Collingwood Area School’s year 12 Dux
Collingwood Area School Dux Rachel Harvey with guest speaker Murray McClintock.
Decorated with balloons and masses of flowers, Collingwood Area School’s hall again became the venue for a formal banquet that combined with their annual prizegiving last Friday.
Invited guests included List MP Damien O’Connor, TDC councillors and Community Board members.
Departing senior dean Kirk Milligan started by dishing out some down-to-earth advice, including one gem passed on from the school cleaner Betty Wilson earlier that morning.
She had said that young people needed qualifications even to be a cleaner these days.
Because the school had no year 13 students this year, the position of Dux and the associated Nelson Mail/Network Tasman Top Student Award went to a year 12 student, Rachel Harvey of Pakawau. Rachel intends returning to CAS for her final year, before enrolling in a vet nursing course at Christchurch Polytech Institute of Technology (CPIT) in 2011.
This year Rachel studied physics, biology, chemistry, maths and photography, and next year will be concentrating more on biology and chemistry. Principal John Garner said Rachel was a polite and friendly student who was extremely conscientious and organised about her schoolwork, and was the obvious choice for Dux.
Mr Garner used his address to let everyone know exactly what outcomes the school was trying to achieve, which included teaching basic learning skills, appreciation of individual diversity and encouraging general happiness.
Guest speaker Murray McClintock complemented his speech with a visual presentation about his career as a geologist, which has brought him work in diverse locations: three seasons in Antarctica, as well as Namibia and the Solomon Islands. Murray grew up in Kaituna and attended Rockville School until it closed, then moved on to CAS, then studied geology at Otago University where he later specialised in vulcanology. The state of the world’s climate drew some pertinent comment about how humanity may well be on the verge of the unknown.
His final message to senior CAS pupils, taken from Gandhi: “Be the person that you want the world to be more like.”
Gerard Hindmarsh
