If all goes according to plan Australia’s next top teacher and composer have just taken their first steps into a dream carer.
Benalla P-12 College’s Dux for 2022 is Harrison Drury and closely placed runner-up is Georgia Nichols.
While both are planning very different futures they have a shared delight of being named the top two students in their year.
Harrison said he had been quite relaxed waiting for results to be released, but a comment from his mum had him up at 6am checking emails.
“As I was going to bed last night I was trying not to think about it and my mum said ‘are you excited for the results?’,” Harrison said.
“I was pleased with my result and very happy to find out I got Dux.”
Georgia said she had been nervous, but somehow managed to sleep in on Monday, when results were released.
“The week leading up to it, any time I thought about it it would hit me,” she said.
“Then I’d manage to forget about it, then it would hit me again.
“It was good to get my results. But it was a bit shocking to see it there, your last 13 years summed up in a number.”
Georgia said when she saw the result she did not expect to be one of the top two performing students in the year.
“I was a bit like Harrison in that it wasn’t as high as I’d hoped,” she said.
“When I found out I was runner-up I thought, well, I guess I can’t be that sad.”
Harrison said he hoped to get accepted onto a double degree of engineering and science at Monash University.
“Otherwise I’ll just do a single degree,” he said.
“I haven’t really picked a profession yet, but I figure science and maths is where I’m at.
“If I work in that playing field I’ll get somewhere. Ideally I’ll go into a profession I really want to do, and I’ll find out eventually what that is.
“And then hopefully a few years down the track I can start teaching. That is where I want to get to, but I want some experience in the field I end up teaching in first.”
Georgia said she would also be headed to Melbourne.
“I’m a musician and I got into early entry for a Bachelor of Composition and Production at the Australian Institute of music,” she said.
"My aim is to hopefully become an orchestral composer.“
Both said their advice for next year’s Year 12 students was to not be overwhelmed, and that it was not as bad as you might think.
“Year 12 is not as hard as people make it out to be, as long as you do the work,” Harrison said.
“I know when I came to Year 12 and my first experience of physics I thought ‘Oh my God’.
“But after you do the work on the Monday and you just need to revise for the rest of the week it is doable.
“Just do the work, and turn up, listen and put your phone in your locker.”
Acting principal Kylie Cotter said she was impressed by every student for their work in Year 12.
“I am so extremely proud of all our Year 12s,” Ms Cotter said.
“They’ve done an amazing job after coming out of a few difficult years.
“This is my first year at Benalla and I think they are all a credit to the school and are really wonderful human beings.”
Harrison and Georgia thanked their teachers for making the year enjoyable and helping them get to where they wanted to be.