Meet SA’s most inspiring SACE students in The Advertiser’s Year 12 Merit liftout
ASHLEIGH Bradford overcame a brain tumour to be one of the top Year 12 students in the state. Hers is one of the inspiring stories of SA’s best and brightest in The Advertiser’s Year 12 Merit liftout on Friday.
FIVE years ago, Ashleigh Bradford had surgery to remove a brain tumour “the size of a golf ball”, leaving her unable to control her left side and having to learn to walk again.
Now, she is one of the top Year 12 graduates in the state, her long medical ordeal bolstering her ambition to become a doctor.
Ashleigh achieved SACE Merits for Philosophy and her Research Project and a university entrance rank of 99.0.
The former Wilderness School student is one of many inspiring teens featured in
The Advertiser’s Year 12 Merits liftout on Friday.
The Class of 2016 was collectively awarded 1302 subject Merits, up from 1232 for 2015.
There were 996 students who achieved at least one Merit, 76 more than the previous year.
Ashleigh, 18, spent much of Year 8 hospitalised and in a wheelchair. Through Years 9 and 10, she had daily three-hour rehab sessions.
“As frustrating as it was, it was very rewarding. It made me appreciate the small things,” she says.
“I’m just very grateful for all my friends and family and my school. They moved all my classes downstairs and made sure a student or teacher was with me at all times to make sure I was safe.
“If anything, I owe my marks and my Merits to my school and to my teachers.”
Other top students combined their studies with caring responsibilities, volunteering, charity work, part-time jobs and a host of extra-curricular activities and hobbies.
Kangaroo Inn Area School graduate Chelsea Brooks, 18, is a taekwondo and highland dancing champion who volunteers with the CFS.
“I’ve gone to structure fires, house fires, things like motor vehicle accidents where we are required to assist ambulance officers and do traffic control,” she says.
“I hope I never have to go to a really nasty one.”
Alex De Ionno, 18, who was vice-captain at Woodville High and scored a merit for his Research Project, patrols and trains nippers for the North Haven Surf Life Saving Club and cares for his intellectually disabled sister.
“We just love looking after her. She learns through technology. She’s a lot of fun except when she has a bit of a tantrum,” says Alex, who also has a black belt in karate and teaches juniors.
Underdale High captain for 2016 Jiayi Litten, 18, who spoke no English when she migrated from China six years ago, launched an online stationery business from her bedroom while completing Year 12.
Among the more unusual hobbyists was Prince Alfred College’s Terence Wee-Xiang Ang, 18, who bagged seven Merits over three years and tended to his collection of bonsai plants to “de-stress” from his studies.