“I am thrilled that these students have already gained entry to university,” said Principal Shauna Colnan, congratulating Sabine Taylor, Jayesh Wadvani, Christopher Lowe, Fadi Al Hatu, Abby Mahemoff and Nina.
“It’s recognition of their strong academic achievement and potential.
“They have shown initiative to gain these early entries in their chosen fields.”
Fadi and Christopher have achieved unconditional offers to Macquarie University to study Business and Psychology. Jayesh has achieved an unconditional offer to study Business, Analytics and Applied Finance at Macquarie, and Sabine, an unconditional offer for Arts Law at Macquarie, which requires an ATAR of 97.
Nina has been offered a place at The Australian National University (ANU) to study Arts and International Relations, while Abby has achieved entry into Notre Dame to study Nursing.
“More and more so now, students should take up the opportunity of university early access schemes,” said IGS Head of Research and Innovative Learning Jacqui Baker.
“Just having that assurance of a guaranteed place at university can take some of the stress out of these last important weeks leading up to the HSC exams.
“Congratulations to Nina, Abby, Fadi, Sabine, Jayesh and Christopher on their well-deserved achievements.”
‘Honoured and excited’
Abby said she was “very honoured and excited” to receive her “dream” offer, particularly after preparing for her application for so long.
“Notre Dame offered early entry streams for both academic achievement, and leadership and co-curricular participation, and I entered under both categories,” Abby said.
“I demonstrated that I have participated in many clubs inside of IGS, been a service leader, completed Duke of Ed bronze, and also maintained employment while balancing my studies at school and achieving marks that reflected my level of effort.
“I would absolutely encourage other students to apply for early entry. It can be a great reliever of anxiety for people to know they have a place at university, sometimes even before they sit their trial exams (like me).
“It really helped me keep everything in perspective, and I personally believe it has given me a chance to focus more on my studies than worrying about university acceptance at this crucial stage in Year 12.
“I have always wanted to be a nurse, for as long as I can remember. I feel really lucky that I will be getting to live out my dream, as this is something some people don’t have the opportunity to do.
“I have grown up knowing this, and so I have put myself in positions throughout the years to allow myself to gain opportunities and experiences that would help me in this way, from picking my subjects in Year 12, by participating in the first aid program in Year 10, and in other areas of my personal life.
“I will get to study in university a range of subjects that greatly interest me over the three-year degree, as well as practice the skills I have learnt in hospitals and other health facilities to gain practical experience.
“I am so excited to start, as I am super interested in all that I have seen the degree offers so far, and am so grateful for the opportunity.”
Grateful for ‘exceptional benefits’
A grateful Christopher Lowe said he was “extremely ecstatic about my offer in this Leaders and Achievers Program”.
“Not only has tremendous amounts of stress has been alleviated, allowing me to better concentrate on my last stretch of my HSC course, but also, I am filled with excitement, certainty and joy since I have been already been accepted into my first preference university course,” said Christopher, who added that being able to demonstrate leadership, ambition and persistence had been essential.
“The examples of my applications of leadership throughout my high school career, which I included within this my application included my leadership roles within the IGS SRC team, the Duke of Edinburgh Award Program, and the Sustainable Futures team.
“I would certainly encourage future IGS students to apply for such offer including the Macquarie Leaders and Achievers Early Entry Scheme, especially if students already have a vision, or idea on the direction they would like to pursue within their tertiary education.
“The benefits of these programs are exceptional.
“The aspects of the course of Bachelor of Business Administration with the degree of Bachelor of Psychology that I love most are the explorations of consumer and human behaviour within a business setting, in addition to management and business strategy.”