 11 results, and said while it took some of the pressure off — he didn’t use it as an excuse to slack off.
Next year Angus plans on doing a traineeship at Watersolve Irrigation before heading off to the University of Adelaide.
Tess Wight, Tenison Woods College
Tess Wight from Tenison Woods College said she woke up incredibly anxious and worried about what her final ATAR result would be.
“I was so stressed I wasn’t really sure what to expect,” Tess said.
She needn’t have worried though, Tess topped the school with an ATAR of 95.45, five A’s and a B+ for a sixth subject.
The Tenison Woods College dux plans to move to Adelaide to study a Bachelor of Nursing at Flinders University.
Though she took a step back from the intensity of cycling with the South Australian Sports Institute, Tess said it was important she remained active and social to help maintain a work-life balance.
“As long as you’re organised, it’s not as stressful as it could be — things won’t pile up and then you can have time outside of school life,” she said.
“It’s so easy to think that school and Year 12 is everything but if you don’t give yourself that break you’re just going to burn out.”
Agnes Doyle, St Martins Lutheran College
Also anxious to find out her results, Agnes Doyle was “super nervous” before she found out she had achieved an ATAR of 97.85.
“(Mum) was very proud,” Agnes said.
“I ran into her room and got her up.
“I rang my dad and told him what I got … (he) was just super excited.”
An aspiring doctor, the St Martins Lutheran College dux wants to study medicine after taking a well deserved gap year, where she plans to take some time off, save a little money and possibly do some travelling.
Knowing Covid-19 may complicate any international travel plans, Agnes hopes to satisfy some of her wanderlust while at university.
“I know a lot of universities with medicine for final year offer overseas placements, so I’m hoping that maybe if I don’t get to do any travel next year, then maybe I’ll get to do some later through uni,” she said.
Charlotte Neale, Penola High School
Penola High School’s star student achieving an ATAR of 86 and Charlotte Neale is looking forward to attending the University of Adelaide to major in psychology.
Charlotte’s mum and step mum are both social workers which helped spark her interest in the field, though she said it was too early to tell if she wanted to go further into research or practice.
With a passion for helping people she began volunteering in the mental health space and for the past seven months Charlotte’s has been part of the Headspace Youth Reference Group.
Jemma Hayward, Millicent High School
With an ATAR of 81.8 Jemma Hayward was named as the 2021 dux of Millicent High School.
Currently working in aged care she said she was looking forward to studying nursing at the University of South Australia’s Mount Gambier campus.
Jemma’s grandmother and sister also work in nursing and were the people who initially got her interested in the area.
“I can do my nursing through my work … and I just like helping (people) and giving them a better quality of life,” Jemma said.
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