The News has sat down with Shepparton’s high school leadership cohort to hear from the young future leaders in our region.
This week, we spoke to Shepparton Christian College’s 2024 school captains, Krystal Oelfke and Ben McGowan.
Krystal Oelfke
Krystal was hesitant to apply for captaincy and was happy with her role as house captain.
“I was house captain two years in a row, and I was happy just to run for it again and just do the same thing,” she said.
After being encouraged by those around her, she put up her hand to be a school captain.
When she got the call, she said she didn’t believe it, but now she had settled into her role and was ready to take on the responsibility.
“I want to make sure people remember our year level because we made school fun,” she said.
Outside her role as school captain, Krystal is preparing to immerse herself in her studies, taking English, general maths, physical education and art.
Krystal is keeping her options open for next year, considering a Navy gap year, but for now, she’s focused on getting through 2024.
When not at school, Krystal enjoys being a leader at her youth group and spends her weekends at her part-time job.
Ben McGowan
Ben has had plans to apply for school captaincy for years, so when it was finally his turn, he jumped at the opportunity.
“For a very long time, I’ve looked up to the school captains, and it was something that I wanted to do,” he said.
“I want to have a positive impact on the school in the community around it.”
This isn’t his first go at leadership, being captain of his football team and being a leader in his church group.
Now that he holds his badge of captaincy, he’s ready to make his mark.
“I want to create a really positive culture in the school,” he said.
“Coming out of COVID, I feel like there’s a lot more that we can do to bring up the culture, and we’ve got a few projects to help that, in the works, which are really exciting.”
His studies consist largely of STEM subjects, and his interest in maths and physics will continue after graduation as he hopes to go into civil engineering.
Outside school, Ben can be found enjoying his three main interests.
“Music, cars and sport,” he said.
Both captains have plans to focus their energy on ensuring every year level feels comfortable within the school by hosting school-wide events and cultivating friendships with the younger students.