SACE aces: Search our interactive for the full list of 2023 merit winners
From a young man assisting in life-saving surgery in Indonesia to a designer who made her own prom dress, SA has some inspiring SACE merit stars. Search our interactive for every student winner.
Education
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The class of 2023 saw some remarkable academic achievements, but it was not straightforward for all of the school-leavers and some of them took it upon themselves to make it a final year to remember.
All students who completed their studies deserve recognition but some stood out from the crowd with high scores and inspiring stories.
Keagan Wallace, Scotch College
The smile of a young Indonesian man after life-changing surgery, for which Scotch College graduate Keagan Wallace was an assistant, helped fuel his passion to pursue a career in medicine.
But it’s not just people the 18-year-old strives to help – he’s also a longtime campaigner for saving African rhinos, so much so that he had a book published about it when he was still in primary school.
In 2023 Keagan joined a trip to Indonesia with the Overseas Specialist Surgical Association of Australia.
“We saw just under 200 patients,” Keagan said.
“From that we made a theatre list and the surgeon they had on this trip was a plastic surgeon, so that’s cleft lip repairs and burn contractures.”
Over five days, Keagan said he was an assistant in surgeries on about 50 patients.
“I’d be prepping for the next operation or getting the anaesthetics ready,” he said. Keagan recalled helping in a surgery for a man with a burn scar which had thickened, tightened and prevented movement.
“There was a guy, probably similar in age to me too, that had this huge burn contracture from essentially his (neck) to his chest and it was just pulling his whole head down,” he said.
“Just his smile after being able to move his head … that was amazing.
“I know very limited Indonesian … but a smile tells a thousand words.”
Since Year 5, Keagan has been an ambassador for International Read to Me Day after he published a book raising awareness about the plight of the world’s rhino populations.
The book, A Crash of Rhinos, sold hundreds of copies with the proceeds donated to rhino conservation efforts.
“Both my parents are South African … so we’d visit Kruger National Park quite a bit,” the Aldgate teen said.
“When I started going, you’d see a bit of rhino (but on) the more recent trips you just don’t see rhino anymore.”
Keagan said seeing the decline in rhino populations was “what the book was about”.
“If you can make a bit of a change or raise a bit of awareness, it’s even better,” he said.
He now uses his ambassadorial role to “instil a love of reading in the younger generation”.
“It’s involved for me personally holding a pretty friendly writing competition for the junior years at Scotch,” Keagan said. “I visit the ELC as well with the principal of Scotch to read to them.”
Jessica Craig, Wilderness School
Many Year 12 students spend hundreds of dollars on a school formal dress, but Jessica Craig saved by making her own – and even drew attention from social media stars wanting her to create their next gown.
“I did a lot of dressmaking throughout Year 11 and 12 because I found that it was something I could turn to where all of my mind was consumed by this one little activity,” the Wilderness graduate, 18, said.
“It’s such a useful hobby because every time I need an outfit for something I can just make something and I really liked how I could make it customised to what I wanted at an affordable price.”
So far she has made 10 dresses, which each take about 15 hours, garnering admiration from influencers who combined have more than 750,000 TikTok followers.
“I posted them on social media and I got some … quite famous people messaging me and asking me to make them garments,” the Walkerville teen said.
“But I didn’t take up their offers only because I feel they’re not professional enough to sell them.”
In 2022, Jessica began working as a statistician for the women’s development team at SANFL club Norwood.
“My job was to go to the game and take the stats … mainly things like clearances, handballs and inside-50 counts,” she said.
“I would draw correlations and I’d write up a report.”
Jessica played football for her school team alongside now Port Adelaide AFLW midfielder Sachi Syme.
“It’s really awesome to see how people can go places with footy nowadays,” she said.
In her final year at school, Jessica was inspired to achieve a high ATAR by her family.
“I have three older siblings who are very intellectually smart so they obviously scored quite well,” she said. “I sort of put pressure on myself which at times got a bit stressful.”
She certainly succeeded, achieving a 99.8 ATAR.
And picking up “little hobbies” like the dressmaking helped to minimise the stress.
In Year 12, Jessica attended the James Cook University Engineering Futures program in Townsville, where she designed a car with the aim of lowering the impact of collisions.
Jessica said she was tossing up whether to study biomedical engineering or fashion design at university this year.
“I’ve always been interested in health areas,” she said. “I also think creativity is a really important aspect of my life but I realised you can do things in biomedical engineering such as designing different medical devices.”
Adrian Niculescu, Sacred Heart College
Adrian Niculescu says his “ultimate dream” is to represent the seat of Hindmarsh in federal parliament – and credits The Advertiser with giving him a tantalising taste of a political future.
That, and the inspiring story of his own parents who left Romania for a better life on the other side of the world.
In February 2022, Adrian was one of 29 students who took part in The Advertiser’s Teen Parliament program, which gave high-schoolers the chance to debate the future direction of South Australia.
A “proud” member of the Liberal Party and an officer in Australian Army Cadets, the Sacred Heart College graduate said he was drawn to politics by “the idea of service and helping your community”.
“Sometimes people try to keep it under the rug, but I don’t think politics is anything to be shy about,” Adrian said.
“(Teen Parliament) was an amazing experience and it really helped me to shape the course where I want to continue and where I want to be in the future.”
Adrian’s parents are electrical engineers who in 1999 immigrated from Romania, which was suffering economically during the transition from communism.
“My parents just came here for believing in the Australian Dream and they’ve clearly achieved that,” he said. “They came after the 1989 revolution, but they still wanted a better life and they worked really hard to give me opportunities.”
Adrian said he often has “spirited discussions” with friends about politics and looks forward to more of that in his law and international relations classes this year at the University of Adelaide.
His Activating Identities and Futures research project, for which he receive a SACE merit, explored the role of the monarchy in Australia.
He determined the country was better off with the Crown than becoming a republic.
“This year with the coronation, it was well-timed,” he said. “I had teachers who were very encouraging of different perspectives and there were always spirited discussions in class. People sometimes forget there are different perspectives, but it’s always refreshing to be able to present them and to have those discussions with your peers.”
Should he get the chance to represent his electorate one day, Adrian said he would take after the political leaders he most admires – Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher. “I admire their resolve, their dedication to their country and what they believed in,” he said.
“Once you become an officer in Cadets, there’s a tradition where you put a quote from a famous figure in your email footer and mine was one from Churchill – ‘If you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks, you will never reach your destination’.”
Charli McKenzie, Westminster School
Passionate dancer Charli McKenzie was confused when she opened up her Year 12 results in December.
“The school emailed everyone and said there was an issue with the Cert III (in dance) and I didn’t think I’d be affected,” Charli, 18, said.
“The school had to call me and tell me my ATAR.”
Charli’s new result bumped her up to a score higher than 99 which she said was “a nice surprise”.
And with her result, she hopes to study a Bachelor of Creative Arts for dance through the Adelaide College of Arts in 2024.
Charli said she would focus specifically on contemporary dance and ballet.
It has been a passion which she began exploring when she was about three but “took it more seriously by the age of 10”, Charli, from Warradale, said.
“It’s the freedom and individuality and I can explore how my body moves,” she said.
Dance is “a physical and mental release” for Charli, she said.
“It was definitely an outlet for me but at times it was hard work, more in those performance seasons because I’d have to be at school until 9.30 or 10pm,” she said.
One of the proudest moments of her school year was serving as dance captain of the 15-member troupe at Westminster.
She was chosen to lead the group by her peers.
“Westminster has a contemporary collective group where they do an audition at the beginning of the year,” Charli said.
“When I found out, I started crying.”
And here, she was also able to explore a more acrobatic side of dance.
“As part of the Stage 2 dance they offer aerial silks at Westminster,” Charli said.
“From the roof there’s these two fabric (pieces) that you climb and do tricks on.”
Charli was also able to do some dance teaching, something which she hopes to continue into the future.
“It was very nerve-racking at first but I just had to trust that I knew what I was doing,” she said.
“It was weird because they’re my age.”
Her ultimate goal is to “join a company and tour the world” with her dance.
“I’d like to choreograph and start my own (company) eventually,” Charli said.
And her secret to success in Year 12 was to “have a balance”.
“I kinda found that by having dance and my more academic like chemistry and maths subjects,” Charli said.
“Dance definitely helped me not get too overloaded with stress.”
Nathan Priest, Cedar College
It was through watching Deal or No Deal with his mother at the age of three that Cedar College student Nathan Priest began a lifelong obsession with mathematics.
“I would play all these number games with my mum,” Nathan, 18, said.
“She told me about this time when I was three I always loved Deal or No Deal.
“We actually made our own versions and my mum would be the host or I would be the host and the other would play along.”
And when he started school, his passion for maths “kicked off”.
In primary school, Nathan was curious about concepts such as gravity and he said he was able to understand it better through the lens of maths
Nathan achieved a near-perfect ATAR with merits in both of his Year 12 maths classes.
And he wants other students to discover the joys of maths as Nathan has “always enjoyed helping other people to understand it”.
“It’s either right or wrong,” Nathan said.
“It’s very objective and it reveals to us how the world works.
“It’s almost like another language.”
He said one of the best feelings is “when you see that light bulb moment” as a peer works out a problem.
“It’s almost like an adrenaline rush really, it sounds a bit weird but especially when you’re working through tests … and you finally figure it out, it makes you feel accomplished,” Nathan said.
In his spare time, he likes play strategy-based board games and watch game shows such as Pointless, Would I Lie to You? and Hard Quiz.
“It would be quite nice one day (to be on a show),” Nathan said.
Nathan hopes to continue a Bachelor of Advanced Mathematics at Adelaide University after he undertook two tertiary subjects in Year 12.
Flinders University offered him and a small group of his peers at Cedar College two maths courses in 2023, which Nathan said was “lots of fun”.
“It was about on par with my Year 12 specialist mathematics … it wasn’t too easy,” he said.
While Nathan said he is not sure yet which career path he would like to pursue, he is certain it will involve numbers, with data analytics or academia among his options.
He said succeeding at school is achievable if students “find what you’re passionate about”.
“It’s a lot easier to succeed in something if you don’t see it as work,” Nathan said.
Sophie Wrightson, Tenison Woods College
Proud country girl Sophie Wrightson hopes her year 12 success will inspire students across regional South Australia to dream big while at school.
The netball-loving, born-and-bred Mount Gambier teenager achieved an ATAR of 98.30 after completing mathematical methods and specialist mathematics while in year 11 and prioritising biology, physics and English in year 12.
“There are definitely differences between studying in the city and in a regional area … but it is really important to know it is entirely possible to do just as well as you can in the city,” the 18-year-old said.
“Yes, some of the resources might be different, and there are some disadvantages to studying in the county, but you can still do just as well.”
The Tenison Woods College school leaver said she felt fortunate to have had great teachers who made “everything interesting”, listing her maths and physics teachers, “Mr Royals” and “Mrs Drexler” respectively, as standouts.
Sophie plans to study mechanical engineering at Adelaide Uni after taking a gap year in 2024 to work in the laboratory at nearby Wynns Coonawarra Estate.
“I am very intense when I am studying and I worked really hard throughout high school so, for me, it is really important to just have a bit of a reset and break,” she said.
It will also allow her the chance to continue playing netball for her beloved Kalangadoo Football and Netball Club.
“Netball is something I’d always taken really seriously … but when I got to year 11, while I kept playing, I wanted to focus more on school,” she said.
Sophie said she was drawn to mechanical engineering as it “aligns with a lot of the stuff I like doing and has a lot of different majors and opportunities”.
“You are essentially working with anything that moves, so it is very varied,” she said.
Vaughan Stonestreet, Kadina Memorial School
Vaughan Stonestreet has always had an entrepreneurial streak and through his school years tried to find business opportunities in his hometown of Kadina.
“All I know at the moment is that I want to make a lot of money,” the 18-year-old boldly declares.
He said he began a tutoring business at Kadina Memorial School while in Year 10 “when I started getting my entrepreneurial interests” and has not looked back.
“That was a very exciting idea for me, starting a business,” he said. “It was a little slow to start with but once people heard about it, it got a bit more regular.”
Another reason Vaughan began tutoring younger students was “because it helped me go back to the basics and see how much I understood”.
He recalled a Year 3 student, whom he would see “every single Friday afternoon” to help with his maths.
A teacher at his school recommended Vaughan tutor the student, he said, because “he was falling behind” with his times tables.
“I think we made really good progress with him,” Vaughan said. “His parents were very happy as well. He got better at just knowing his twos, fives, 10 times tables but I think we also saw some personal growth with him and I interacting.”
Vaughan said he became so good at tutoring that some parents were happy to pay him more than his usual rate.
“I used to charge $10 for half an hour … this kid’s parents said ‘that’s not enough, we’ll give you $20’,” he said.
“I wasn’t going to turn them down.”
Over summer, before he heads to Adelaide to begin studying a maths degree at university, he is working at his brother-in-law’s pharmacy in Roxby Downs.
At his previous job at an Italian restaurant in Kadina, he started as a dishwasher but scored a promotion by gaining his Responsible Service of Alcohol certificate.
Despite his impressive 99.55 ATAR, Vaughan said he “should’ve done more homework”.
“My music teacher was saying all year ‘you better get a (SACE) merit for me’.”
And he did.
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