Talents and passions flourish with ACEE

Talents and passions

flourish with ACEE

Four students, four very different projects, and how the ACEE programme supports them.

A powerful painting in Head of Senior College John Ruge’s office, was created by Selena Gan (Year 13) when she was in a Year 9 ACEE class, and was given the opportunity to combine her passions for art and the social issue of poverty. “I have always felt greatly privileged coming to St Andrew’s, with both my parents being first generation immigrants. I was hoping to remind students through my art that we are only a few thousand lucky humans who were born into comfortable living conditions that a billion don’t have.”

During the ACEE classes, Selena was introduced to the wax melt art form by specialist, Sandy Gottermeyer, and combined this with pastels, and collages of photos to create her compelling artwork which has a focus on children in extreme poverty. “The artwork is sad but that is what I was trying to achieve, creating uncomfortable conversations about often overlooked issues that seem fictional to our lives.”

Toby Harvie (Year 13) is one of St Andrew’s most outstanding young academics. Last year, when in Year 12, he achieved Level 3 NCEA with Excellence, and achieved five New Zealand Scholarship awards in Chemistry, Physics, Calculus, Geography, and Technology. In 2020, he won an ICAS Gold Medal for Mathematics – achieving the top marks of any student in New Zealand. Toby says the acceleration of his learning through the ACEE programme has been significant in helping him to reach these incredible achievements. “A key factor of my success has been my teachers, who are passionate about their subjects and excited to extend me, often providing opportunities outside the curriculum.” Part of Toby’s extension programme this year is his inclusion in a University of Canterbury STAR course in Mathematics, a subject he has been passionate about since completing NCEA Level 1 in Year 10 along with Digital Technologies. “I am grateful for the opportunity and excited to pursue my own coding projects,” he says.

Year 11 student, Megan Simpson, says the support of the ACEE programme and teacher, Ellen Hampson, was invaluable during her Year 9 ACEE project, which culminated in her writing a scientific article called, TheScience of Stress. Her work looked at the body’s flight or fight response to stress, and analysed the positive and negative effects that stress can have on our body and brain, concluding that we should learn to embrace and reframe stress in a positive light.

Megan has since completed two online courses through EDX (a platform of online university courses) including Justice, centred around philosophy, offered by Harvard, and a course from MIT called ‘Minds and Machines’. “With the help and support of the ACEE programme I have been able to extend myself academically in ways I could never have imagined,” she says. William Couper (Year 11) has a goal to study aerospace engineering at a university in Germany, but there was one drawback – he didn’t speak German. So last year, as a Year 10 student, he started to learn the language and has been supported by St Andrew’s to study German at NCEA Level 1 this year. “Learning German is not a simple task. It entailed many hours of study, practise, and the support of many German speaking people to get me to the level required to study NCEA Level 1. To make this possible, Mrs Hampson also dedicated many hours, many emails, and quite a bit of string-pulling.”

William says he is grateful for the opportunities he receives at St Andrew’s, particularly in the ACEE programme. “Any institution can teach you something but here is one of the few schools that would make it possible for me to undertake a subject that wasn’t even offered on the curriculum.”

Toby Harvie (Year 13), Megan Simpson (Year 11), Selena Gan (Year 13) and William Couper (Year 11) with the painting Selena completed in a 9ACEE class.