A group of Kelmscott Senior High School students who did strongly at a major academic competition said they wanted to go further to take on some of the best international students.
Students Monique Nelson, Gemma Tueno, Taylor Boelema and Tara Brown are members of the school’s Gifted and Talented Secondary Selective Entrance Program.
They competed in the World Scholar’s Cup in June and fared admirably against some of the best schools in Perth and around the world.
Fourteen-year-old Monique finished the Perth competition as top debater in the juniors.
“You learn lots of skills that will help you with your careers further down the track,” she said.
“It’s also a competition that shows you’ll be rewarded for effort.
“If you put more effort in you’re more likely to gain awards, which is a good thing to learn for the future.
“You’ll gain more back the more effort you put in.”
Monique beat students from schools including Iona Presentation College, Sacred Heart College and Presbyterian Ladies College.
All students had to compete in debating and creative writing, a team exercise and a test on information they learnt prior to the event.
The challenges were wide ranging and Taylor, 14, performed on the piano to a Katy Perry song.
“We got a lot of experience,” she said.
“It helped us work as a team, usually it’s just yelling at each other but after the competition we were closer and couldn’t yell at each other anymore.”
Year 10 students Gemma and Tara travelled to Hanoi at the end of June for the competition and although they had to leave before the closing ceremony had finished, they said they had enjoyed every minute of it.
The pair received medals for their achievements and Tara said she had hopes of returning again.
“I would like to become one of the staff or as part of one of the teams that works there or help volunteer in future rounds,” she said.
“All of the topics are interesting: conspiracy theories and myths were in this year’s curriculum.”
The girls said they wanted to compete in the next competition at Yale University in the US but the school would need to find the capital to fund it if they could.
The girls floated the idea of fundraising for the event.
“Maybe if we win Lotto,” Taylor said.
