Class act

THE 2024 academic year has concluded with celebrations as the top-performing students from Marian College and Ararat College were recognised for their outstanding achievements.

Will Edgar secured the title of Dux at Marian College with an impressive ATAR of 93.75.

Reflecting on his achievement, Will expressed confidence in his abilities despite tackling challenging subjects like English, Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematical Methods.

“I knew I could do it. I had done well before,” said Will.

Despite top marks Will plans to take a gap year to work locally on farms but has his sights set on studying engineering in the future.

Marian College also acknowledged the exceptional efforts of students Lauchie Cranstoun scoring 93.15, Chloe Moloney scoring 92.7 and Tayji Thandi scoring 91.3.

Chloe told the Advocate she plans to undertake further studies in 2025.

“I hope to go straight to uni next year. I want to get into a double degree of law and biomedicine. I wasn’t sure whether to pursue law or medicine, so I decided to do both.”

Tayji credited his unorthodox exam preparation strategy for his success this year.

“I’m not someone who can multitask, so I just focused on one subject at a time and forgot about the others.”

Acting Principal Matthew Summers said the students should be proud of their impressive scores.

“Getting above 90 is an incredible effort, and they need to be congratulated.”

Marian College’s achievements are bolstered by being recognised as The Age’s 2024 Schools That Excel winner for non-government schools in rural and regional Victoria.

“It shows what we do at the school is working and that we are heading in the right direction,” said Matthew.

At Ararat College, Milly Keilar claimed the school’s top honour with an ATAR of 84.4.

Milly was delighted with her results, achieving her goal of scoring above 80 despite significant challenges during the year.

“I was pretty happy with it. I was hoping for above an 80, and that’s what I got, so I was pretty happy, I’m hoping to go straight into uni. I love learning,” she said.

Milly’s future aspirations include becoming a paramedic, and she plans to study at La Trobe University in Bendigo.

“The course I want to get is at Latrobe Bendigo. It’s just a bit rural and so it feels like home.”

Overcoming health struggles during exams, Milly didn’t let anything stop her.

“I had a pretty rough time. I missed one of my maths exams and got a derived score for that. I was quite ill for about three months. But I got all of them done, and I was truly just happy with myself that I managed to get them all done.”

Milly credits her parents for their support during the exam period.

“My parents had said not to worry if my scores weren’t high, but I was still pretty confident in myself.”

Both schools celebrated their students’ hard work, resilience, and bright futures as they prepare to embark on new chapters in their lives.