Tens of thousands of Victorian students have received their Year 12 exam results, with some having overcome significant hurdles in their education journey to reach this milestone.
Around 62,000 students graduated with their Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) this year, including 8,250 VCE Vocational Major graduates.
VCE and Australian Tertiary Admission Rankings (ATAR) results were made available on Thursday morning.
The overall VCE completion rate this year was 97.4 per cent and more than 22,700 VCE graduates have received scores of 40 or higher and 688 have received the maximum score of 50.
Victoria's Deputy Premier and Minister for Education Ben Carroll also announced 3,160 students have been awarded the VCE Baccalaureate.
Carroll congratulated all students on their achievements.
"You should be proud of everything you’ve already achieved as you move to the next exciting step, whether it be further study, training, the workforce or a gap year," he said in a statement.
Zahra Nasiri (left) and Fathya Prasojo (right) are among the 62,000 students graduating with the Victorian Certificate of Education this year. Credit: Supplied
From finishing school in year six to becoming school captain
Zahra Nasiri's journey to the end of high school has been anything but simple.
Nasiri, 19, was born and raised in Afghanistan and her family are part of the , a persecuted ethnic minority who have faced violence and mass evictions in recent years.
Their lives were restricted by the lack of employment opportunities for her father, who struggled as a taxi driver. Seeking a better life for his family, Nasiri's father made the treacherous journey alone to Australia by boat in 2012.
Then in year six, Nasiri's education in Afghanistan was cut short when her family decided the risks of bombings and robberies at school had become too great. For two years afterwards, she resorted to teaching herself within the confines of her home.
Zahra Nasiri (second from right) came to Australia with her family from Afghanistan. Credit: Supplied
Thinking about her family's journey to Australia, Nasiri said she's extremely proud of her father.
"There is no English word that I can use for my dad to say how much he sacrificed for us. But I feel so proud, I feel like he really put himself in danger to make something for us," she said.
Nasiri's English was limited when she arrived in Australia and she went to language school for six months before being accepted into Gleneagles Secondary College to start year nine in 2021.
She said one of the biggest culture shocks she experienced moving from schools in Afghanistan to Australia was seeing the mingling of boys and girls and the close friendships they had.
The language barrier also proved to be challenging, as Nasiri was still getting used to speaking English full-time.
"My dad he was pushing me to go do the stuff he was doing. He wants me to go everywhere with him to get a knowledge of how Australian society works," she said.
Nasiri said she strengthened her English by speaking to friends constantly — at school and over video chat when she got home.
When she entered year 12, Nasiri said she started thinking about the opportunities women and girls are denied in Afghanistan under the Taliban's rule and felt motivated to make the most of her last year of school by trying to become the college's captain.
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"I was like: 'OK, this is the time that I need to show myself, this is the opportunity that I have and need to use it in the proper way'," she said.
The day she heard she had been elected, Nasiri surprised her parents with the news.
"They start crying ... because they were like 'OK for you being a girl who left school at grade six and then today becoming a college captain, that's a long process and a long journey'," she said.
Nasiri hopes to study law and global studies at university.
"I really love to serve for people because when I think about it, the Australian community gives so much to me, and I owe so much to them. I have to give it back to them."
She said graduating from high school has made her feel extreme sadness and guilt for the women and girls in her home country who cannot do the same.
"I feel sad because I do have the opportunity, why not them? But at the same time, I feel like, I think for me, becoming someone tomorrow in the future, I can raise their voice," she said.
"I still can learn a helping hand for them and supporting them to become someone."
On Thursday morning, Nasiri told SBS News she was pleased with her score, which will get her into her "dream course and dream university".
Bus she stressed to other students that their Year 12 results won't mean everything.
"They have a big future ahead of them is school just like getting this good results at the school, getting a good ATAR or getting accepted into a good uni does not define who they are," she said.
Sleeping and studying in the living room
Fathya Prasojo, 17, was forced to study for her Year 12 exams in her living room after a tree tore through the roof of her home in September.
Originally from the Indonesian capital Jakarta, Prasojo and her younger sister had been uprooted several times — they have gone from Jakarta to Dublin, Ireland then back to Jakarta and started high school in Padang, a city in west Sumatra.
In 2022, Prasojo's family decided to move to Melbourne for her father's work — a surprise for Prasojo, who had initially been expecting to return to Dublin. She began year 10 at Mount Waverley Secondary College in Melbourne's west the same year.
While Prasojo said the multicultural communities of Melbourne put her at ease, it took a while for her to adjust to the different system of high school life, where students had to move from room to room, rather than the teachers.
"I remember my first day, I still had my little paper with my timetable and I was just asking people like where this class is and just trying to navigate my way through the school," she said.
Her year 12 experience was severely disrupted in September, when an intense storm swept over her neighbourhood, bringing down a large tree beside her neighbour's house that broke through the roof of her home.
A large tree crashed through the roof of Fathya's house in September during a storm. Credit: Supplied
While she said the roof is still "technically intact" she could no longer sleep or work in her bedroom and was forced to move into her family's living room.
The sound of construction workers repairing the roof became the soundtrack to her VCE exam period and her family worked around her schedule.
"It did give me a bit of anxiety because of the study conditions that I usually need but I'm very grateful that I've been given the support from my friends, my family and my teachers as well," she said.
Despite the ongoing challenges caused by the destruction, Prasojo stayed focused on the task of completing her study, as well as being selected by the British Consulate General in Melbourne to work as a British consul for a day and undertaking volunteering and creative projects.
Fathya Prasojo (centre) was selected for the British Consul General for a Day program with British Consul General Steph Lysaght (right) and Deputy British Consul General Catriona Boya (left). Credit: Supplied
Alongside a group of other young volunteers, Prasojo curates lesson plans and activities at the Madrasah Westall Sunday school, attached to the Westall Mosque in Melbourne's southeast.
"That's the way I can showcase how proud I am to be a Muslim and how proud I am to show the Australian community that Muslims also deserve a place to contribute their creativity and make the kind of changes that we want to see," she said.
Prasojo attributes her community-mindedness to her Indonesian cultural background and how she was raised.
"My extended family very much encourages the concept of contributing back to society. In Islam we believe that the best way to live life is to follow God's command and be good to God and be good to other people," she said.
Now that she's finishing high school, Prasojo said she's hoping to study preventative medicine and she's particularly interested in reproductive science and helping improve nutrition for mothers.
Reflecting on her high school experience and others in Victoria who received their VCE results on Thursday, Prasojo said she has taken her mother's message on board that everything learned in high school, whether students like particular subjects or not, has helped to hone skills for their lives beyond.
"That's what matters the most — not the actual topic itself but rather the skills that you've taken up: resilience, dedication and not giving up in general," she said.
On Thursday morning, she told SBS News while her final score was lower than she had expected, she was proud of what she had achieve and was grateful for the help of her friends, family, and "village of supportive people".
"I'm also reminded of how far I've come as a student — and all the efforts I've put in," she said.
"My results are more than enough to get me into most of the courses that I'm aiming for, so lots to celebrate!"
