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I’m a third generation Downlander (my parents and grandfather having attending school here) and so my family was very familiar with the culture and ethos of Downlands, which is one of the primary reasons we chose it as a school. During my years at Downlands I found it easy to make a number of friends across all levels and to be involved in many different aspects of the school. In fact, this became what I regard as one of the school’s most inviting aspects - it’s strong culture of inclusivity. Downlands provided me with a multitude of opportunities through co-curricular options such as netball, volleyball, and numerous other academically and community-aligned groups, as well as a network of people I am able to rely on. I look forward to moving on to Biomedical Science at university, but will always have fond memories of my years at Downlands. 

I have many fond memories of Downlands, though what I enjoyed most of all were the bonding opportunities during the Senior retreats. These allowed the Senior year level to know each other at a deeper level, and is one of the contributing factors to the great sense of community at Downlands. 

My favourite subject and teacher was definitely Biology with Mrs Weller. The content was always very interesting and compelled me to delve further into whichever field or topic we were studying at the time. Mrs Weller was a wonderful teacher, often going above and beyond to provide thorough resources on topics I was interested in or working on, and this is likely one of the factors which led me towards my desired career path of scientific research and medicine. 

One of my proudest academic achievements would have to be Dux of the College. I was really happy to earn that award, especially because there were so many other talented students in our year level. It required a lot of hard work and a few sleepless nights studying but it was really worth it to find what I’m capable of when I put my mind to something. 

I played both netball and volleyball in my younger years at Downlands and was in the Belles Firsts Volleyball team for my Senior years. In Year 11, the boys and girls firsts teams were lucky enough to play in a national volleyball competition in Melbourne. This was a great opportunity to test and improve our skills as a team, as well as get to know one another better through living and commuting together for the week. In Year 12, I received the Volleyball Girls Team Leadership Award. I was also involved in several community groups within the school including DIVAS and the Jules Social Justice group; and volunteered in many other roles within the College including as a Year 7/8 buddy, an Open Day tour guide, a dinner service team leader, a school social supervisor, and a senior ‘clown’ for the Junior School Tradition and Spirit Day.

There are two messages in particular which have resonated with me. These are “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world”, and “In the middle of difficulty, lies opportunity.” Albert Einstein, widely recognized as one of the greatest minds of all time, said both. To me, the implication of the first is that in order to make true progression in any field, one needs to have a creative vision – a unique way to approach challenges and to test new ideas. The sophisticated medical technologies we have today would have been incomprehensible to those who lived hundreds of years ago. We have reached this point due to the creative vision and dedicated work of many gifted people. The latter message has encouraged me to view the inevitable challenges sure to arise in any course of work not as setbacks, but as opportunities to work on unique solutions through the application of critical and abstract thinking, thereby encouraging a more thorough contemplation of the task at hand from a multitude of angles, serving - when paired with the proper drive - to inevitably improve the end results.

My advice for Senior students is to remember that although there is a lot of work to focus on in Senior school, not to let themselves get too stressed about it, but to enjoy their final years and to explore as many opportunities as they can. 

Since graduating I have been accepted into a Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences at USQ, and will be completing this as an undergraduate course before hopefully sitting the Gamsat and going into medicine.

I hope to eventually work as a rural doctor and perhaps incorporate medical research into my career.