BROADFORD Secondary College students Kira Roberts and Mali Mountney will extend themselves in their final year of schooling by taking on an ‘eye-opening’ course via La Trobe University.
The human bioscience course is part of an Achieve Plus Program at La Trobe University with only a small number of year 12s across the state being eligible to participate.
Partaking in the course will mean Kira and Mali both have a place at La Trobe University, their university of choice, when they decide to begin their journey.
The health-orientated course will guide the students into their university studies, which for Kira means a double-degree in midwifery and resident care, and for Mali paramedicine.
“We got accepted into a LaTrobe course to take place as one of our year 12 classes this year. [They’re] two-hour workshops and two-hour lectures, and we have to [complete] 10 hours a week to complete the classes,” Kira said.
Mali said the students had to allocate time to complete the course work, starting this week, on top of their already busy year 12 schedule.
“We had to allocate our own times to complete the workshops or lectures, but the lectures are pre-recorded so we just listen to those when we get the chance,” she said.
“The workshops are the more interactive side to the course, so we’ve had to allocate two hours after school each week to complete that.
“One of our teachers, he was our careers teacher at the time last year, he mentioned they were doing a first-year university subject, to go towards our fifth or sixth subject. He said, ‘I think you’ll be capable of completing it and it would be a good bridge into university’.”
Both students said they weren’t feeling stressed, and planned to do their best.
“I’m not stressed, but I’m nervous we’ll develop stress once it starts, year 12 already has been a lot of work and you don’t know what to expect. I’ve never done a university course before, so it’s sort of just working it out for the first time,” Mali said.
Principal Tania Pearson said she was proud of the students, and their acceptance into the course ‘spoke for itself’ in terms of their work ethic.
