Student activities & achievements

Whitehorse City Young Person of the Month

Congratulations to 2018 Year 12 student, Kate Gerraty, who was nominated as the January Young Person of the Month by Whitehorse City Council.

World Challenge 2018 - Costa Rica

Last year the world challenge group left for Costa Rica. An amazing journey with an awesome group! It’s almost too hard to describe how we all feel about Costa Rica. We began our expedition with Gilbert and Maria, a passionate couple from rural Ostional. Ostional is famous for its turtle, conservation and as a group we were exceptionally lucky to be a part of this. In the mornings, we moved sticks, logs, and plastic off the beach to make way for the turtle ‘Arribada’. During the day we swam in the ocean and chilled out because the heat was almost too hot to do anything. In the afternoons, we met and played with the children of Ostional. There were soccer games, Frisbee and hand clapping games, they even taught us some games despite the language barrier. In the evening, we joined beach tours where we experienced the turtle arribada ourselves. Turtles riding in from the ocean, laying eggs and disappearing into the waves. The turtles almost completely covered the beach.

Our next exciting destination was Monteverde. A welcomed cool change in weather for all of us. The town of Monteverde was decorated with gorgeous paintings particularly in and around our hostel. We spent the first day trekking through the Monteverde Cloud Forest. The second day was spent zip-wiring across the Costa Rica rainforest on the longest zip line in Latin America! We also visited a butterfly and bug museum.

Off we went to La Fortuna, this time via jeep-boat-jeep. We saw a magnificent view of the La Fortuna Volcano. This was our first experience camping and our host Nicole made it all the more welcoming. Our first day was spent trekking around the base of the volcano and finished off the day at the local water hole. The next day we walked up a massive hill and down towards an equally massive waterfall where we swam in the icy cold water.

We spent a few days in Costa Rica’s capital San Jose doing fun activities such as white water rafting, salsa dancing, visiting markets, visited the National museum of Costa Rica and participated in a carbon-offset day.

Almost our final phase, we’d reached the big trek. The 10-hour bus ride was tough but considering that we would spend the next 4 days trekking through jungle it was acceptable. Our trek leaders Donnie and Randall were what kept most of us going as they were so supportive and interesting. Our days consisted of varied up and down through the jungle, featuring 3 snakes, LOTS of tarantula like spiders and ants. We all looked forward to lunch by the river each day and a swim to cool down. By the end of our total 42km, we were all extremely proud of ourselves and the group, for pushing through a really challenging trek. Snorkelling in Puerto Jimenez, topped off the trek for everybody.

World challenge was certainly a challenge, planning accommodation, cooking and planning almost all our own meals, organising transport all across Costa Rica and budgeting all expenses. I am grateful for developing so many new skills and creating new friendships along the way.

Our jam-packed expedition had come to an end. On behalf of the World Challenge 2018 group, I would like to thank Sharyn Paspa, Mark Anderson, our team leader Malaika and the amazing Costa Rican community for supporting us and allowing us to be given this amazing opportunity. Finally, thank you to the WC group for making Costa Rica an unforgettable memory.