HORSHAM’S St Brigid’s College student Ethan Jolley was stoked to hear he earned top marks in his year.
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Ethan achieved an ATAR of 89.95.
He said he was overwhelmed and thrilled with his study scores.
“Although there were stressful times, I had a ball doing it – I made sure I took time out for myself, but studied when I needed to,” he said.
Ethan studied physical education, English, history revolutions and maths.
He also completed Certificate Three in Fitness, which counted towards his ATAR.
While in year 11, Ethan completed year 12 outdoor environmental studies and received a perfect score of 50 despite battling cancer throughout the year.
He was diagnosed with stage two Hodgkin's lymphoma in June last year, and received chemotherapy every two weeks. Ethan said he was now in remission.
“I have always been a determined person. I don’t let challenges get in my road and yes it was a challenge, but I had the support of family, friends and the school,” he said.
“It didn’t feel like I was having treatment at all and to get a great result gave me a good end to the year after a bad experience.”
Ethan plans to take a gap year to decide his next steps.
“My main priority for the past few years was to join the air force, but unfortunately I was knocked back because of my cancer last year,” he said.
“I have to reassess and think about the university courses I want to get into and in the meantime I’ll be working a few jobs around Horsham and doing swim teaching and life guarding.”