By Bridget Cook
JAYDEN Lynch-Cooper was top of his class last year.
The Lyndhurst Secondary College student recently received a VCE Premier Excellence Award for receiving one of the highest marks in the state for Engineering Certificate II, VCE VET.
Jayden, 16, completed the Year 12 subject as a Year 11 student and received a study score of 49.
Last year, about 360,000 students completed their VCE. At the awards ceremony held at the Melbourne Convention Centre in May, just 280 students from across the state were presented with awards for achieving study scores ranging from 46 to 50 depending on the study area.
Jayden said he was proud of his achievement, as was his family.
“I’m really proud of myself, it was a great achievement,” he said.
“My family was absolutely stoked, they tell everybody about it.”
Jayden said he did so well in the subject for a number of reason.
“I have a real passion for engineering,” he said.
“Both my father and step-father were also huge contributors to my success. My step-dad’s an engineer and my dad is a mechanic, so I’ve grown up with it. That’s why I did so well. It was also my favourite subject.”
Jayden said he enjoyed the subject so much, that he now knew that’s what he wanted to do in the future.
“It really helped me find my passion and what I want to do in life,” he said. “I’ve applied to go into the Australia Defence Force Academy University to do civil engineering.”