Current students achieving outside the square

Fern & Mary get out of their comfort zones…

Year 10 student, Fernanda Lopez Garza, is preparing to swim the English Channel in September, unaided and without a cage. Fern trains in Port Phillip Bay six days a week without a wetsuit, swimming for approximately ninety minutes at a time. The English Channel swim will take approximately fifteen hours to complete.

Fern has loved swimming since starting long distance, ocean swimming with the local lifesaving club when she was nine. The longest distance I've swum is 25 kilometres in Tasmania, with water temperature of 14 degrees: that took around six hours. That has been the toughest swim I've done, mentally and physically. It’s an awesome experience - at times you feel like quitting so you just have to stay positive. During winter, the temperature of Port Phillip Bay drops – it’s currently 12 degrees -so it’s dangerous to have longer swims than two hours due to the high chance of hypothermia. The English Channel is considered the Mount Everest of swimming. It’s known for its cold waters, unexpected rough conditions, jellyfish and distance, plus it’s an extremely busy shipping lane. I wanted to experience something that not many young women will ever experience! The support Fern receives from her family is “unbelievable”: They organise fundraisers for the swim (it’s a costly swim), drive me to training at 4.00am and encourage me when I need motivation the most. I could not ask for a better support crew to travel with me to England. Balancing school work and swim training is exhausting for Fern: waking up early to train and studying late is tough. Star is 100% on board with what I am trying to achieve. It’s a very positive, encouraging community. The reason I want to swim the English Channel is because I want to motivate people to achieve their goals, to get out there in the world and give it their 100%. I also want to raise the profile of open water swimming as it’s sometimes hidden within sports.

On 23 May, Year 12 student and debater, Mary Ingram, won the final round of the Ainger Public Speaking Award. Mary delivered a speech advocating sex education in schools with remarkable calm and a great deal of courage in front of an audience of mostly matureaged Rotary members.

Mary was a great ambassador for Star and inspired conversations with other students around the room. She recently gave her speech to a Year 10 English class and they

Above: Mary with competing students. Right: Mary with Star debating coordinator, Marcia Rupprecht.

loved it: no-one guessed she was nervous. She was so frank and confrontingly honest, as well as dynamic and highly engaging. We felt like she was talking to us as a friend. This is another milestone for Mary who also excels in music education.