Elzaunia September, 18, of Bernadino Heights High School, swept several awards at the school’s recent prize-giving ceremony.
Her achievements include a gold trophy for life science, first place for Afrikaans home language and a trophy for coming first for English first additional language.
Elzaunia also bagged second place for physical science, second place for accounting and third place for maths.
The ceremony on Thursday October 24 recognised academic achievement in the September trial exams.
“My favorite subjects are Afrikaans, life science and mathematics,” says Elzaunia. “I like to read and I like watching medical series and detective movies.”
She has applied at Stellenbosch University to study a Bachelors in medicine and surgery and a human life sciences degree programme. Elzaunia says she has been provisionally accepted for the latter.
“My dream is to become a doctor,” she says.
She went through past exam papers and had to find somewhere quiet to study becomes Scottsdene gets loud at night.
“I had to sacrifice a lot of sleep. I also downloaded a lot of videos and watched them to help me understand work that I struggled with. Sometimes it was really a challenge to study in the area I’m staying because there’s always a noise or some party going on in the vicinity.”
Elzaunia says she has done well academically since primary school.
“I listen in class and I try my utmost best to stay focussed. I do my homework. I study hard and give extra attention to the work I struggle with.
“My family is also very supportive and they always motivate to do better.”