By KATH GANNAWAY
FORMER Upper Yarra Secondary School captain Georgia Rokicki has overcome adversity and grief throughout her teenage years to achieve her ambition of a university education.
Returning to the college on Friday 13 May to accept a prestigious Macpherson Smith Rural Foundation (MSRF) scholarship, she said her advice to young people who are struggling was to challenge yourself, and not to be afraid to ask for help.
The scholarship, which includes $45,000 financial aid plus support through mentoring, leadership development and individual counsel, aims to reduce financial barriers to tertiary study for outstanding rural students.
Georgia went from Warburton Primary School to Upper Yarra Secondary College where she was an A-grade student and five-time College dux.
She worked through a Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award and became a University of Melbourne Kwong Lee Dow Young Scholar while at the school, and is now doing an arts degree at Deakin University.
It’s an impressive resume for the young woman who, while being raised in a supportive close-knit family, has had to contend with isolation, financial hardship and, in her VCE year, the loss of her father, Peter.
Peter was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2014, and Georgia spent much of her VCE year caring for him, travelling to and from the hospital and studying by his bedside.
Despite the heavy personal and study demands, she held down a part-time job and maintained her involvement with local groups in her community.
Peter died in June 2015, but she maintained her resolve to work through her grief to attain the success she knew would make him, other family members and her community, proud.
Georgia said the support she received from her teachers and others at UYSC was critical.
“With Dad being sick, it was a big decision as to whether to keep studying or support Mum,” she said.
“The school provided all those support networks to get the work done and still take time off to be at the hospital.
“I really didn’t realise just how much the teachers put in until I needed their help.”
To anyone else out there who is struggling, Georgia said it was not easy, but ask for help.
“I didn’t want to be the kid who needed help and wasn’t coping,” she said.
“But it was the best decision I made. Your school and teachers can do way more than you expect to help you get through.”
Although not set in concrete, she is now looking towards a career in politics, saying she believes it’s a way to make a difference and achieve change.
“I think it’s important to have more diversity and more people from regional areas, also maybe more people who grew up a bit more disadvantaged to give them a voice,” she said.
MSRF chairman, Rob Knowles, said without the scholarships, amazing young people like Georgia might not have reached their full potential.
“Georgia may have missed out on a tertiary education, or worse, not realised her dreams of making a significant lifelong difference to her local community in rural Victoria,” he said.
