Rural students pass hardest test during pandemic year
The year was tough, especially in Victoria. But these country kids are tougher.
The school of hard knocks was never taught with more irony than to the cohort of students studying VCE during the pandemic.
No one wanted to be in their shoes.
But while it was the toughest year of their lives, it has proven to be a great teacher of resilience and flexibility — prized skills learnt more effectively from life’s adversity than from any text book.
Country kids are renowned for their resilience but a selection of rural and regional students who spoke to The Weekly Times were still pushed to the limit to overcome some incredible hardships and adversity during the pandemic.
As if negotiating the perils of remote learning during Years 11 and 12 wasn’t enough for Hamilton Alexandra College student Lexi Northcott, she discovered she had a life-threatening heart condition.
“I was climbing a mountain with my friends and they all took off on me and I was left at the bottom struggling to breathe and my whole body was shaking dramatically,” Lexi said.
“I was diagnosed with a complete heart block and within a week I had a pacemaker implanted … I wouldn’t be here without it.”
The subsequent specialist visits led her to seek out a career in heart research and she has applied to Central Queensland University to study echocardiography.
“Prior to this I wanted to do nursing but after the pandemic I thought that would be the wrong way to go,” she said.
Lexi added that resilience was what kept her moving forward during the unprecedented time.
“There were times when I wanted to give up but the college has put the best in me,” she said.
Fellow Hamilton Alexandra College student Jedah Huf managed to complete her Certificate III in agriculture with an excellence in study award from Rural Industries Skills Training while completing her VCE during the Covid upheaval.
She said it was challenging because it involved night classes and taking time out of school for up to a week. Practical components were also delayed due to restrictions.
“The biggest obstacle was having the focus to sit and concentrate on screens all day to do the theory and then remembering the theory when doing the prac, as it could be two months later,” Jedah said.
Completing the certificate has cemented her aspirations to pursue a career in agriculture.
She hopes to undertake a Certificate IV in agriculture and advanced diplomas of agribusiness management and agronomy at Longerenong College next year.
Ballarat Clarendon College boarder Kalani Scoullar was unable to get home to her family across the NSW border at Barham for months at a time and had to quarantine when she did.
“It’s been tricky not seeing my family but I just focused on my studies and exercising and it was OK because I had a good support system and friends offer to have me at their house,” Kalani said.
“It was tough for Mum and Dad but they knew to have a good education how important it was for me to be here.”
Sport has kept Kalani going and while she plans to pursue a double degree in nursing and midwifery at Deakin University, she also dreams of playing footy for Geelong.
“I got the most improved for the Rebels team this year and I played for Vic Country for the national carnival in under-19 girls,” Kalani said.
“I did a lot more than I thought I would in Year 12. The school pushed me to be my best and get the best of out of me. At the time it was tough, but it was good.”
Despite hopes Covid would remain in 2020, it hung around to sweep through and disrupt a second school year, meaning The Geelong College boarder Edison Hang, from Yangzhou in China, has been unable to return home to see his family for two years.
“There is a College family I am very grateful for that has given me a lot of mental support and they are always asking how I’m going at school and any hardships and invite me to their house for dinner,” Edison said.
“I am able to have video calls every week with my own family so even though I can’t see them face-to-face, I can still see and hear them via technology.”
Edison intends to pursue science and mathematics at university and has used the lockdowns as motivation to study and prevent him getting homesick. Last year he received a perfect score of 50 for VCE physics.
“Online learning has been a big challenge but at least boarding we don’t have other distractions like siblings or pets,” he said.
Year 9 student Olivia Handbury is in her first year boarding at The Geelong College and wasn’t able to return home to her parent’s farm at Lucindale in South Australia for 20 weeks.
“I’m probably coping better than my family. They are really missing me, especially my little brother who is 10,” Olivia said.
“I have been pretty lucky because I don’t get homesick. The school has been good and our head of boarding is always up for a chat whenever I’m not feeling so great about being stuck here.”
Olivia said the disappointment of making plans to go home and then border closures cancelling them had been experiences that built resilience and helped balance her emotions.
“My farm experience has also helped with that,” she said. “We had a bushfire at the end of last year that went through our farm and burnt 80 per cent of it. It was completely unexpected — just one day and everything was gone and you’ve just got to deal with it and put out fires.
“It’s not a pleasant experience but it happens and you just have to keep going. It’s the same here at school. Who would’ve thought we’d be in a global pandemic but here we are and we have to keep going.”
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