Cambridge High School dux Anna Jago with her medal.
For five years Anna Jago and Neve Keightley were close contenders for the top academic prize in their year group at Cambridge High School.
The driven students could have been intense rivals, but it’s never been that way.
“Although we’ve been doing different subjects, I feel like we’ve always just been – maybe not even verbally – but just cheering each other on,” Anna said.
“I don’t know if she feels the same, but I’ve always wanted to see how Neve does and hope she succeeds. And she’ll do amazing things, I’m sure of that. She’s an incredible person.”
Neve won top academic in year 9 but Anna claimed the honour in years 10, 11 and 12.
Last week Anna made it four in a row when she was named dux of Cambridge High School after topping five level 3 NCEA subjects – mathematics with calculus, physics, chemistry, geography and dance.
Neve received the proxime accessit award for coming first in mathematics with statistics, biology, history and Te Reo Māori.
“Neve and I have been together the whole time and I couldn’t have thought of a better person to be on that stage with,” Anna said of the moment she stood in front of senior prizegiving to receive her medal last Tuesday night (October 31).
“We had the haka done for us, and it was incredible. Both of our sisters were in the front row doing the haka for us and that’s got to be one of the most amazing experiences of my whole life.”
Anna, who moved here with her family from Auckland when she was two years old, was also Cambridge High School’s deputy head girl this year and a house captain last year.
She put her success down to “a lot of hard work”.
“I’m not one of those people who are just smart,” she said. “I have to put work in and study. I have some friends who don’t study and get some crazy results – that’s not me.”
Her family had been incredibly supportive, she said, but her intrinsic drive to succeed had never been the result of parental pressure.
“My parents are more likely to say, ‘take a night off, have a break from studying’,” she said.
A “very sporty person” who has been a competitive swimmer, dancer and dance teacher, and played water polo, netball and social football, Anna describes herself as “diligent”.
“I’d like to think ‘brave’ is quite a good one, too,” she said.
“I wrote a little paragraph for all the scholarship applications and that sort of thing and it was something along the lines of, I strive to have humility, be courageous and have quiet confidence. That’s what I try to be. Just be sure of yourself, sort of thing. Of course, that’s not always that case – I’m not always like that. But that’s what I want to be.”
The 18-year-old is aiming to enrol in a conjoint degree is health sciences and engineering at the University of Canterbury next year, and hopes to work in the medical technology field.
Her degree may create opportunities to work in the Pacific Islands fixing donated medical equipment.
“That would be very cool because you get to see the sights as well as doing the work for them,” Anna said.
“It’s a very up-and-coming field…there’s a lot of positions in it, a lot of need for it.”
After taking NCEA subjects a year in advance since year 10, she has already completed one university paper in mathematics this year and is hoping to get an A+ grade – and a $5000 scholarship.
Longer term, she would like to head overseas to study for masters and PhD degrees.
“I want to see the world,” she said.
Anna said winning dux had been “very exciting but also a little bit daunting”.
“Because once you’ve got that dux status there’s that expectation on you that you do really well and that’s a bit scary,” she said.
“I don’t know if it’s really there or if it’s just in my head. But I’m excited.
“I think uni life will be very me.”
