Alumni news 'On the Couch'

Sidney Goram-Aitken profile continued.

What is your advice for a current Year 12 student? Work hard, push yourself outside of your comfort zone and take every single opportunity that comes your way. When I was in Year 12, I never knew if my goals were realistic or even achievable. But I did know that I didn’t want to regret anything and that I wanted to at least be able to say I gave everything a go. What do you hope to achieve in the future? In the future, I hope to keep doing what I’m doing now. I enjoy going to court and advocating for people who need help and support. I am a bit of a ‘bleeding heart’, so as long as I’m doing something where I’m helping people in the community, I’ll be pretty happy!

Pictured below: Sidney being admitted to the Supreme Court, and in the Northern Territory.

It was lovely to welcome alumni, Kate Oliver and Sophie Robinson (class of 2020) back to their old stomping ground on Friday 16 September for our latest segment of ‘On the Couch’ – where we invite alumni to meet with current students and share their stories and experiences since graduating from the College. The accomplished athletes spoke to our Senior School students about their love for rowing and their journey with the sport, including their time representing Australia recently at the World Rowing Championships in Varese, Italy, where they competed in the U23 Lightweight Women’s Pair Event.

The University of Tasmania students, who both have rowing scholarships at the Tasmanian Institute of Sport, earned their spots in the finals squad after a hugely successful showing at the National Underage Selection Trials in Canberra in May 2022. “It’s quite a process trying to make the Australian rowing team. Throughout the season, there are benchmarks and events you have to participate in. There are often 5K and 2K Ergos that have to be done and then you’re ranked in Australia against the other rowers. The NSW Championships and Nationals are also two important events. The results from these determine whether you get invited to the selection trials and then, from the selection trials, if you reach the benchmarks of the times required of the event you are going for, you’ve been selected. Competing at an international level was a big step up from what we’d been used to at a state and national level. It was a big learning experience, and we really enjoyed it! COVID-19, over the past few years, has impacted a lot of sports, and our sport in particular. This has made it hard to compete in events and race at national levels in order to be recognised and considered, so this year has probably been the first year that [Rowing Australia] have had a big Australian team. In a couple of years’ time, I [Sophie] would really love to be world champion, so I’ve got quite the ambition for my rowing. In terms of just ‘general life’, hopefully I’d have completed my uni degree of exercise science. We’ve got two more years in the U23 team, before stepping up to the Senior team, so hopefully we’ll make the team again next year and the year after [Kate].”

Pictured here: Damian Messer accepting the gifted rowing polo from Sophie Robinson and Kate Oliver during their visit to the College.