Academic Assembly

from Verity - May 2023 - Issue 46

Alumni Updates

On 17 February we held our Academic Assembly to recognise and celebrate the outstanding achievements and hard work of the Class of 2022. The VCE Academic Honour Awards and Academic Excellence Awards were presented for each subject, and we heard from our Class of 2022 VCE, College Dux, Hannah Ollerenshaw:

Despite always being a dream of mine to be College Dux, I am equal parts terrified and grateful to be presenting a speech in front of a community I am no longer a part of in my day-to-day life. Most of all, I feel disbelief; to be part of the ranks of past duxes who I looked up to for so long, and realise that I am in their midst, despite an anxious, unorganised year that I am convinced is so unlike the final years of past duxes. Their speeches always impressed a superiority and intelligence on me, but now I am convinced, that their successes were only ever a single part of their high school experience, the sole facet of their academic life that they can share in their own speeches, rarely the tears and the disappointment.

Because I’ve been there too; for me, it was desperately living up to others’ expectations of me. It dictated my response to my academics to an overwhelming degree. Feeling from others that maybe I should be disappointed in my study score when I was already somewhat doubting myself, being embarrassed to share my results for certain subjects because I know they had predicted higher and hearing from someone close that anything below a 99 ATAR was a result of a lack of effort. All these comments, big and small, led me to believe that I didn’t deserve the high ATAR I got, but simultaneously and ironically, that I should have done better than what I did.

Let’s not kid ourselves; I had high expectations of myself. This isn’t solely the result of the expectations of others, but something I wished to prove for my own sake. But it became so easy for me to achieve at school when I knew others, more than myself, were proud of what I had done. I even imitated the ATAR one of my friends wished to achieve when I saw it at her house written on a sticky note, embarrassing though it is to admit. And as funny as it is to look back on, the night before the results day the only thing I hoped for was to achieve her expected ATAR; I had never set a number for myself.

Going into Year 12 demands many things of ourselves, and I hate to add to the heavy burdens that VCE already places on so many students simply to go to a certain university, get a certain job. For most VCE students, it may be getting the guaranteed ATAR that is the end goal; for some, it is to push their academic bounds, see what it is possible to achieve. Before having your goals and aims distorted by the people around you, consider, the next test, the next SAC, the next assignment, what do you actually want to achieve? Is this number above 95? Above 80? A pass? Considering I cried after the Methods exam when I went onto the VCE Discussion Space and saw suggested answers, avoiding too much talk about exams and SACs, when it is in the past and unchangeable, is something I recommend for all. Staying on the Discussion Space just for the GAT memes and not during exam time or reconsidering if you really need Simon average on your laptop is a good place to begin if you feel overwhelmed. And perhaps the hardest part, discovering how best you work before Year 12 is something I readily push, even though I was scrambling to figure this out myself at the end of Term 3. Pushing ahead in completing Methods chapters, such that I could start practice exams in Term 2, allowed me to stay afloat in Specialised Maths, while committing to one essay a day during SWOTVAC for English Literature allowed me to utilise feedback without forgetting it, and without feeling overwhelmed. Perhaps unconventional, and even useless for some students, but I believe it is infinitely better than feeling suffocated by generic study plans when that is simply not beneficial for you. And when I say push ahead or discover before Year 12, I don’t mean pushing ahead in Year 7 Humanities, or trying out the Pomodoro Method for one test in Year 9, but simply to be open to ideas, and not to bury oneself and waste time worried about what should be done, but rather what works best for you.

And what kind of a Dux speech would this be if I didn’t address making memories in high school. Treasuring memories is a concept most readily pushed, and it is paradoxical to say the least; I had no desire to remember any of my Year 12, mostly because it was spent worrying about my exams and ATAR, yet graduating made me realise how little I had retained of it. Every Dux has come through and said similar words, as have most of my teachers, and I will reiterate once more, just how important it is to treasure such moments, big and small.

Like Ms Wheaton running out of the Spec classroom in a fire drill, leading my classmates and I, screaming, down the science corridor and terrifying the Year 7s. Or Mr Smith bringing balloons and raw onions into class, and telling me my sentences are too long, advice I very clearly haven’t taken on. Or the debates that broke out about which Plath poem is best, although I will die before admitting the “Arrival of the Bee Box” is a good poem. Purposefully asking Mr Stowe questions about black holes to stall him about complicated physics, especially when it concerned thought experiments and special relativity, two concepts I still don’t understand. And of course, my friends ordering pizza in the last week of school and eating piping hot garlic bread and meat lovers on the floor while teachers walked through and thought it best not to ask what we were doing.

I wish I had greater wisdom to impart, but ultimately, I am a student like all the students that stand before me. It feels hypocritical to admit, but much of what I have shared as past tense persists even now; turning 18, graduating and my ATAR, has not enlightened me enough on how to express self-worth, be an individual, and seek goals that reflect only the self, although I can tell you all about antidifferentiation and ecocriticism as a literary theory. Even as I wrote this speech, and sat on my bed with multiple Verity magazines strewn before me, I was asking myself “is my speech like theirs?” “Is this too cliche? Too repetitive?” and most importantly “what does that word mean?” Standing up here, I am still confused. It feels wrong to give advice when I myself am uncertain, still a teenager with my whole life ahead of me, just like all the students that sit before me. If it helps, I only discovered a week ago how to use an induction stove.

I am acutely aware that this speech doesn’t feel like a Dux speech at all. I stand up and admit to crying, being overdramatic and being oversensitive, and all the while give you only three pieces of advice. But it is my hope to not overwhelm you, especially Year 12s; 10 hours of sleep daily, consistent exercise and socialising, a perfect study routine, all while cramming 48 hours of homework into three hours; it’s not possible in the stress of Year 12, and it only adds pressure when you convince yourself, like I did, that every Dux before you has done that, when 9 times out of 10 they have not. I can assure you that they have felt that same stress and worry, and felt unorganised and disappointed, even cried in front of teachers, like I did three times in front of Mrs McNamara because I can’t write politics essays.

To the class of Year 12; best of luck. But most of all, go easy on yourself and know that hard effort and persistence will do greater wonders for you than listening to any Dux speech, or perfecting a pastelcoloured study timetable. And to all students; you are your own being, let no other person determine what you want to do, in academics and in all other aspects of life.

An overwhelming thank you to my parents, who did everything possible and more for me all my schooling; if I have a complaint, it is that you chose to renovate the dining room and kitchen during SWOTVAC, and despite sacrificing my usual study space for this renovation, the room is, yes in February, still unfinished. But thank you.

My siblings: my older brother for answering all physics related questions and to my sister, providing encouragement always. Thank you.

My friends: for providing endless entertainment and comfort in the corner of my Year 12 mentor room, taking turns in front of the heater so as not to freeze. Thank you.

The Dux of 2021, Mia Mulheron: an unlikely friendship formed at the 2021 Academic Assembly. For your help with Spec questions, Methods-related tears, and life in general. And of course, for editing this speech. Thank you.

To all Loreto teachers and staff, regardless of if or when or what you taught, as a full-time or substitute teacher; whether you minutely or significantly changed me, you have allowed me to stand here and you have nonetheless made an impact, for which I am grateful. Thank you.