Grad gives up Schoolies for volunteer position

Year 12 Sarina student opts to head back to school to give back to the community.

Sarina State High School graduate Will Muscat is back at his school as a volunteer.

WILL MUSCAT could have been at Airlie Beach this past week, celebrating with schoolmates.

But this recent Year 12 graduate opted to head back to school instead.

The former Sports House Captain at Sarina State High School spent Schoolies week giving back to the school he attended for the past five years.

Will said he wasn’t interested in attending Schoolies and after thinking about how he should spend the final days of the year he had an idea.

“I was wondering what I could do to give back and that’s when I decided to see if I could help at school,” he said.

On what would have been Will’s final day, he approached school administrators with a proposal. He asked if he could spend the final few weeks of school assisting special needs students in the school’s Inclusive Learning Centre.

“Partying has never really been my scene and most of my mates from school weren’t going to Schoolies anyway,” Will said.

“I figured if I wasn’t going away, I might as well be doing something that makes a difference.

“It’s better than sitting around at home and Mum was stoked because she was definitely not keen on me going to Schoolies.”

The young Alligator Creek teen said he recently decided he wanted to explore a career in education and he thought this might be a way to get an idea of what teaching was really like.

“I’ve been thinking about becoming a teacher for a couple of years now, so I thought this would be a good way to figure out if I really wanted to do it,” Will said.

“Something I didn’t realise before this week was how much teachers struggle to deal with ratbag behaviour.

“So far the experience has been really good and I think now I’d like to work with special needs students again in the future.”

Deputy principal Matt Allan said Will had always been a stellar student.

“From day dot he’s been one of those stand-up students — respectful, polite, always trying his hardest and really popular with his peers,” Mr Allan said.

“I was shocked when I heard he wanted to give up his holidays to volunteer at school.

“The staff have been really impressed with Will this week — the students in the ILC have responded really well to him. Will would make an incredible teacher.”

Will plans to continue his volunteer position at the school for the remainder of the term and said his plans for a future career involved studying to become a teacher.

“I’d love to be able to come back to Sarina State High School as a teacher, that would be the ultimate goal.”

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