Where are they now? Five SACE stars and the paths they took after school
These high achievers graduated with ATARs well into the 90s but where did it get them? As exams approach, five share the twists and turns their careers have taken.
Education
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It’s almost the time of year when school wraps up, final assignments are handed in and students turn their attention to Year 12 exams.
It’s a time of stress as students finish the mad dash to the finish line of their secondary schooling and then a period of anxiety as they wait to receive a score which can feel like it will define a young person’s future.
But top students from as far back as two decades ago serve as a reminder that career paths aren’t straightforward and ATAR is not a life-defining number.
This is what those students have got up to since they graduated.
Brooke Capewell – jeweller
Class of 2014 graduate Brooke Capewell knew her path was going to be different to her peers after she was diagnosed with a debilitating auto-immune condition at 15.
The disease, focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), means Ms Capewell is constantly fatigued and requires fortnightly therapeutic plasma exchanges at the Royal Adelaide Hospital.
“Having some limitations due to my health played a certain role in what I wanted to do (after school),” Ms Capewell, now 28, said.
“It’s given me a good perspective on life, that life is really short and you have to do what makes you happy.”
After she graduated from Kangaroo Island Community Education with a 92.55 ATAR, Ms Capewell initially started a journalism and creative writing double degree at UniSA but felt it wasn’t “the right fit”.
She then tried various other vocations including floristry and hospitality until she landed on her current job at CBD jeweller Everettbrookes, where she helps couples design wedding and engagement rings.
“It allows me to use my creative side,” she said of her job, which she works part-time due to her condition.
“I like the process of getting to meet someone and help them design a ring for the their partner … and follow their journey with wedding rings as well.”
Ms Capewell’s philosophy is to do what makes her happy.
“I just do things while they make me happy and then sometimes when I need a challenge I find something new to try,” she said.
Her advice for the class of 2024 is, it’s “okay to be unsure what you want to in life at any stage”.
“I’ve just fumbled my way from thing to thing and I’ve landed on something I really enjoy but that’s not where I thought I’d be in Year 12,” Ms Capewell said.
Jack Trengove – AFL footballer to analyst
Former AFL captain of Melbourne and Port Adelaide star Jack Trengove always knew his footy career was finite and made sure Year 12 was a “balancing act” between sport and academics.
“I went from sitting Year 12 exams to getting drafted a week later and then living in Melbourne a few days after that,” Mr Trengove, who graduated from Prince Alfred College in 2009 with a 97 ATAR, said.
“School and studies was always a high priority and number one and anything on top of that was an absolute bonus.”
He is now an equities analyst at Lanyon Asset Management, a move he had been planning well before his career as a professional athlete was over.
“There wasn’t a point in time where I stopped thinking about what I was going to do in my next career,” the now 33-year-old said.
“Unfortunately I had a few injuries throughout my career … it probably gave me a chance to knuckle down and complete a few more units for my uni degree.”
Trengove undertook a commerce degree from 2011 to 2018 at Monash University while playing AFL.
He even did work experience at Lanyon while rounding out his footy career.
“On my day off every week I was putting the slacks and a shirt on,” he said.
When the day came to hang up his boots, Mr Trengove said it was easier for him than others.
“The day came that I finished playing footy and the next week I walked into a full time role,” he said.
“Leaving footy was a bit easier for me because I knew where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do next.”
Now, Mr Trengove said boardroom meetings were easier after “playing on the MCG in front of 80,000 people”.
His advice is that “putting all your eggs in one basket doesn’t necessarily give you the best outcome”.
Esther Pearson and Olivia Fantis – best friends and lawyers
Best friends and 2008 Walford graduates Esther Pearson and Olivia Fantis discovered they achieved the same ATAR of 99.6 soon after they opened their results.
They then both studied law and international studies at the University of Adelaide after graduating and are both practising lawyers.
Ms Pearson, 33, took a human rights path and spent time living on Nauru on and off for three years from 2017.
While she was on the island northeast of Australia, she worked to process refugee status for asylum seekers from countries such as Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan who had boarded boats from Indonesia.
“It was very challenging in a lot of ways but it’s really set me up for the rest of my career,” said Ms Pearson, now a human rights lawyer for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Canberra.
“Seeing the families and the children was probably the hardest part and conditions were very hard for them.”
Driven by a need to help, Ms Pearson now aids in the relocation of asylum seekers permanently to New Zealand.
“We get to make the phone calls when they finally get the approval which is pretty special,” she said.
But Ms Pearson said today’s Year 12s have “so many different directions you can go” and advised that “if it doesn’t work out straight away it doesn’t really matter because you can always try something different”.
Her former classmate Ms Fantis, also 33, almost studied medicine before changing her mind last minute.
Ms Fantis’ eagerness to start working made her choose the comparatively shorter law degree.
“I’m drawn to finding particular facts that I glean from whether it’s evidence or speaking to my clients then applying that to the law,” Ms Fantis said of her love of the law.
In March last year she opened her own practice focusing on criminal law and aptly named it Olivia Fantis Legal.
“Some of the times I’ve helped someone the most, is when you’re assisting them in circumstances when they’re pleading guilty to an offence and you’re guiding them through that sentencing process,” Ms Fantis said.
Her tip to Year 12s us “do your very best” and if “you’re passionate about something you’ll find another way to arrive at it”.
Aaron Hill – politics to consultant
Self-described “nerdy kid” Aaron Hill graduated from the Heights School in Modbury in 2004 aged just 15 and went on to advise former treasurer Wayne Swan at 21-years-old.
Despite being three years younger than some of his Year 12 classmates, Mr Hill achieved an ATAR of 95.15.
“You had to work twice as hard to earn respect but that put me in good stead for the rest of my career,” Mr Hill, now 35, said.
“It was a remarkable set of opportunities to have as a very young person.”
His proudest achievements from his time in politics, which also included being an economic adviser to former SA premier Jay Weatherill, were working on the recovery for the 2010 and 2011 floods in Queensland and the fallout of Holden leaving SA.
“I’m a boy from the north … so one of the most meaningful things I worked on was trying to save Holden,” Mr Hill, now a father of two boys, said.
Now based in Melbourne with global consulting firm Accenture, leading the economic insights team, Mr Hill said he “loves the opportunity to help explain the world using economics”.
“Economics is a really powerful tool to help people understand the world and help us make better decisions to live in a more prosperous society,” he said.
Mr Hill encouraged students “particularly from areas further afield than the CBD to back yourself in and believe in what you can achieve”.
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