SACE Aces: Search our interactive for the full list of 2024 merit winners
From running a business to competing in global sporting competitions, SA’s top year 12 graduates were busy in and out of the classroom. Read the stories behind our merit winners’ success.
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They achieved top marks for their year 12 studies but South Australia’s crop of merit winners have also done us proud on the world stage.
They have blitzed sporting competitions from Thailand to the United States, won scholarships to prestigious European colleges and led volunteer missions in developing nations.
One top student even celebrated her exam results atop the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
Read more about their achievements below, and search our interactive table for every student who achieved a merit in 2024:
Sargunpreet Kaur, Nazareth Catholic College
A house fire and an allergic reaction made for a bumpy start to year 12 for Sargunpreet Kaur, but the stellar student still managed an almost perfect final score.
The 18-year-old spent the first four months of the year moving house every few weeks after a kitchen fire forced her family out of their Findon home.
Around the same time Sargunpreet experienced a mystery allergic reaction which sent her to hospital twice.
“It was a hectic year,” the Nazareth Catholic College student said.
“I’m exhausted, but I’m so happy.”
Sargunpreet was among about 15,900 year 12s to complete their SACE in 2024, and 1182 students to score at least one subject merit.
Sargunpreet achieved an ATAR of 99.7 and a merit for her General English studies.
It was a remarkable achievement given the challenges she faced.
They began at the end of year 11 when, one week before the advanced student was due to sit an exam for year 12 level Biology, an oil fire in the family kitchen rendered the house unliveable.
“I was at school that day. My parents picked me up and they told me the house was in flames and I thought it was a joke,” Sargunpreet said.
“When I went inside the whole house was black. It wasn’t liveable.
“We had to move a few times, once a month or every three weeks, to different Airbnbs. I didn’t have that one stable place to study. It was quite stressful but I just had the mindset that … it is what it is.”
After the shock of the house fire, Sargunpreet was struck by a mystery allergic reaction over the summer holidays, breaking out in a full-body rash.
She was admitted to hospital twice and missed a couple of weeks of classes in term 1.
“It’s never happened before … and they never found out what it was,” she said.
Amid all this distraction Sargunpreet – who wants to study medicine at Flinders University or the University of Adelaide in 2025 – was trying to prepare to sit the University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT).
This test is required for students aspiring to medical, dental and clinical science degrees.
Sargunpreet spent two or three hours studying most weekdays during year 12 and “up to 10 hours a day in the lead-up to the UCAT”, which she took in July.
“You have to sacrifice a bit … but it’s not like I stayed home all the time,” she said.
The busy teen also worked one day a week at Hungry Jacks.
She also played badminton and volleyball, took part in debating and volunteered at an aged care home.
Rachel Files, Renmark High School
Rachel Files won a string of awards in her final year of school, and even met the Premier, but it was the fact that she graduated which made her most proud.
The Renmark High School student is the first in her family to complete year 12 – and she hopes to study at university this year.
The 18-year-old’s success has left her father, a high school teacher, “ecstatic”.
“Oh my gosh he was over the moon, he was so pleased,” she said.
Rachel, who scored an ATAR of 86.85 and received a Governor’s commendation, is hoping to be accepted into the University of Adelaide to study politics and international relations this year.
She believes young people deserve more education in school about the “simple” aspects of politics, such as voting procedures.
“It’s kind of funny, a lot of my friends are old enough to vote and they’re registered voters now but they don’t really understand what they’re doing or who they’re voting for,” Rachel said.
“I feel like that’s insane.”
It was this idea that earned Rachel a spot in The Advertiser’s Teen Parliament in 2024.
She was one of 10 students, out of the group of 31, to receive a $10,000 scholarship and a meeting with South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas.
“He really loved my idea,” she said.
“He gave me his card and he’s like ‘Let’s email and talk about it’, so I did and I’m in really good communications with him. It’s such a cool feeling that I got his notice.”
In August, the state government announced it would introduce a new civics curriculum to better educate students on how democracy works and push back against disinformation.
The compulsory curriculum will be taught in years 7 to 10.
Among her year 12 subjects, Rachel studied politics, power and people, but she had to enrol online through Muirden Senior College in Adelaide because the topic was not offered at her regional school.
In the long-term Rachel, who also won the Renmark High School Footprints on the Sands of Time Award, hopes to work in politics, either as a candidate or behind the scenes.
Evan Mewett, King’s Baptist Grammar School
If it weren’t for the inevitability of arthritis in his fingers later in life as a cellist, King’s Baptist Grammar School graduate Evan Mewett would be set on pursuing a career as a musician.
The 18-year-old said times when he can play the “beautiful instrument” for hours on end are among his happiest days.
“It’s a very versatile instrument because it can be used in classical music but also rock and pop,” Evan said.
“It’s tonal qualities sound like a human voice because the notes it most easily plays are on the male voice range.”
But the pragmatic teen believes it is more sensible to follow in the footsteps of his parents and study his other passion, engineering, which he hopes to combine with his musical interest.
“Music won’t necessarily pay the bills but engineering will and it’s (cello) a very competitive field,” Evan said.
“You have to be very careful not to get arthritis in your 40s and it can be absolutely brutal.”
He hopes to study a double degree in mechanical engineering (aerospace) and classical performance (cello) at the University of Adelaide.
“The cello teacher at the University of Adelaide said someone is going to work it out,” Evan said.
“Even if I become an engineer, I’ll play at weddings.”
Evan, who also played guitar, said his passion for cello began in year 2 when he participated in his school’s string program and he has “absolutely loved it” ever since.
In 2024, he performed with the Adelaide Youth Orchestra, which described itself as providing “world-class development programs and career pathways for South Australia’s brightest young emerging musicians”.
“I loved having the opportunity to work with Adelaide’s great young cellists,” Evan said.
At the same time, the teen was learning to fly.
In 2023, Evan completed an aviation course in year 11 and started getting his pilot’s licence. He learned how aircraft work and participated in a workshop on how to build wings.
“Since year 9 I have had a fascination with planes,” he said.
“I got a remote control one and I thought it was the coolest thing.
“I’d love to go into the aerospace industry designing planes or working with defence on any air projects.”
In year 12, Evan scored a near perfect 99.9 ATAR and said “the main thing was not letting the stress of year 12 get to everything else”.
He was supported by his family in his studies.
“As the saying goes, if you’re doing year 12, everyone’s doing year 12,” Evan said.
Crystal Manning, Endeavour College
Watching the 1992 film The Mighty Ducks set Crystal Manning on the path to representing her country in a sport she loves.
The 18-year-old has travelled to the US to play inline hockey against teams from as far afield as Sweden and Colombia.
After watching the loveable children’s ice hockey stars of The Mighty Ducks when she was just five years old, Crystal asked her parents if she could play too.
“Its quite expensive because you have to play at the Ice Arena, but then they found inline hockey,” she said.
“It’s basically the same thing, just on roller blades.”
Crystal, who attained an ATAR of 92.25, had to “take a step back” from hockey this year to focus on her year 12 studies. But in year 11 she was selected to play for the national team, the Aussie Roos, in a tournament in the US.
“I was a really sporty kid,” the Parafield Gardens teen said.
“I played (for the) state when I was younger. And I’ve been picked for Australia a few times which is incredible.”
Crystal has been instrumental in growing a women’s inline hockey league in South Australia and supporting her school community as one of three Student Action Team captains.
Her sporting and academic achievements earned the Endeavour College student a Governor’s Commendation at the end of 2024.
Although, she concedes a jam-packed final year of school was “a lot harder than I thought it would be”.
The influence of attentive teachers “who genuinely care and want to be there” was key to getting through. It inspired her future career choice to study secondary teaching at UniSA.
“That teacher-student relationship, that’s really helped me,” Crystal said.
“I really want to make sure that the next generation has something like that too.”
Nathan Driver, Horizon Christian School
Nathan Driver spent part of his final year at school in Bali – but it wasn’t a holiday.
The 18-year-old took part in a 10-day mission trip to the popular tourist island, visiting orphanages with other students from Horizon Christian School Balaklava.
“We were just sharing a bit of joy and bringing Australian experiences, mostly for children, in the couple of organisations that we were working with,” Nathan said.
“They were passionate and joyful kids with a lot of energy as well.
“We were all hot, sweaty and tired but they just kept going and it was a lot of fun.”
Connecting with local children was the highlight of an “eye-opening” experience, which Nathan said broadened his perspective on life outside Australia.
“There’s a lot that you don’t see going on behind the scenes, so it was cool to see what you wouldn’t normally see if you were just there for a holiday,” he said.
In recognition of his community work and academic performance, Nathan was awarded a Governor of South Australia Commendation for Excellence at the end of 2024.
A flexible mindset also helped him achieve an impressive ATAR of 97.45.
“At times, you go up and down in terms of how committed and how disciplined you are,” he said. “But just having that mindset and looking to the future, working towards a goal, that’s probably helped me to at least stay on track this year.”
Alongside his studies, Nathan was head prefect at his school, coached junior footy teams, played basketball and worked shifts at his local Foodland supermarket.
He studied physical education during his final year of school and also participated in the Rijken Cup, a multi-sport tournament organised by the South Australian Christian Schools Association.
In 2025 Nathan hopes to build on these sporting and academic successes by pursuing a career in physiotherapy.
He is among the thousands eagerly awaiting a uni entrance offer – in Nathan’s case, to the University of South Australia.
Lev Tarasenko, Portside Christian College
School leaver Lev Tarasenko is fascinated by taking apart electronics and putting them back together.
Before he had even finished school, the Portside Christian College graduate worked on the electronics for a rig in the Port River and pulled apart a television before putting it successfully back together.
“I love building things, taking them apart and seeing how they work,” Lev, 18, said.
“I like to see how the world works, it makes me feel very excited and it’s just a great time.”
In 2023 he began working on an AusOcean rig next to the school, which monitored different areas of the Port River.
“It gave us a lot of data and it was a bit of a headache but I felt accomplished,” Lev said.
The rig provided vital data including temperature and humidity in the surrounding area.
Lev worked on the electronics and programming including soldering components and attaching them to the rig.
The project, which he continued in 2024, was difficult but rewarding, Lev said.
“In the stressful moments, you think ‘this sucks but what if it works?’,” he said.
Among his other projects, he pulled apart projectors and an old television from his church he had taken home.
“I was also designing an audio amplifier to run some speakers and it took up a lot of space and they (his parents) weren’t too happy with that,” the teen said. “It’s a productive hobby but there’s a lot of junk around the place.”
In October, Lev won an Oliphant Science Award for a paper he wrote on the applications and limitations of hydrogen fuel cells in the electric vehicle industry.
Despite scoring a 99.6 ATAR, the graduate’s final year of schooling was not easy.
Lev’s grandmother, Vera, who was in her early 80s, passed away in the middle of the year from a disease affecting her nervous system.
“That put a lot of stress on my family,” he said.
“She was in a nursing home but it was still a shock.”
He described year 12 as “a lot of hard work”.
“Friends wanted to go out but you have to say ‘nah I’ve got a test coming up’,” Lev said.
But he benefited from small class sizes, with his largest consisting of just six students. “It was almost like a one-on-one tutoring session,” the school leaver said.
Lev is intrigued by the possibility of joining the defence industry as either an electrical or nuclear engineer, as it’s “the biggest job opportunity in Adelaide”. He is an advocate for nuclear energy.
“I think Australia is one of the perfect countries to do nuclear because we have uranium in our backyard,” Lev said.
He hopes to study a double degree in electrical engineering and computer sciences.
James Skelton, Trinity College
London is calling for James Skelton, who will embark on a promising musical career in 2025.
The Trinity College graduate received a full scholarship to the prestigious Royal College of Music.
“I found out that I got in during my audition and I wasn’t expecting it,” James, 18, said.
“They had another day of clarinet auditions to go too.”
He will follow in the footsteps of his parents Louise and Darren, who are also clarinetists.
His mum, now a teacher at Trinity College, last played with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in 2004 and his dad has been part of it for more than three decades.
Despite the musical pedigree in his family, he does not feel pressure.
“I like following my own progress,” the teen said.
James started playing music at the age of five with the piano, but he always wanted to play clarinet like his parents.
“I felt I was missing out and I was always pestering them to let me play,” the teen said.
“I continued to play because it’s such a great instrument as it has the best tonal qualities and range.
“I feel I’m able to express emotions like sadness and excitement and I like to take people on a journey with music.”
In July, he won awards after he performed in Townsville at the Australian Concerto and Vocal Competition.
The budding musician aced year 12 subjects solo and ensemble performance while he was still in year 10.
He hopes spending time at the Royal College of Music will unlock a career playing the clarinet in an orchestra.
“London is such a vibrant place and they have the current top artists,” the graduate said.
“The teachers there are fantastic as well and I’m in the best environment for what I hope to achieve.”
But before he departs for London, he will have “kind of like a gap year”, with his studies not starting until September.
When he’s not playing music, he enjoys running and trains at the same club as Olympian Jess Stenson.
“It’s something that’s gone on in the background,” said James, who likes running 5km and 10km.
“I like working towards goals and it’s something that inspires me.”
He used running and clarinet in year 12 to balance the rest of his studies, allowing him to “not get ridiculously carried away” with schooling.
“Through running and clarinet it’s taught me a lot about perseverance,” James said.
Zashka Gunson, St Dominic’s Priory College
When Zashka Gunson was younger, she didn’t speak about her cerebral palsy.
But in the St Dominic’s Priory College graduate’s final years of schooling she opened up about the condition, speaking to younger students about how she lives with the condition.
Not just lives, but thrives, becoming a world-class athlete and travelling to Thailand for an elite sport competition last April.
In what was “the best year of schooling” for Zashka, she balanced her assignments with preparing for and competing at the Para-badminton World Championships.
She qualified for the event ranked 17th in the world for singles and eighth for doubles, playing with her partner Celine Vinot, who later went to the Paris Paralympics in 2024.
Para-badminton pairs competitors with similar disabilities in the sport. Zashka even got a shot at the top-ranked player at the world championships.
“There was a lot of forethought into accepting that invitation,” she said. “I knew it was such an amazing opportunity but there was part of me that didn’t want to take it.
“It’s just about making sure you’re mentally prepared to catch up on work and I was lucky I was well supported at my school.”
The teen’s condition, which she describes as “fairly mild”, affects the right side of her body and inhibits her fine motor skills.
“I didn’t get there (with a win) but it was an opportunity to improve my game,” Zashka said. “(Afterwards) I thought ‘look, I’ve got a lot to work on’.”
The graduate became interested in para-badminton in 2016, when she attended a scouting event for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics and tried other events such as archery.
“I enjoyed having a hit that day and said to my parents ‘I want to start playing’,” she said.
“It’s opened up a lot of opportunities.”
Zashka hopes to compete in the 2028 Paralympics in Los Angeles. “I’ll keep playing the next few years and see what happens,” she said.
“It would be a fantastic experience.” Zashka achieved a 99.45 ATAR – with a little help from her peers, who aided her in subjects such as chemistry.
“I have limited fine motor capabilities in my right side so I had someone to help me out swirling the burette,” she said.
Speaking about her cerebral palsy has not always been easy.
“In primary school I wasn’t too open about it and that made it harder,” she said.
During this time she used a mobility aid on her right leg.
“In secondary school I’ve been more open about it and I’ve spoken to younger students about para-badminton,” Zashka said.
Alborz Razaghi, Findon High School
Alborz Razaghi achieved a perfect ATAR of 99.95, but says he attended school only about 60 per cent of the time.
The Findon High School graduate says he studied about three hours a day and during the rest of his time, he went out, exercised at the gym and played video games.
“I would get stuff done quicker when I was at home,” Alborz, 18, said.
During year 12, he attended school about “two or three days a week”.
The school leaver had a unique ability to learn and recall course content, which helped him achieve without being in class.
“When I got to read it, write it and then read it again, it stuck,” the teen said.
“I’d get everything I needed to do, done. Year 12 is really hard when you wake up at 7am and you’re there until 4pm and then you have to do homework.”
But his unorthodox approach to studying did not mean he had an easy year.
Early in the year he and his family moved house from one side of Adelaide to another.
He also balanced schoolwork with a part-time job sorting packages in a warehouse.
And later in 2024, just before an exam, Alborz was in a car crash.
“It was raining and I was going around a bend and I hit a pole,” he said. “The car was inoperable so this meant that I had to start walking to school again. I was a little bit more stressed.”
Alborz developed a strategy to deal with stress, particularly for passing not just school but also an exam to gain entry into a university degree in medicine this year.
“I like to do this exercise where I think about myself in the future and I’ve failed,” he said.
“You’d want a second chance and thinking about how you’re going to feel if you fail pushes you to succeed.”
In the lead-up to the medicine entry exam, he studied about 12 hours a day, which the graduate described as his biggest challenge of the year.
“If you’re doing medicine, you don’t have much time and I had to lock in,” Alborz said.
The school leaver had “a burning desire to do medicine” since he was a child and he was curious about the human body and the brain.
“I’m fascinated by the brain and consciousness itself and why you can think about thinking,” Alborz said.
“Why did all those other creatures never develop our level of intellect?”
His plan, if he does not gain entry into medicine, is to try again.
“If I don’t get in I might have to go back to school,” Alborz said.
Pareena Brar, Northern Adelaide Senior College
School leaver Pareena Brar, 18, turned studying into an exact science during year 12.
The teen managed to score a mighty ATAR of 99.9 and help some of her fellow students along the way by starting a tutoring group.
“I was tracking my sleep and my eating habits,” the Northern Adelaide Senior College graduate said.
“I sometimes had to wake up at 5am so I could do all my work for the day. It’s all about balancing what your brain needs and what your body needs.”
But other days she would do very little work at all.
“I’d have days when I didn’t study and then I’d have days when I’d study nine hours,” Pareena said.
“I studied when I wanted to learn.”
Her diligence paid off and her parents were with her every step of the way.
“It was a priority to work hard but keep balanced because I didn’t want to burn out,” she said.
“They were never helicopter parents, they just allowed me to succeed.
“I believe in hard work and a good support system.”
Despite having to miss “so many social events” throughout the course of the year to prioritise academic pursuits, she said the best part of the day was learning.
“Every day when I went to class, I’d open a book and learn something new,” the passionate debater said.
The graduate attended Glenunga International High School from year 8 to year 10. She finished year 12 biology there, two years early.
Pareena said Northern Adelaide Senior College aligned with her need to have “independent study”, especially for her final year of school.
“I’ve been able to explore so many study techniques and what works for me,” she said.
She also ran a group at the school to help other students with tips on how to study more efficiently.
“We’d create timetables for students and help them set goals,” Pareena said.
“We’d also help students communicate with their teachers and we’d come to meetings.
“Developing those academic friendships was really nice.”
Her experience with the study group gave her a taste for helping people.
She wants to study medicine or business at university in 2025. “It helps with my future career as a doctor because I’ll have to communicate with patients,” Pareena said.
Putsoriyavong Hem, Salisbury East High School
During the end of term 3 holidays of the 2024 school year – not long before exams – Putsoriyavong Hem’s life changed drastically.
Her mother, Samnang Nay, was taken to the Lyell McEwin Hospital with complications due to Putsoriyavong’s baby sister Naomi being born prematurely.
Ms Nay spent a month there while she recovered from high blood pressure due to the pregnancy.
This meant that Putsoriyavong, 17, took her mother’s dinner to the hospital each night when she visited.
“I’m from a Cambodian background, so we’re used to eating our own food,” the Salisbury East High School graduate said. She also had to pick up and drop off her 16-year-old brother, Putrassmey, who has autism, from nearby Salisbury High School.
“Looking back, I was quite stressed, but you can’t control the circumstances,” the Paralowie teen said.
“You take it as it goes.”
The teen would also help out at her parents’ bakery, but scaled that back because of her focus on year 12. Despite all her commitments, she scored a 95.95 ATAR by fitting in homework where she could.
She stayed after school to study and her chemistry teacher ran after-class sessions.
Putsoriyavong also stayed up late to make sure she was up to date with revision.
“Teenagers don’t really sleep until 12am so I’m used to it,” she said. “I tried my best to stop at 11.30pm because my teacher said I needed down time before I slept.”
While she has options open to her with a high ATAR, Putsoriyavong said she was “still trying to work it out” regarding university study.
While Putsoriyavong said she enjoys how structured science is, she is also considering pursuing teaching. “I’ve had some teachers throughout primary school and high school that have left a lasting impact on me and I want to do that for someone else,” she said. “Everyone can remember their teachers and you get to interact with children of all different backgrounds.”
Alexandra Seal, Loreto College
Alexandra Seal celebrated her year 12 success with a champagne toast at the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
Straight after final exams the 18-year-old and a friend jumped on a plane for a European alternative to the traditional Schoolies celebrations, visiting countries including Italy, Spain, Germany and England.
The pair were in France when SACE results were released and had to log on about midnight to check their ATAR scores. “We were in the hotel and debating whether or not to go to sleep,” Alexandra said.
After learning she had scored 97.6, the Loreto College student, her friend and their families went to the Eiffel Tower to celebrate. “We went up to the top, top floor and they have a little champagne bar. We got a glass and gave a little toast,” she said.
“It felt really special to be able to celebrate in Paris.” The six-week trip also included visits to England, Italy, Spain, Germany, Poland and Switzerland.
“Instead of going to (Schoolies) my best friend and our families decided we would do our own overseas trip,” Alexandra said.
During the year the Mawson Lakes teen studied Physics, Modern History and Religion.
As part of an accelerated learning program she had already completed the Research Project, English and Specialist Mathematics while in year 11 and Mathematical Methods in year 10. Last year she ran the United Nations and environment committees at Loreto College, sang in the top choir and played clarinet.
For her efforts she was awarded a Governor’s Commendation in December and, back in January 2024, was named South Australia’s Young Citizen of the Year.
Alongside her studies, Alexandra has found time to run her own business, called Six Spaces, which sells handcrafted polymer clay jewellery.
A percentage of profits is donated to charity Families4Families, which supports people with acquired brain injuries.
“I started the business when I was 14. We were trying to find ways to fund bushfire relief,” Alexandra said. “It started out as something simple, a physical reminder about a cause. I have tried to use it to educate people and raise awareness.”
Alexandra hopes to study either environmental engineering or a double degree in law and environmental policy and management at university in 2025.
Asked how she juggled all her priorities, Alexandra said she was “not one of those people that can leave an assignment until the last minute, I just want to get it done”.
Kloe Appleton, Moonta Area School
Kloe Appleton will be the first in her family to go to university after securing an early offer to study teaching at UniSA.
The Moonta Area School graduate achieved a stellar 96.55 ATAR – adjusted to the highest possible 99.95 given she attended a regional school – which she said she “definitely wasn’t expecting”.
“I’m just over the moon with this result and this outcome,” the 18-year-old said.
“I’m so overwhelmed. My family could not believe it.
“My grandparents were just over the moon. My grandpa still rings me all the time talking about it and just can’t believe it.”
Being a country student presented some challenges, such as having to enrol at another high school to take year 12 Child Studies because it was not offered at Moonta Area School.
Kloe also made repeated trips from the Yorke Peninsula to Adelaide for holiday revision seminars at the Adelaide Tuition Centre.
Her advice for students entering year 12 in a few weeks is to “really put in the time to study, with just enough room to take breaks”.
While juggling her studies last year, Kloe was also school captain, which she said gave her opportunities to improve her public speaking and collaborative skills, and to build character.
“It was definitely a very rewarding job,” she said.
“I have grown so much as a person and would recommend it to other students.”
Kloe was one of the key orchestrators of a childhood cancer fundraising campaign at her high school, which raised $1300.
“We ran a staff versus student cricket match at our school where the students dressed up as staff and the staff dressed up as the students,” she said. “We invited our local Country Times (newspaper), posted QR codes on Facebook and went around to local businesses to get the word out.
“We ended up raising $1300, which was a lot compared to our usual (fundraiser) days, which would go for about $200.”
When Kloe finishes her degree and qualifies as a teacher, she intends to come back to Moonta to work there.
Kevin Hua, St Columba College
Kevin Hua may run for politics one day – but it’s “a big maybe”.
The St Columba College 2024 captain is certain, however, that he will use his future career to “give back” to a country he feels has offered his family so much.
Kevin’s father, Loc, moved to Australia from South Vietnam in the 1990s and his mother, Hong, followed a decade later.
“They left their dreams and passions in order for me to pursue mine,” the 18-year-old said.
“I wouldn’t be alive, nor would my parents, if Australia didn’t afford them the opportunity to be here. That is a big motivation … so I’ve always been big on giving back.”
Kevin is among more than 1100 students to earn at least one merit award for their SACE studies in 2024 and has been chosen to speak on their behalf at an award ceremony at Government House next month.
“I’ll be making a speech in front of the Governor pretty soon,” he said.
“Everyone there (at the ceremony) is so very gifted. We’re ambassadors for the state, and each other … the leaders of our state in the future, I think.”
Kevin, who also participated in debating, choir, basketball and youth parliament last year, has been offered a full residential scholarship to study at St Andrew’s College, within the University of Sydney. He plans to complete a double degree in law and either arts or economics.
“I’m thinking about a career in the federal public service, in diplomacy,” he said.
“Maybe – and this is a big maybe – running for politics in the future.
“I’m very focused on Western civilisation and how we can advance into the future.”
Kevin’s parents – who both come from large families – met while in medical school in Vietnam before Loc migrated to Australia.
Years later, he returned and bumped into his now-wife “by chance”.
“They just waited for each other, I guess,” Kevin said.
They now run a produce farm at Penfield, growing cucumbers, tomatoes and eggplants.
The family visits Vietnam whenever they get the chance.
“To see the difference between our countries and see how fortunate we are in Australia, it really reinforced that gratitude to live in such an amazing country,” Kevin said.
When he moves to Sydney to start his university studies, Kevin will join his older brother Ken, 24, who is currently completing a masters in international security.
“My brother motivates me a lot because he’s overcome many challenges himself,” Kevin said.
Hana Hegazi, Australian Islamic College
Hana Hegazi kicked off her year 12 studies sitting at the dining table in her 80-year-old Egyptian grandfather’s home.
She travelled back to her birth country during the holiday break between year 11 and 12 – but knew she still had to hit the books.
“I was aiming pretty high. I was on the plane doing my homework,” the Australian Islamic College (AIC) graduate said.
“I love Egypt to bits but I wouldn’t be where I am without the opportunities that we had here (in Adelaide).”
Hana, who achieved the highest possible ATAR of 99.95, migrated from Egypt 12 years ago.
She arrived with her mother, father and two younger sisters on her sixth birthday.
“We came here with no family. It was probably the biggest change we have ever experienced,” the now 18-year-old said.
“We visit (Egypt) as much as we can but we took a break for about six years and when I went back last year so much had changed.”
Hana’s Islamic heritage was the inspiration for one of her major year 12 projects, a mural she painted with a friend for their Visual Arts folio.
“It was based on the history of Islamic invention,” the Para Hills teen explained. “We did it like a solar system and at the bottom there was an astrolabe, which is an Islamic invention that people used before they had watches. You could track the stars and read time. It was a massive project.”
Hana also studied Religion and Arabic, her first language, at the West Croydon AIC campus.
“Because I’m Egyptian my dialect is very different to standard Arabic,” she said. “Egyptian Arabic is a bit more simple to learn so when I was learning Arabic in class it was more difficult. But if you want to watch the news it’s all in standard Arabic so everyone can understand.”
Hana hopes to study law at university or a double degree incorporating the arts or international relations.
“Ever since I was in year 8 or 9 I’ve really wanted to be a lawyer,” she said.
“There’s so many things you can do to change the world, to improve the world, with a degree like that.”
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