They may still have another year and a half of school to finish, but that hasn’t stopped Porsha Fisher, Chelsea Clancy and Ella Spencer-Wood receiving early conditional offers to study at university.
The three Year 11 students at Cobram Secondary College have been offered courses in nursing, nursing midwifery and psychology with the Victoria University, based in Melbourne.
Porsha has received an offer to study a Bachelor of Psychology.
“I’ve always been interested in psychology,” Porsha said .
“I love to see how the brain works, and I want to make people feel okay.”
Ella, meanwhile, thought she would go into a trade and then nursing afterwards. But a passion for helping others has led her to decide to pursue nursing first.
She hopes to one day take her passion for helping others overseas to places like Kenya.
On top of their school work, sports, socialising with friends and families and, in Chelsea’s case, volunteering in the community, the three students also work two jobs each.
Moving away from the country is not an easy decision for the 16-year-olds to make, with the cost of living and physical isolation from their families only some of the pressures weighing on their minds.
“[Even] if we went to Bendigo, we’d have to get a house to rent and food and everything,” said Chelsea, who was offered to study a Bachelor of Nursing and Bachelor of Nursing Midwifery double degree.
“I think that’s a big weight on an 18-year-old’s shoulders,”
Chelsea, Porsha and Ella said they’ll need at least $10,000 saved in the bank to cover the cost of things like renting, textbooks and stationery when they relocate.
But that won’t stand in the way of them chasing their dreams.
While they may change their study preferences by the end of their final school year, the students are over the moon to have another pathway now open to them.
“I didn’t go into it thinking I would apply, but I’m very glad I did,” said Chelsea.