Gabrielle Hill has won National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) dux and performing arts dux of St Peter’s Cambridge.
Gabi Hill NCEA dux 2024 – chapel.jpg – Gabrielle Hill is Peter’s Cambridge’s NCEA dux and performing arts dux this year. Photo – supplied.
“It’s incredible,” said the 17-year-old, who has lived in Cambridge all her life and formerly attended Cambridge Montessori Pre-School, St Peter’s Catholic School and Cambridge Primary School.
“It wasn’t something I was necessarily expecting, because you work so hard but you’re not thinking about the end results most of the time, so to come away with these two awards I was very happy.”
Gabrielle was top of English literature, media studies, theology and philosophy and music technology. She also studied classics and was a year 9 prefect in Swears House this year.
She won the Jenkinson Family Trophy for overall excellence in arts and humanities and the Mary Bain Memorial Award for outstanding female prefect.
Acting head of school Julie Small said the year 13 student had gone from strength to strength during her seven years at St Peter’s.
“One of the examples I can give is that she’s gone out and worked with different year groups to teach other students the school haka, and can manage that without needing staff support,” she said. “She has really driven that piece of work.”
Gabrielle has been dancing since age four, takes singing lessons, and plays the guitar, piano, drums and flute. She has been involved with every St Peter’s production since year 8, has represented the school in a range of performing arts groups, and was a member of music service group The Hootnannies, which performed at local kindergartens and resthomes, this year.
Next year she is moving to Scotland to spend a gap year working at Cargilfield Prep School in Edinburgh, where she will care for boarders and help students with classroom learning, sports teams and extracurricular activities.
“I really want to go to university, but I didn’t want to make up my mind so quickly that I would feel as though I didn’t make the most of all the opportunities that I had around me,” she said.
“And I love Edinburgh – it’s where my parents met, it’s where my grandparents currently are – and I’ve always wanted to go there. I’m thinking about studying there…so I thought it’d be good to test the waters and see if I really like it.”
Considering a career in teaching, she is likes the idea of studying philosophy, possibly to masters level.
“I just want to be a lifelong learner and I don’t ever want to stop pursuing my passions,” she said.
“Learning will always be interesting; it will always be fulfilling.”
Big shock for Keana
Dux & Proxime 2024 – chapel.jpg – Keana Woodfield (right), photographed at St Peter’s Cambridge with (from left) duxes Zach Macaskill-Smith and Gabrielle Hill and (second from right) proxime accessit Tim Qian. Photo – supplied.
St Peter’s Cambridge’s 2024 head girl Keana Woodfield was “very honoured” to be named National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) proxime accessit for 2024.
“I did not have any idea I was getting it, so it was a big shock,” she said. “It was very special.”
She shared the Robb Family Trophy with International Baccalaureate (IB) proxime accessit Tim Qian.
Keana has lived in Tamahere since she was five years old and attended Tamahere Model Country School. Her mother Gina is a lawyer and her father Mike is a plastic surgeon. Her three siblings, Caleb, Mila and Indigo, all attend St Peter’s.
“My parents have definitely sacrificed a lot to help me achieve my goals,” Keana said. “They’ve played a big role in my success.”
The 18-year-old’s volunteer work in 2024 included helping Waikato Hospital patients attend chapel services, and helping to organise the St Peter’s Relay For Life team raise money for people with cancer.
“St Peter’s was the top fundraising school in the Waikato, so that was really special,” she said.
Keana’s academic attainment and community service was recently recognised with a $1000 June Wallace scholarship from the Cambridge Women’s Club.
She has also been offered a Te Paewai o te Rangi Scholarship for Outstanding Academic Achievement from The University of Waikato, valued at up to $30,000 over three years, and a Leaders of Tomorrow Entrance Scholarship from the University of Otago valued at $7000.
However, at this stage she plans to head to the University of Canterbury to enrol in a Bachelor of Social and Environmental Sustainability degree, which explores global problems humans have caused by injustice towards the environment and communities, from pollution and climate change to world hunger.
“I guess I want to make a meaningful difference in the world,” she said.
The keen sportswoman, who has achieved highly at national secondary school level in swimming and triathlon and also plays water polo and lacrosse, attributed her success this year to finding balance in her life.
“Basically I just figured out a great way to balance my life and fit everything in but also have fun and not take everything too seriously really,” she said.
Her parting advice to students:
“The most important thing is how you treat others and the person you are. That’s far more important than any prize or award or recognition you receive.”
Zach Macaskill-Smith won St Peter’s Cambridge’s International Baccalaureate dux prize and Gabrielle Hill was the school’s NCEA dux.
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