2022 Dux: 

 

Kayla Perumal

Presentation Night Speech

I have found my way back to this podium, this time not to ask you to please stand for the national anthem, nor to shamelessly plug the mentoring young leaders’ program, but instead to share with you how I got myself in this position.

It truly is an honour to be speaking here tonight. I remember being in the audience back in my primary school days looking up to those students who were up on this stage receiving awards and earning titles such as this without a clue what a DUX meant, yet still aspiring to someday be in their position. 

So, what really is a college dux? To me the title represents so much more than just an ATAR score. It embodies hard work, dedication, and most of all a commitment to yourself, your work, and your goals.

Envisioning my name be engraved on the final third board at the back of this auditorium was certainly a motivating factor for me to get College Dux, but truthfully, my goal was to do the very best that I could while managing all my other responsibilities. This meant that I had to be somewhat selfish with my time.

In my opinion I held a good balance between my commitments, but for many people my routine may not have appeared so, and that is okay. Every person’s perception about balance will differ. For me, balance meant waking up at 5am so I could go to gym and do something I enjoyed every day while still having time for my other commitments. It meant writing meeting agendas and speeches on the bus ride home. Meal prepping on a Sunday, so I was setting myself up for an organised week. And leaving enough time in the mornings to do a different hairstyle each day simply because it made me happy.

The key was having a routine and actually sticking to it, while understanding that things will not always go according to plan.

You don’t have to be the smartest in the room to succeed, it’s all about the level of effort you are willing to put into what you do.

When I was in year 10 and was thinking ahead to the VCE subjects I wanted to undertake, I realised that there were too many subjects I wished to do. With the support of my teachers, I took on the challenge of accelerating Indonesian.

By age, I was two years younger than my classmates and had missed a years’ worth of VCE Indonesian learning, and that was outside of my control. But what was within my control was the level of effort I was willing to put in to catching up on what I had missed out on and perfecting my skills in time for the final exam. With a little bit of practice every day I ended up scoring 100% on my oral exam and was awarded with the highest study score in the cohort.

Despite most likely not having the same amount of knowledge as my peers, my level of determination enabled me to excel.

This determination was also prevalent in my choice of a maths subject. Not having the slightest faith in my algebra skills, but rather in my willingness to work hard, I endured the struggle that was methods for me.

In the end, my ATAR was not actually as high as it needed to be for what I had set my sights on. That’s the thing about being a high achiever, your goals appear almost unattainable. This setback did not deter me, rather it motivated me to find an alternative way to achieve my goal. I got into the Bachelor of Commerce course at Monash University, but this was only 50% of my target.

For as long as I can remember I had my heart set on the Commerce and Law double degree at Monash Uni. So, what did I do? I took a risk and fully committed to the Commerce degree, knowing that the process for transferring mid-year into the double degree was highly competitive. Having faith in my work ethic and using the skills my VCE education had equipped me with, I earned the results which saw me successfully transferring into my dream course.

Almost 14 years ago when I stepped foot into this school, blissfully unaware of the impact it would leave on me, I could never have imagined that I would be able to leave my own mark not only as the college captain and foundation scholarship recipient, but as the College Dux of 2022. 

Kayla Perumal,

Speech delivered at Presentation Night

6 December 2023