ENGINEERING might be a male-dominated industry, but that won’t stop year 12 Swan Hill College student Gwennie Thompson from pursuing a career in the field.
The Longhurst house captain is in the midst of undertaking her Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) exams.
With her English exam now out of the way, Gwennie is just four exams away from completing 13 years of schooling.
“I feel good for two of them, but then a few others I’m still a bit stressed about,” she said.
“There’s still some pretty heavy revision to do for a few, but I’ll get through it.”
Gwennie has spent many out of school hours studying at school and speaking to teachers to prepare for her exams.
“Obviously, doing a lot of work at home and doing lots of practice exams, writing exams and going over notes and stuff like that,” she said.
“The practice exams went pretty good.
“I tried to do it in time conditions just to replicate exam conditions as much as possible.”
This year, she is studying chemistry, mathematical methods, English, physical education, and biology. She also completed literature last year.
Gwennie said for next year, she hoped to get accepted in a civil engineering course La Trobe University in Bendigo.
She would then follow it up with a course in structural engineering.
Gwennie said she’d had an interest in engineering from the time she was in primary school.
“My mother was always involved with engineers and stuff like that through her work at the council (Swan Hill Rural City Council), so I always felt a bit inspired by that,” she said.
“I sort of wanted to continue in her footsteps.
“I’ve always been a very logical and practical thinker and very straightforward about things and I think engineering will suit me quite nicely.”
Gwennie said although the industry was male-dominated, she was interested and excited to see more females in the industry.
Gwennie said for her year 12 was an “interesting” and “fun and social” year.
“At the same time, you’ve obviously got a lot to do and your exams at the end as well,” she said.
“It’s a good year to build relationships and make really good friends.”
Her last exam will be chemistry on November 12.
Another year 12 student also going through her exams is Maygen Baird.
This year she is studying English, psychology, biology, health and human development and further mathematics.
Maygen said she was feeling “feeling okay” about the rest of her exams.
“I’ve pretty much got them all close together so I’m getting them out of the way quickly,” she said.
Maygen said studying was “going okay” but said she wished she’d studied more and paid more attention (throughout the year).
“I think I’ve done pretty good with what I’ve gotten,” she said.
She is hoping to study paediatric nursing at Federation University in Ballarat next year.
“I’ve always liked helping people,” she said.
Maygen currently works at Priceline Pharmacy as a pharmacy assistant “so has an idea of medications and pretty much a foot in the door”.
