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Year 13 students

Abby Campbell

I am a Year 13 NCEA student at Rangitoto College this year. In Years 11 and 12, I took Extension Sciences, English, Maths, and History classes, and was fortunate to finish with an NCEA Level 1 and 2 Excellence Endorsement. The school’s extension programmes are a clear testament to the quality of the teachers and their ability to push students to go beyond the curriculum and pursue their interests. This has allowed me to achieve my potential by enabling me to gain NCEA Level 3 Excellence Endorsement as a Year 12 and complete various courses, such as Year 13 Calculus Scholarship, a year early, so I can continue to excel. This year I take Scholarship Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Statistics, and History, which all push me to strive for personal goals while still creating an immersive learning environment.

Rangitoto College has facilitated and allowed my involvement in a course with the University of Auckland so I can continue to reach success and progression. This support is evident throughout the college as they have cultivated an academic focus allowing students able to compete on a national stage. I have achieved highly in events such as Otago Maths, Australian Maths, and New Zealand Physics and Maths. This is also clear in the school’s help sessions for the New Zealand Chemistry Olympiad, where I achieved a bronze award, and the New Zealand Biology Olympiad, where I received a silver award and partook in a training camp with the other top 20 students from the country.

The college’s strong community focus has also nurtured me to be a well-rounded individual which is a credit to the school’s ability to prepare students for moving out of school. I have had the privilege of being the captain of the 1st XI hockey team, a Peer Support Leader to help students transition into high school, a Year 9 student mentor, and a tutor to senior students. All of these activities have grown my leadership potential and allowed me to give back to the wider school community. 

After my IB education, I hope to get a scholarship to study overseas at a United Kingdom university. At this point, I am aiming to move into optometry or sustainable economics.

Jonathon Sun

Since Year 9, Rangitoto College has provided endless opportunities for my fellow students and me to actualise our academic goals. As an NCEA student, the support and genuine empowerment that my teachers and peers gave me are what allowed me to fully realise my academic potential. As a Year 12 student in 2022, I achieved Scholarships in Biology, Calculus, English, Health & Physical Education, and Physics, and received the NZQA Scholarship award. This was only made possible by the countless hours given up by teachers during their mornings and lunchtimes. 

I am also thankful for being selected to represent New Zealand at the International Olympiad in Informatics. Again, this would have stayed as a dream if it wasn’t for the inspirational students and amazing support from the school.

This year, I am grateful for being a Community and Environment Leader, Peer Support Leader, and leader of a few clubs. I hope that through this, I will be able to develop and give back to the community that has given me so much. I never saw any leadership potential in myself, until I tried it out in Year 12 and realised that nothing is ever too late to start. Even more so than the future the college provides me, opportunities like these make up the most heartfelt aspect of my experience at Rangitoto College, which is the way it allowed me to develop as a person.

Year 12 students

Yeonsu Na

I was born and raised in the coastal city of Tauranga where I lived my entire life up until early last year. Moving up to Auckland in Year 11, our family found attending Rangitoto College highly appealing due to their evident level of proficiency in secondary education which can be seen from the results the college garners in academics, sports, and performing arts. 

Coming to Rangitoto College I was able to take NCEA Level 2 Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, and History classes. Under the guidance of the teachers here at Rangitoto, I emerged from the NCEA curriculum with Excellence Endorsements in Levels 1 and 2. I was able to finish both NCEA Levels 1 and 2 at a respectable standard before I made the transition to the International Baccalaureate (IB) programme in Year 12 this year. 

Last year for me was very academically successful. For my third and final year of competing at the Otago Junior Mathematics, I came out in the top 30 in the Year 11 division. I was also selected to represent Rangitoto College at the annual Auckland Mathematical Olympiad. In the New Zealand Mathematical Olympiad, after prevailing through two rounds of intense competition, I received an honourable mention. My Year 11 academic year was then rounded off with NZQA Scholarship Calculus. My success in the exam can be attributed to the effectiveness of the Scholarship Calculus sessions. Because of this, I was able to be accepted into the University of Canterbury STAR Course for Mathematical Science this year and I hope to advance myself even more in this field. 

Recently, with the help of Mr Victor Dai, my friends and myself were able to establish the Rangitoto Mathematical Olympiad Society where we aim to promote and foster an environment where young students are encouraged to get involved in mathematical Olympiad contests.

Choosing IB has been and will continue to be a decision I will not regret. The transition from NCEA to IB was smooth and seamless, and my time in the IB curriculum at Rangitoto College will provide me with a solid foundation to go overseas with my tertiary education. 

In the future, I want to study aerospace engineering, preferably at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Afterwards, I am looking at returning to New Zealand and would like to work for Dawn Aerospace which is headquartered in Christchurch. At the same time, I do want to keep up with my sporting activity and am looking at becoming an elite slalom canoeist in the coming years. This kind of dual pathway in my field of sport is not uncommon. 

This year has seen its fair share of sporting highlights for me. I started off the year by competing at the Oceania Canoe Slalom Championships held at Auckland’s Vector Wero Whitewater Park. I finished fourth in the junior division. Domestically, I also competed at the New Zealand Secondary School Canoe Slalom Championships for Rangitoto College in both 2022 and 2023, where I was a triple bronze medallist in the senior division. Currently, I am working in close collaboration with the local Auckland Slalom club to start a kayaking programme dedicated to Rangitoto College students. We are aiming to send a full team to the New Zealand Secondary Schools Championships next year after preliminary preparations have been made. 

I am also part of the Rangitoto College Chamber Orchestra and Symphony Orchestra where we are working towards participating in the KBB Music Festival.

Summer Bailey

I am a Year 12 International Baccalaureate (IB) student at Rangitoto College, looking forward to completing my diploma next year. I achieved excellence in all of my Year 11 assessments, causing me to achieve overall Excellence Endorsement in Level 1 NCEA and all of my subjects. This gave me a great foundation for beginning the IB course, which I chose to develop a sense of international mindednessa key benefit of IBand for a more in-depth learning experience. 

Through the knowledge and skills gained in my chosen subjects, I am aiming to study Medicine or Economics at a tertiary level. I value the way that the content offered in IB courses has a concrete sense of real-life application because I feel this offers me a greater understanding of such topics in a societal context. 

IB offers other unique opportunities for growth, such as through the Extended Essay (EE), Theory of Knowledge (TOK), and Community, Action, and Service (CAS). The EE provides us with a chance to produce a piece of academic writing on a topic of our choosing, which will prepare us for the transition into university, while the TOK course enables us to become more discerning and critical about the knowledge we obtain in everyday life. The IB Diploma also recognises the importance of balance and commends extracurricular activities through the CAS programme. This has encouraged me to continue contributing to the school community, through playing hockey, being a member of the Service and Spirit Team (as well as the Academic, Community, and Wellbeing Teams in previous years), being a Student Volunteer Army Ambassador, and a Student Librarianall of which have helped me to become a more well-rounded person. 

After my IB education, I hope to get a scholarship to study overseas at a United Kingdom university. At this point, I am aiming to move into optometry or sustainable economics.

Orlando Aguilera

As a Year 12 student at Rangitoto College, I am grateful for the opportunity to be a part of the International Baccalaureate (IB) cohort. My preparation for IB started in Year 9 as I was in extension classes leading up to Year 12. There were many key factors which helped me choose IB. I really enjoy the worldwide focus the course has, which aligns with my desire to study overseas for university. This course will give me the best chance to get accepted into a university overseas, as it is recognised globally.

The IB Diploma is designed to prepare students as best as possible for university. It teaches important skills such as essay writing, time management, and collaboration. The Extended Essay is a significant part of the programme, allowing me to practise writing in a university style for an essay of 4,000 words. This will also improve my research abilities and deepen my understanding of my chosen topic. The two-year duration of the course teaches effective time management. This includes balancing the heavy workload of the course with extracurricular activities, such as sports and music. The small cohort provides an opportunity to create strong connections with like-minded students. Overall, this course will give me the best possible start to my future career, and I am looking forward to what lies ahead.

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