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Our OP1s – what are they doing now?

The Year 12 cohort of 2006 not only showed great leadership for the School during the year, but they capped off the year with brilliant academic results.

The School received its highest number ever (eight) of OP1s with two students winning the prestigious Lord Florey Student Prize. This was formerly known as the Australia Students Prize.

This distinguished prize is an Australian Government initiative designed to give national recognition to academic excellence and achievement in secondary education, particularly in senior secondary years. The prize comprises a certificate and a payment of $2000.

While the inaugural ASP winners were first announced in 1991 for the 1990 school year, the prize was renamed in January 2007 after the South Australian-born Howard Florey, a scientist who won a scholarship to study at Oxford University in England and later became a professor there.

His famous achievement was developing the medicine penicillin in the 1940s. Before that period many died of infection and it was his discovery that changed medical history. He was the first Australian to become the president of the Royal Society of Medicine and won a Nobel Prize for his work in 1945. He was named Lord Florey in 1965 by Queen Elizabeth II and has a suburb named after him in Canberra.

The Australian Government allocates $1 million each year for this prize and 500 prizes are distributed nationally each year after nomination by the State and Territory Ministers for Education.

To win one of these coveted prizes is an outstanding achievement in itself but for TSS to have two winners from the cohort of 2006 stands out in the high success of academics at the School.

The two winners of this coveted prizes from 2006 were Benjamin Rix and Andrew White, both of whom were outstanding scholars as well as talented in other areas of co-curricular within the GPS system.

It is with delight that we bring you details of these past students and what they are now doing in their chosen career direction.

Jonathan Lo

After four years of living in sunny Queensland OP1 student of 2006, Jonathan Lo has exchanged our warm climate for the crisp chills of Canberra – and loving every minute of it.

The former TSS Captain of Music and a talented pianist and saxophone player, Jonathan was one of 27 students from all States to win a scholarship to the Australian National University (ANU) to undertake a Bachelor of Philosophy, a researched-based program in English and History.

“I am finding university extremely interesting but ANU offers an excellent supervisory one-to-one program that is guiding me through the research and into Honours,” said Jonathan.

“I have just finished the first semester and am delighted to achieve averages of High Distinction in my assignments to date.

“What I am finding at ANU is that the focus is on less quantity and more time devoted to the supervisory aspect of guiding me through the university.”

A dayboy at TSS, Singaporean-born Jonathan (who became an Australian citizen two years ago) is hoping to take a fellowship in Asia, preferably Hong Kong, where he wants to lecture English to Asian students.

“I thoroughly enjoyed my time at TSS and have kept in touch with many of last year’s valedictorians,” added Jonathan who was a Warden in his final year at TSS and a member of the school’s very successful Big Band.

“TSS gave me many values and I developed many friendships through academics, music and playing football.

“The memories of TSS will stay with me forever and I loved living on the Gold Coast before moving to Canberra with my family where I live just 10 minutes away from the university.”

Robert Waugh

Combining studies for a double Law and Commerce degree while training for the National 29er sailing titles followed by the World Titles takes special commitment. But that is exactly what 2006 valedictorian and OP1 student Robert Waugh is achieving.

Robert was the recipient of a part scholarship to Bond University where he has already begun his second semester of studies (approximately 12-14 contact hours each week plus study) combined with his great love of sailing.

Studying and sailing completely fills each week for Robert who also has made time to coach TSS sailing in Term One and will be doing the same in Term Four.

“I am loving every minute of it,” said Robert who gave himself a head start to university by completing an English Extension subject at TSS to help fast track his studies.

Already this year he and fellow TSS valedictorian, Matt Wales have competed in the State Titles in their boat ‘Gross Misconduct’ in which they were placed fourth. Both Robert and Matt were Captains of Sailing during their final year at TSS.

Choosing to live at home because of his heavy schedule, Robert said TSS had really helped him prepare for university life.

Robert was a member of the first Reception class (pre-Year 1) and admits the 13 years at TSS have given him confidence to pursue both his career and sporting goals.

Because he has chosen to fast track his career at Bond (he will finish his double degree in 2010), Robert said he felt he had an edge in moving into the business world faster than would normally be the case.

And Robert is not alone. He said there were approximately 16 other fellow valedictorians at the university studying business or law.

Benjamin Rix

As previously stated Benjamin was a winner of the Lord Florey Student Prize and has chosen to study Law/Medicine at the University of Queensland.

Boarding at St John’s on the university campus, Benjamin said he loved university life and all that it had to offer and said he had no trouble integrating into the surroundings which are similar to TSS.

“TSS gave me tools to prepare me for university life so it was easy to settle into lectures as well as living away from home at St John’s College although I do try to come home on the weekends as we are a very close family,” said Benjamin.

Since starting university, Benjamin has already undertaken two science examinations where he has topped the class achieving 9.5 points from 10 in one exam and 10 from 10 in the other.

He has also sat the UMAT examination in an effort to short-cut his degree.

“What TSS gave me was the confidence to tackle any challenge and it was easy for me to comprehend the university system.

" At TSS, I studied physics, chemistry, Maths B, Modern History and Information Processing Technology."

" The added bonus is living at St John’s which has a similar feel to TSS.”

At TSS, Benjamin was the Dux Proxime Accessit, a regular member of the Dean’s List and also a strong member of the Debating Society and Music Department, played Touch Football as well as many other sports, a member of the Air Cadets and achieved his Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award in his final year at School. He was a student at TSS from 1995 and Prefect in 2006.

Tim Williamson

The transition from TSS to university has been an easy one for another OP1 student Tim Williamson who has been awarded a faculty scholarship to Bond University.

“I really wasn’t expecting to receive an OP1,” said Tim who is studying Commerce Law at Bond University.

" I find the lectures here excellent and am really enjoying university here on the Gold Coast."

“I have approximately 20 contact hours a week and have ample time to study. My brother also is studying Commerce Law at Bond University so we have a lot in common”.

While at TSS, Tim was lucky enough to go on exchange to Tahiti in 2003 and this helped him to be able to speak comfortably in French as the exchange demands students to speak the native language of the country.

A member of the Concert Band as well as the Navy Cadets, Tim played a number of sports while at TSS and remains in close contact with the friends he made at school.

Andrew White

Dux of TSS in 2006, Andrew White also was awarded a Lord Florey Student Prize for his excellence in academics. Like Benjamin, Andrew joined TSS in 1995 and for the final six year at School was dux of his class.

He is now studying Information Technology at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane and, like another 2006 Valedictorian, School Captain John Fox, has been admitted into the Dean’s Scholarship Program.

“University is very different to TSS in its structure but I have found the transition from school to university to be relatively easy because of the foundations laid at TSS,” said Andrew.

“In the final years of TSS, the focus was on self-motivation and this certainly has proven to be of assistance into assimilating into university life.”

Unlike Benjamin, Andrew prefers to commute from the Gold Coast to Brisbane and uses his time on the train to read over lectures.

He is undertaking a Bachelor of Information Technology majoring in security and software architecture.

At TSS he was a ‘regular’ on the Dean’s List and enjoyed numerous sporting activities such as sailing, basketball, cross country and soccer. Other co-curricular activities included strong participation in chess, the School’ Speech Variety Club and he gained a representative blazer for music.

A member of the School’s Navy Cadets, Andrew was a Warden in his final year at school and also enjoyed the experience of going on exchange to Tahiti in 2003.

John Fox

The School Captain of 2006, John Fox, also is studying at QUT in Brisbane where, like Andrew, he has admitted into the Dean’s Scholarship Program. Choosing to live in Brisbane near the university and returning home on weekends, John is studying Civil Engineering.

Under the Dean’s Scholarship Program he is hoping to complete an accelerated Bachelor degree and Masters within five years which will really begin next semester when his number of subjects is increased to achieve his goal.

At TSS, John showed he was capable of managing a multitude of tasks –academic, sport, co-curricular and pastoral.

Well remembered for his spirited and articulated Vote of Thanks given at each TSS Business Breakfast, John also rowed for the School in the GPS premiership crew, achieve his Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award, played trumpet in the highly talented Big Band and Orchestra, participated in the School’s play and House play, was a member of the Army Cadets, played AFL football and golf and so the list goes on.

“After a couple of weeks, I found it easy to fit into university life but have to admit I had to adjust my budgeting,” said John.

“For the first couple of weeks, I found there was very little food left in the fridge by about Wednesday but it didn’t take me long to realise that budgeting is all important when it comes to living and fending for yourself.
“I also have to admit that my cooking is not what you would call cordon bleu – very basic in fact – but I’m working on that as well.

“Going home on the weekends makes me really enjoy home cooking!”

“One of the very real positives that TSS set for me and has really assisted me at university is time management. At TSS, we were taught to manage our time and that has really flowed through to university.”

Mohit Tolani

The seven years of study ahead doesn’t seem to faze Mohit who is enrolled in the University of Sydney’s Bachelor of Medical Science degree.

After leaving TSS with an OP1 under his belt, Mohit moved to Sydney with his family and said he is absolutely loving university life.

“University life has given me a good chance to meet with a broad spectrum of people and the foundations laid at TSS have given me the confidence to venture into university life,” said Mohit.

“It only takes me 10 minutes by train to get to university and since starting my studies I have completed three assignments and scored 100 per cent in all three.

“I thoroughly enjoyed my time at TSS as it allowed me to build strong relationships with adults, teachers and parents and this, in turn, has made it easy for me to meet and make new friends at university.”

Mohit, who was a member of the School’s Round Square committee for three years (fulfilling positions chairman and captain), a Warden and Amnesty International co-ordinator, also enjoyed drama and sports at TSS and, upon his graduation, was awarded the Ivy Margaret Williamson Scholarship to study at university.

It is Mohit’s goal to achieve a medical science scholarship at university and enjoy a long career in medical science.

 

Page last modified 14-Aug-2007