Emma
Coming to Marden
During Year 12 I lacked the key ingredient to success: motivation. Consequently, I did not reach my goals in terms of subject marks or even feel a sense of achievement. After completing a year of Health Science, and still being no closer to where I wanted to be, I turned to Marden Senior College.
Experience at Marden Senior College
I will always remember my first visit to Marden. My Mum helped to get the ball rolling with a meeting at Student Services to discuss enrolment. I left that day with a sense of purpose and direction, something I had lacked for nearly two years. I chose to study three subjects: Biology, Psychology and English Communications. As my aim was to be accepted into Physiotherapy at UniSA, I was reminded that to achieve the ATAR required, which was 98.25, I would have to get an A-average in all subjects. This was my main source of motivation: being told you wouldn’t be able to achieve your goals makes you work harder to prove them wrong.
Whilst at Marden I was given the opportunity to attend Government House for an afternoon tea with the Governor. This was an incredible experience that I didn’t expect would happen again. However, I was pleasantly surprised when I was awarded a merit in Biology, which meant a second visit to Government House, this time with my family.
My ATAR when I first completed Year 12 was 75.25. I was incredibly disappointed with this at the time, but have since seen it as a blessing in disguise. Had I done better, I may not have come to Marden and achieved my goals. To put it into perspective, after my year at Marden I attained an ATAR of 95.25 – exactly 20 points higher than my initial score. With the five bonus points this gave me a Tertiary Entrance Rank of 99.95 for all South Australian Universities. I was offered my first preference of a Bachelor of Physiotherapy at the University of South Australia.
I appreciated the opportunity to study with, and learn from, a wide range of students from many different backgrounds. I learnt much about myself, and life in general. This experience will serve me well in my working life as a Physiotherapist.
Achievements to date
In my first year of Physiotherapy, I became a committee member of the Australian Physiotherapy Association Student Group as well as Academic Representative for my year level within Physiotherapy. Through this, I was able to meet, and learn from specialists in the field of Physiotherapy. This helped me expand and direct my study skills and gain valuable contacts in the industry. By the end of this first year, I had been awarded a merit certificate for being among the top 10% in the School of Health Sciences.
Toward the end of last year, I was offered a position in the Honours program within Physiotherapy. This involves doing a research degree concurrently with the Physiotherapy program.
Today and the future
Currently I am completing my Honours project in the area of pediatric physiotherapy with the aim of working as a pediatric physiotherapist when I graduate at the end of next year (2016).
My goal is to complete my Bachelor of Physiotherapy with First-Class Honours and my dream job is a position at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne.
