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VCE Awards – 2023 Study Award Recipients

Saffi Campbell Walker:

When I'm in like that playing zone, it feels very relaxed and it feels like there's nothing else that I have to kind of think about, and it's really satisfying getting a certain passage correct.

Igby McLaverty:

I've always been interested in engineering for like as long as I can remember.

Yeah, I feel like I'm really continuing on with that dream, and like enacting on the stuff that was really important to me when I was little.

Saffi Campbell Walker:

I think having music as part of my Year 12 journey, it gave me sort of space to work on those other things separately, because I kind of felt like a kind of relief or a break from doing that chemistry and methods where I had to kind of use my brain in a very different way.

Learning about all the theory that you need for especially jazz music, I think definitely strengthens the neural pathways and everything to help with chemistry and things like that.

Igby McLaverty:

Templestowe has been such a great place for me to study. A big part of that comes down to the ability to do certain VCE subjects early.

I managed to finish three/four methods, which is normally a Year 12 subject, in Year 10.

Not everybody's ability level is tied to their age and TC’s such a great place to be accepted and work within, like your abilities.

I think it's really important to have teachers who are passionate about what they do and have students best interests at heart.

I think one of the most important things is enjoying learning and having teachers, which can inspire that in students I think is extremely important.

Saffi Campbell Walker:

Now I'm studying a Bachelor of Music majoring in jazz and Improvisation at VCA. I just want to try and get as good as I possibly can at playing music and see where it takes me.

Igby McLaverty:

Now I'm studying engineering at Monash. The underlying goal is to like, you know, try and just be the best that I can be. And I want to be on the edge of innovation and doing stuff.

So I think that's a real, a goal to strive for.

Saffi Campbell Walker:

It's my passion to do music after school because I just, I loved it so much while I was at school, and it gave me such a sense of like satisfaction learning new things in it and having the community around me and, I want to be a teacher, a music teacher, and I want to kind of be able to give that to other kids.

Probably the biggest thing of like working with other teachers that has inspired me to want to be an educator is just playing with them and seeing how far I can kind of go.

I don't know, I want to just show kids what they can do.

Igby McLaverty:

Being passionate about what you study is I think it's a real game changer.

The fact that I care about what I do and I want to succeed at it, it really helps, like push through the difficult parts of whatever you're doing and see the bigger picture and be like, yeah, if I can do this thing, I'll be I'll be living up to my own expectations and doing really well.

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