St Luke’s College celebrates star students

Karratha Catholic high school St Luke’s College acknowledged their stand-out students for 2018 at a school awards ceremony last week.

Students and their families joined teaching staff for the annual event on Wednesday, October 25 where Year 10, 11 and 12 students were recognised for high-achievement in academics, sports, cultural activities and community service.

The main stars of the ceremony were the 53 graduating students of the Year 12 Class of 2018, representing a 98 per cent graduation rate for the cohort.

The night’s main academic prize, for Dux, went to 18-year-old Varun Jahagirdar who achieved an impressive 24 A-grades throughout his Year 11 and 12 studies.

He said Year 12 had been a “challenging” year in which he’d had to work hard and make some sacrifices to focus on study, but he believed the end result had been worth it.

He also said next year he planned to study a Bachelor of Medical Science at Monash University in Melbourne (where his family is moving to), with the aim of becoming a doctor.

“In my classes I always try to help out my peers if they need it, and I always found it easy to help people, so I was choosing between becoming a teacher or a doctor,” he said.

“I thought those were the main professions where I could help people and that’s why I chose medicine.”

The runner-up dux or Proxime award was won by Priyanshu Malik.

In vocational educational and training, Ryan Loudon won the Year 12 Excellence in VET Award and Rebecca Gathmann Brandt took home Year 12 Achievement in VET.

Richard Shaw was named the year’s Best All-Rounder, Mitchell Greensill won the Principal’s Award and the Citizenship Award went to Christine Zaccheus.

Sativka Soppadandi won the Joy of Achievement Award and Navyaa Shukla received the Long Tan Leadership prize.

Principal Michael Williams said teachers expected the Year 12s to perform strongly in the upcoming ATAR exams, and described the cohort as a particularly close-knit group.

“Fifty-three students isn’t a huge cohort, but they’re very close, and they’re very supportive of each other, and even in the 12 months that I’ve known them they’ve come an awfully long way,” he said.

“They’re just a great bunch of kids. I’m going to miss them and I can only wish them all the very best for the future.”

Mr Williams also used the occasion to farewell St Luke’s, where he has been filling in for principal Alanna Otway.