“Perseverance is stubbornness with a purpose”

This quote represents me in the way that I believe that the way to achieve and accomplish things is buy persevering with them and to keep trying as nothing good comes easy, the best accomplishments need to be worked for.

I am currently a year 11 student at All Saints College and have been at the school since year 7. I am currently studying maths, English, psychology, design and politics and law. I have thoroughly enjoyed my years at the school, getting to know new people and broadening my skills by participating in numerous opportunities offered by the school. Throughout my time at the college I have made many valuable and life long friendships, I have undertaken leadership positions such as being involved in the Forrest house council, being an Anglicare Ambassador and have involved myself in many co-curricular options, sporting opportunities, volunteering and service roles.

I feel very strongly about helping those that are less fortunate and struggling such as people living with homelessness. As someone that feels strongly about this issue I have participated and organised service events to do what I can to help in any way. This includes attending the Anglicare sleepout, organising a ‘Crazy Sock Day’ to raise money for the Salvation Army, volunteering to help at the Salvation Army as I was an Anglicare ambassador and leading a fundraiser where myself and 3 other students collected hygiene items to make ‘Blessing Bags’ for the Salvation Army to deliver to people living with homelessness. The Anglicare sleepout is an event where students from many different schools go to Optus Stadium to sleepout for a night and participate in activities to learn how frustrating and challenging it is for those who are living with homelessness and to raise money for Anglicare, an organisation that aims to help people living with homelessness. Participating in this really opened my eyes into how hard it is to live like this and made me realise just how lucky and fortunate I am to have access to the resources I have and the opportunities that I am given. ‘Crazy Sock Day’ was a fundraiser that myself and a couple other students had the idea to organise so that we could raise money for The Salvation Army. This event was when students were able to wear crazy socks to school for a day and bring a gold coin donation. We ended up raising over $500 that we were able to donate to the Salvation Army to help them in being able to assist those living with homelessness. When volunteering at the Salvation Army I would go to the headquarters in the city early in the morning and help open the café which provides food and drinks for those living with homelessness. The hygiene pack fundraiser was an event where I came up with an idea to create hygiene packs and collect hygiene items and create packs that we are able to give to the Salvation Army so they are able to hand them out to people living with homelessness. This event was a huge success and we ended up including the year 2 students in the project and made and organised all the items into the packs which meant we were able to create friendships with the younger years and get to know them a bit better through this project.

I have volunteered for many events and organisations throughout my time in high school. This included volunteering for the Disabled Surfing Association, coaching the NetSetGO at All Saints, Coaching a year 6 team at Tingara Netball Club and also coaching and umpiring inter-house sport teams when I am needed. Volunteering for DSA was an extremely beneficial opportunity because it made me feel proud when watching the participants gain confidence as they progressed and got better at surfing. I feel very grateful that I was able to be apart of helping these people and helping them get better at surfing which made them very happy.

When I am not at school I enjoy being active and hanging out with friends and family. I play netball for Tingara netball club and basketball for All Saints College. I enjoy playing sports as I believe staying active is beneficial for your wellbeing and also has provided me with many opportunities to meet new people and new valuable friendships.