Revealed: the North shore’s top young achievers
They’re the everyday achievers bringing about positive change in their communities. We take a look at the region’s most inspiring young people:
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The north shore is full of committed and talented young people making their mark on the world.
The North Shore Times has compiled a list of some of the region’s top young achievers including sporting stars, entrepreneurs and environmental pioneers.
THE SCAMMELL CHILDREN
They’re the sibling trio who have helped shine a light on thousands of everyday heroes.
George, Harry and Gracie Scammell founded the Thank You Project Australia last year as a way for people to express their gratitude by sending ‘thankyou’ letters to those who have continued to work and help others during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“It started last lockdown and we were watching TV and we saw a story about a little girl who was making face masks for frontline workers. We told Mum about it and she asked us ‘how do you think you can help your community?’ and we thought essential workers weren’t getting enough thanks, so we can up with the idea of sending them thankyou letters,” George said.
“At the start we sent thankyous to GPs, shops, the butcher and then schools got involved and it grew from there.
“People have sent letters to essential workers, supermarket workers and delivery drivers who all provide food and sometimes don’t get thanked.
“We’ve also sent thankyous to hospitals and when the Olympics came around we did a virtual welcome home for the Olympians who didn’t get a ticker-tape parade because of Covid.”
At the latest count, more than 80,000 ‘thankyous’ and other messages have been sent across Australia and the number is growing by the day.
George said he was amazed at how the initiative has grown.
“(The project) has shown me how small gestures can inspire a lot more kindness in the world,” he said.
“Someone who stacks shelves in a supermarket is just as essential as a doctor.”
NOAH HUNT
When Sydney went into lockdown earlier this year, Noah Hunt and three mates put on their thinking caps to come up with a way of addressing the study challenges faced by fellow students.
Their creation is an all-in-one online education platform called Stuvise that features core aspects of digital learning including note taking, flashcards, multiple choice revision and note sharing with peers.
The program took 13 weeks of coding to create and is now being used by more than 300 students with the UNSW school of medicine also trailing the platform.
“Being a student, I could see that learning online isn’t always efficient and can be quite arduous – there’s a friction between studying effectively with all these different platforms students have to use,” Noah said.
“The idea was to create an all in one program that’s built by students for students and has all the tools you need for learning.
“You can log in and take notes, generate flash cards and share and upload class notes with friends – you don’t have to jump between different platforms – there’s none of the extra clutter.
“The feedback we’ve had has been really positive – it takes the burden off students and helps teachers as well.”
Noah, who lives in East Lindfield, said there are plans to grow the platform in the future including creating a personalised virtual tutor for students.
ELLA DI MORO
What Ella Di Moro lacks in stature, she more than makes up for in community spirit.
Aged just nine, Ella started The Pink Pantry stall outside her home as a way for residents in the West Pymble area to share and done their excess food, plants and other items with the community.
Since launching, the stall has diverted thousands of items from landfill and encouraged local residents to recycle.
“We have a big vegetable garden and I used to see Mum putting a lot of stuff in the compost bin because we didn’t eat it all so I decided to set up my own stall out the front of my house for people to take whatever they wanted,” Ella said.
“I put seedlings and plants in there too and other people put all sorts of things in there so it isn’t just stuff from our garden anymore. Sometimes there are quail eggs, sourdough bread, seeds, cuttings, manure, fresh vegetables, lemons and oranges.
“If people can’t afford fresh food or just don’t have anything to swap then they take as much as they want which is nice.
“Because there is always different stuff in there some people like to take a walk past each day.”
As well as running the stall, Ella administers a Facebook page called The Pink Pantry for members to find out what items and produce have been added to the pantry each day.
Ella said anyone can help make a difference in their community, regardless of their age.
“If every person made one small change, no matter how old they are, that would go a long way to changing the world,” she said.
TOMMASO SIGNORELLO
Tommaso Signorello hasn’t looked back since taking up the sport of fencing at the age of just nine.
Now aged 13, the Lane Cove resident is one of the sport’s brightest up and coming talents, with a long list of achievements including a gold medal in under-12 boys foil at the biggest international children’s competition to be held in Australia – the Koala Challenge and Friendship Cup.
“When I was younger I loved soccer, then one day I went on a fencing holiday camp and from that point on I really loved it," he said.
“After watching the Olympics, it really inspired me to pursue it – it’s an interesting social sport and it really captured my imagination.”
Tommaso trains three to four times per week and said keys to success in the sport include determination and a focus to never give up.
Along with his sporting achievements, Tommaso was also named Lane Cove’s young citizen of 2021 in recognition of his charity including donating all his Christmas presents to children living at Delvena Women’s Refuge last year.
“For people who don’t have access to toys, I thought it was really important that everyone has the same opportunities. It was something small I could do to give back,” he said.
The Chatswood High School student’s achievements in fencing also include a bronze medal in Singapore’s fencing minime challenge and a first-place finish at an inter-school fencing competition against 69 other students across Sydney earlier this year.
Tommaso has his sights firmly set on the future with a goal to compete in fencing at the Brisbane 2032 Olympics.
ISAAC MAYOR
Isaac Mayer is helping to bring about positive change in the world around him – one bee at a time.
The Northbridge resident is the founder of Bush Bees which works to boost population numbers of native species including stingless bees.
His passion for supporting the species began when he was put in a charge of native beehive bought by his school back in 2016 and since then Bush Bees has helped encourage hundreds of households on Australia’s east coast set up bee hives of their own.
“It really sparked my interest and a couple of years later I launched Bush Bees – now have 200,000 bees. It’s been amazing to see how it’s taken off,” he said.
“Part of our work is about educating people about native species and I’ve done talks at schools to help raise awareness.
“In recent times there’s been a lot of attention on the threats facing European honey bees, which has taken a lot of focus away from native bees.
“There are lots of things people can do to support native species – you can buy a beehive or build bee hotels. Planting the right flowers in gardens also makes a difference.”
Isaac is also helping agricultural communities through a new service designed to help pollinate farms.
LAURA WILLIAMS
To help students struggling with loneliness during lockdown, Laura created an online space for young people to keep in touch and connected.
The 15-year-old launched channels through a discord server – similar to social media – for people to share school work as well as socialise while stuck at home.
“Social media is often built around sharing photos but discord is more suitable for everyone,” she said.
“It’s helped a lot of people who have lost motivation to keep in contact with their friends, when the server is active people struggle less and less to keep in touch.”
Laura also is an active member of the Mosman Youth Service and has volunteered at programs including Green Thumbs and the View Finders environmental group.
During lockdown, she participated in Mosman Council’s Youth’s Inclusion Initiative sharing struggles of people with disability and neurodiversity and pitched ideas about how to create an inclusive community.
“I think it’s really important that young people have way of contributing to what they want to see in the community,” she said.
Amelia Soh
Not even a strict lockdown could hold Amelia Soh back from competing with the best young ballet dancers in the world and winning.
She had made it to the finals of The Fonteyn, one of the most prestigious competitions for young ballet dancers in the world.
And the Neutral Bay 15-year-old bagged third place, putting her among the most talented young dancers of her generation.
Amelia’s win is all the more outstanding because she completed her training for the competition entirely in lockdown.
Once accepted for The Fonteyn she was given six weeks to prepare and over that time she had to submit ongoing videos of her class work and take Zoom classes with the coaches overseas.
She had to learn a new solo dance and perfect two other routines – one classical and one contemporary. The three solos were recorded at the end of the intense competition period in full costume as if she were performing for an audience.
Her teachers – sisters Celine, Jasmin and Paris Bobyk at Mosman Dance Academy – also coached her entirely over Zoom for the competition and she was occasionally allowed to go to the studio in Georges Heights on her own to practise jumps.
Amelia, 15, is working towards becoming a professional ballet dancer. She has already won many competitions, earned a scholarship to the prestigious Rosella Hightower ballet school in Cannes, France and was chosen to dance in The Australian Ballet’s The Nutcracker at the Sydney Opera House.
Her dream is to win a place at The Royal Ballet School and she is determined to move overseas next year to pursue this ambition after she turns 16. Taking a medal at The Fonteyn has made her realise that becoming a professional dancer in the highly competitive world of ballet is a possibility.
“It made me think I can actually do this,” she said.
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