THE Limestone Coast’s highest Year 12 achiever Chloe Futcher hopes to become a live-saving hero, pursuing a future in the medical field.
St Martins Lutheran College, Grant High School and Mount Gambier High School also had high achievements during yesterday’s release of the Australian Tertiary Admission Rank results.
Yesterday’s release of the Year 12 South Australian Certificate of Education results revealed the Tension Woods College student had claimed top honours for the region, achieving an ATAR of 99.35.
In a coup for the teenager, she was also one of 28 students to receive a Governor of South Australia commendation award, with merits – or perfect scores – in English and her Research Project B.
Other outstanding college results included Joshua Edwards achieving 98.90, Brock Stevens with 97.70, Keely Jones with 96.85 and Luke Janssen with 96.05.
In addition to the 18 students receiving an ATAR above 90, a further 19 students gained an ATAR of greater than 80, totaling 37 students with 80 and above for the college.
Ms Futcher said she did not expect the outcome when checking the results with her parents at home in Millicent.
“I was actually having dreams of me not getting what I wanted not and just missing out not long ago,” Ms Futcher said.
“I was just saying to mum last night about imagining if I achieved something above a 99.
“It was just a wishful thing … when we found out we started jumping up and down and mum started crying so I think we were all pretty over the moon.”
Ms Futcher said her predicted ATAR score was 95.65 before exams, but she expected it to drop.
The high-achieving student said her first preference was to study medicine at Flinders University and her second was advanced health and medical science at the University of Adelaide.
“When I was in primary school, I actually hated science,” she said.
“I came to Tenison and had James Gilham in Year 8 who was amazing and did fun stuff which was probably not on the curriculum.
“After that, I began to develop a bit of interest for it and began to do really well.”
Ms Futcher said she completed Stage 2 Biology in Year 11 and received a merit.
“I thought it was something I was good at and maybe I should start considering careers in the medical field,” she said.
“I then thought about what I wanted in a job, which was to help people and to do something I enjoy.
“I also wanted to work in an industry which has a lot of growth and opportunity.”
College principal David Mezinec said Ms Futcher had worked hard and received the result she deserved at the highest level.
Mr Mezinec said he was delighted 15pc of the college’s Year 12 cohort was in the top 10pc of the state and 32pc in the state’s top 20pc.
“Such results are testimony to the efforts of students, staff and families, who have worked incredibly hard to achieve this success,” he said.
“The class of 2019 have worked solidly throughout the year and their results reflect their consistent hard work and application to their goals.
” I am also delighted these Year 12 students also played a significant role in building and leading our college community and were wonderfully well-rounded young people who left a significant impression on our school and local community.”
Ms Futcher said her main piece of advice she would pass on to future Year 12 students was to “not stress because it will all work out in the end”.
“The biggest thing for me, was having people and teachers I could always talk to and who really actually want to see me achieve.”
Ms Futcher said once she completed her studies, she would like to move back to a regional area.
“I do not want to live in the city forever and I really enjoy the small community and country living,” she said.
“I guess it just depends where my job takes me.”
