Acceptance speech
2020 College Dux
I feel truly lucky to be the Dux of my 2020 class and I would like to thank the College for this
experience; it is a genuine honour to accept this award.
However, the honour is not all mine; this is something which I could not possibly have achieved
without a lot of support. While the Dux award acknowledges the efforts of the recipient, I believe it
is also a significant reflection of all the hard work that those around me — specifically my family
and teachers — have invested in the outcome of my primary and secondary educations.
Therefore, I must acknowledge and thank my family for the actions they have taken and sacrifices
they have made to get me to this point. So, thank you for affording me the privilege of a private
education, and for providing me with the many resources I used during my schooling. Thank you
for equipping me with a mindset fit for learning and thank you for accepting and promoting the
decisions I made in taking my schooling unusually seriously. I do feel very very lucky for the efforts
of my family.
Whilst I cannot say I enjoyed every lesson and assignment of senior school, I am lucky in that the
academic learning environment is where I feel most comfortable. And my acute desire to gain
knowledge and understanding has served as a motivator for me to engage ardently in the learning
process. I believed during my last years of school, if I was to get the most out of the opportunity to
learn, I would have to be prepared to be challenged. As a student I fully expected to not always
feel comfortable or pleased with the work my teachers required of me. My wish to achieve highly at
school was founded on a true desire to learn, even if that meant being academically and mentally
challenged.
That being said, I do not reflect back on my Year 12 self and see a well organised, diligent student
nor an overly clever student - the two stereotypes we might often assign to those in my position.
But what I lack in innate intellect or diligence or self-discipline, I make up for with my mild yet
persistent fear of failure — it follows that the one overarching character trait which I can largely
thank for this accomplishment would have to be perfectionism. Along with my previously mentioned
enthusiasm to gain understanding, perfectionism fueled the hard work I displayed last year.
However, it’s worth noting, that perfectionism may sometimes have hindered my work ethic as well.
And if you're anything like me, you should be very mindful not to waste your time overdoing work or
procrastinating from doing it at all, for want of a perfect final piece.
At this point, I should thank my Year 12 teachers for guiding me through this learning process. I
feel lucky to have had the teachers I had and I’m grateful for their patience and lenience, and the
trust my teachers had in me as an independent learner. And I will not forget their dedication
towards assisting me to get the most out of their classes. Nor will I forget the interest and
understanding they showed for my well-being throughout the year because as I mentioned,
perfectionism is sometimes more destructive than constructive. I’m thankful I had the support of
both my teachers and my parents when my confidence wavered. I can tell you honestly that the
effect of the unfailing compassion of others is something I will remember most about my Year 12
experience.
I am also thankful for the motivation I found in my peers, I was continually inspired by their work
ethic, especially since they, unlike myself balanced their time between school and a job amongst
other things. And I often found myself in awe of the quality and up-to-dateness of their work, I have
no doubt that they tackle the issue of procrastination with more determination than myself. I do
believe they are better examples than myself of what can be achieved when you apply not only
your brains, but also your persistence and integrity to your schoolwork. In particular, I learnt from
Jackson that there is no substitute for formative work, and I advise all the students here today to
not let yourself fall behind on your formative work — your assignments are not everything. You will
be grateful for your previous efforts when tests and exams come around.
It is also important to acknowledge that different students wish for themselves different outcomes
from their schooling. And that to be Dux is just one of many different accomplishments that
students can achieve from their secondary education. For myself, investing in purely academic
achievement is somewhat reasonable as I see the academic world as a significant part of my close
future, my more distant career, and my personal identity. Contrastingly some of my peers were well
underway in their careers before we graduated and it is reasonable to consider their learning
outcome to be one of significantly more accomplishment than that of the Dux.
This time last year, when I was just starting Year 12, I had some idea of the knowledge and
understanding I would learn during the year. However, what I had not given a single thought about
was how much I would learn about myself!
And if I could go back and give myself some advice, I would tell myself to be prepared to make
mistakes and to be resilient, not regretful when facing them. And, from a more practical standpoint
I would warn myself about how very important it is to frequently revise what I have learnt and to not
just focus on using my strengths, but also on practicing at my weaknesses.
Finally, I would like to shed some light on an observation of mine, which despite being very
obvious, I often forgot about. And I think that if I had remembered it more often I would have surely
been better off. The observation – which I should warn you not to take out of context – is that going
to school is fundamentally about learning information – it is not all about assessments and grades
– and I truly believe that having the opportunity to inherit and if we’re very lucky - build upon - the
body of understandings that we as a collection of people have about ourselves and our world is
astounding. And this thought, to me, makes school much less stressful and tiresome and more
interesting and exciting.
Thank you for having me.