Better life beckons as Year 12 students graduate at Gunbalanya
JUGGLING schoolwork with being a mum isn’t easy, but with a lot of determination and help from family, friends and teachers, 17-year-old Victoria Lansen made it work
Northern Territory
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JUGGLING schoolwork with being a mum isn’t easy, but with a lot of determination and help from family, friends and teachers, 17-year-old Victoria Lansen made it work.
Victoria was one of eight young women to graduate high school at Gunbalanya, in West Arnhem Land, on Thursday. It’s the school’s biggest graduating class – up from six graduates last year and two in 2012.
Victoria said she was motivated to complete her schoolwork by the prospect of giving her son Victor, born last January, a good future.
“Halfway through it was difficult,” she said.
“Sometimes I felt like I wanted to give up.
“But every time I’d look at my son, he would always get me back on my feet again to defy the odds.”
Sharing the graduation stage with her friends made the achievement even sweeter.
“A few of those girls are my best friends. It’s quite deadly that we graduated together,” Victoria said.
Her next goal is to find a job she loves.
The first in her family to reach the educational milestone, Victoria said she hoped her younger siblings would follow her example.
Victoria’s grandmother, who travelled to Gunbalanya from Borroloola to see her graduate, said she was incredibly proud of her achievements.
School co-principal Sue Trimble said both the graduates and their teachers worked extremely hard to finish their schooling.
Teachers put on extra homework classes for the students and sometimes even cooked them dinner.
The school celebrated another milestone this year – the first A ever achieved in an assessment task.
“That probably sounds trivial, but for us to have a dinky-di A that’s equal to anyone in South Australia and Darwin High School showed that we were starting to show that academic growth,” Ms Trimble said.
Three boys who were part of the cohort have postponed their graduation to fulfil cultural obligations but hope to finish their schooling this year.
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