Ballarat Clarendon student pilot sets sight on aviation career
This 18-year-old plans to become a commercial pilot, and has earnt her wings already with support from her school.
GRAMPIANS teen Kate Boschen is prepared to travel any direction in the future, as long as it’s up.
The 18-year-old from Halls Gap is determined to take to the skies as a commercial pilot, and says boarding at Ballarat Clarendon College since Year 7 has helped make it easy for her to pursue her dream.
Kate has clocked up 130 hours of flying time and gained two pilot’s licences, all while maintaining her academic studies. “I only started getting into flying when I was in about Year 9,” Kate said.
The nearest airport to her home town is Stawell, but there isn’t a flying school there.
Luckily, flight training is offered at Ballarat airport, which is just 10km from Ballarat Clarendon.
“It was really good to be in Ballarat,” said Kate, who is following in the footsteps of her father, who is an aerial firefighting pilot. “Throughout the school week I would do some theory in the afternoons and go flying before school in the morning … I’d go out to the airport and do a flight, come to school for the day, then go back and do more.”
She said support from boarding staff was crucial to help her maintain the 5.40am starts necessary for flight lessons. She has her sights set on a bachelor of aviation degree at the University of NSW, which has an industry partnership with Qantas.
LESSONS EVERYWHERE
BALLARAT Clarendon head of boarding Kirsty Walsh said the school’s 22 boarding staff all share responsibility for helping students, such as Kate, identify and pursue their interests.
“It is a team effort,’ she said. “We have a very big belief in the same approach they take in the day school – that there are learning opportunities everywhere.”
Ballarat Clarendon has become known in recent years for its impressive academic results in both ATAR and NAPLAN. But the coeducational day and boarding school stresses its mission is to prepare each student to excel in their field of interest, so they can “choose their heart’s desire” after secondary school.
For school captain Oliver Mitchell, from Robinvale, his desire is a career in engineering. “Seeing as I grew up on a farm, I have always liked that hands-on kind of learning,” said Oliver, who spent his childhood on his family’s wine-grape property near the Murray River. “From attending school here, it just developed into a love for physics and the enjoyment I get out of the challenges of maths.”
Oliver joined the boarding house in Year 9, and has thrown himself into leadership opportunities as well as maths and science. “I think the information (the school) gives you about the future, and universities, and the career counselling just makes you feel confident that you know you have somewhere to head and there are plenty of options to take as well.”
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