By Taylah Eastwell
Top-scoring pupils from Belgrave’s Mater Christi College have been recognised alongside the state’s best performing Year 12 students in the Premier’s VCE awards.
Class of 2020 students Lucy Fenton and Lillie Park Jenkenson were recently congratulated by Member for Monbulk James Merlino for their outstanding achievements in their studies.
Lucy received an award for obtaining the perfect score, 50, in her final exam for Outdoor and Environmental Science.
Lillie was recognised with an award for also scoring 50 in History Revolutions.
Speaking to the Star Mail, Lucy said “it was an honour to reach that sort of level and be recognised by the Acting Premier, which was amazing”.
“I always had a big passion for the subject, it was just my area and I had an amazing teacher that just supported all of us really well. I really loved it so I tried really hard and it paid off,” Lucy said.
Lucy has since moved to sunny Queensland where she is completing a Bachelor of Science majoring in Marine and Wildlife Biology at Griffith University.
Lillie agreed, saying it was “nice to be recognised for the hard work after doing Year 12 in such a hard year” of lockdowns and remote learning last year.
“It was definitely a hard year to do Year 12 in so it was nice to be recognised. We did most of last year from home, but in a way I think it was OK because the only thing I could really do was school,” Lillie said.
Getting the perfect score was easy for Lillie given history was her favourite subject.
“I liked the assignments we had that were essays. It’s always so interesting to learn about, you often see history being repeated, even to this day. We learn from mistakes of the past and I found it so interesting to see how revolutions back then are similar to things still happening today,” Lillie said.
Lillie now studies a Bachelor of Arts at Melbourne University, and while she hopes to major in International Politics, she has enrolled in a history elective.
A total of 297 Victorian students received 323 awards across 90 subjects, including 297 Study Awards, 23 Top All-Round VCE High Achiever Awards and three Top International Student Awards.
The Top All-Round VCE High Achiever awards recognise those students who achieved study scores of 46 or higher out of 50 in at least five VCE subjects, while Study Awards recognise the best performers in individual VCE subjects.
Mr Merlino extended “a massive congratulations” to all top-performing students, recognising that they each “worked incredibly hard to achieve these amazing results”.
“I congratulate the students from Mater Christi on these fantastic achievements. The success of these students is a credit to not only their hard work and abilities, but also to the support of their families, friends and school community.”
“These award winners are a testament to how well Victorian students, teachers and school communities adapted to the challenges of a global pandemic, and still produced outstanding results.”
“I hope you are all so proud of your achievements,” Mr Merlino said.
