Student

Achievement

On Saturday Alexander McGavin competed in the State Final for Lions Youth of the Year in Bathurst. It was a long, twelve plus hour day for Alex, in which he represented Henry Kendall High and the public school system impeccably! 

The day for Alex consisted of interviews with six judges, a luncheon, and then an evening public speaking event. The public speaking included his five minute prepared speech (which we were all lucky to see him present at our Celebration Assembly); he presented perfectly, without the need to use palm cards at all. As well as this he also had to give two impromptu speeches of two minutes each to the following unseen questions: 'What matters to you?'and 'Do you think the date for Australia Day should be changed?' With approximately 10 seconds to think of his responses, Alex spoke passionately, intelligently, compassionately and eloquently, leaving everyone in the room speechless. This culminated in Alexander winning the public speaking competition! Woooooooo!

Unfortunately, despite it allegedly being highly contested amongst the judges, he did not come away with the title of State Champion, as the majority of marks are awarded for the interviews/community services, and it's hard to compete for that against students who attend boarding schools in which this is compulsory. All students were great and well deserving winners, but obviously Alex deserved it the most! 

A massive thank you to Dave Ardley for all of the hard work he puts in every year to support our students to be part of this great program and tutoring them to develop their skills beyond expectations!