Cairns student in France for commemorations with seven others Claire’s zest for history

l CAIRNS NORTH

| Isabella Guzman Gonzalez

YEAR 9 student Claire Gattera is one of eight winners of the Premier’s ANZAC Prize for her passion and understanding of ANZAC history.

The St Monica’s College student is now on a 16-day trip in Europe where winners will retrace the path of Anzacs, visit WWI memorial sites, and attend the ANZAC Day dawn service at the Australian War Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux in France.

Presented in partnership with RSL Queensland, the Premier’s ANZAC Prizes awards year 8 to 11 students passionate about ANZAC history. The winners must engage in fundraising efforts for service people, research, commemoration and community engagement. Ms Gattera’s cohort is the first to travel overseas post-COVID.

St Monica’s College head of humanities department Catherine Taifalos said Ms Gattera was a high achiever and passionate about history. “I put out a call-out for the Premier’s ANZAC Prize, and she was the first to answer my email,” Ms Taifalos said.

“Claire is amazing. She is passionate about so many things. She’s an extremely high achiever with a real passion for history,” she said.

“Students were required to create a multimedia presentation on the relevance of the ANZAC spirit to young Australians.

“Claire created her presentation looking at Charles Bean’s ‘The ANZAC Book’, and she looked at the idea that the ANZAC spirit really is about ordinary people doing extraor- dinary things. She looked at the ideas of resilience and courage, determination to overcome challenges, and because of those elements, it remained relevant to each and every Australian today.

“Claire also delved into Lieutenant Tom Derrick from WWII, who was the recipient of the Victoria Cross for his actions, and she also looked at the School Strike 4 Climate and argued that that’s an example of young people demonstrating that ANZAC spirit and fight for what’s right.

“I was extremely impressed with what she had come up with and the level of research she had undertaken to create this presentation.”

Ms Taifalos said that Ms Gattera was excited to be an ANZAC ambassador overseas.

“When she found out she was dying to tell someone,” she said. “Claire was really grateful and honoured that her submission had been chosen among so many entries.”

“Part of the prize is that students have to conduct research into some of Australia’s veterans, and they commemorate them while overseas, and she had to fundraise for Mates4Mates.”

Being the only Cairns and Far North student to win the prize, Ms Taifalos said St Monica’s College was very proud of Ms Gattera’s achievement.

“We’re very thankful for the opportunities that the prize provides to students. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” she said. “St Monica’s is extremely proud of Claire.” Applications for 2024 are now open.