Damascus College year 10 student Mia Lepair will start her VCE next year with an advantage over her peers after being selected in to the University of Melbourne's Kwong Lee Dow Young Scholars Program (Class of 2021).
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And it puts her a step closer to achieving her dream of studying medicine and doing overseas aid work.
"I want to become a doctor and maybe work overseas in the future ... in a community that doesn't really have access to good medical equipment and facilities," she said.
"I really enjoy doing science and maths so medicine would be a good idea, and it's only more recently I've been thinking more about humanitarian work."
Mia found out via email on Tuesday night that she had been accepted in to the prestigious program.
The Kwong Lee Dow Scholars Program is an academic enrichment program to support high achieving year 11 and 12 students throughout their VCE years.
It offers access to the University of Melbourne library, events including VCE revision lectures, personal development workshops and overnight stays on campus, a guaranteed place in a University of Melbourne undergraduate degree at a slightly reduced ATAR requirement, the opportunity of an overseas scholarship, help with relocation costs and extra student support.
More than 1700 students from across Victoria applied to be part of the scholars program.
"It will help give me lots of resources so I can make the most of my time at Damascus and get the best possible score I can," Mia said.
"The scholarship program will give me more resources, I can stay down in Melbourne during summer holidays and do classes to help me with VCE next year, and there's financial aid to move down to Melbourne if I study there after year 12," she said.
In addition to academic life, the program also takes in to account the extra curricular activities and community work of applicants to ensure they are well-rounded individuals.
"I'm a keen runner - I do athletics and cross country so I train a lot for that, but I volunteer on Friday nights at Buninyong Little Athletics as an age group manager, taking kids through their events and making sure they have fun while doing it," she said.
And all that is balanced out with a summer job picking blueberries at Buninyong Blueberry Farm.
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