This time last year, Sarah Skitt had just received the happy news that she was the recipient of an ABCN Scholarship. One year on, as one of our 12 inaugural 2013 scholars, she has now completed the first year of her scholarship.

Sarah’s mentor Barbara Sotiriadis from Navitas in Perth recently made the trip to her home town of Mount Barker – 350km south of Perth, WA – to catch up with Sarah and visit her school, Mount Barker Community College.  Up until now, due to the distance, Sarah and Barbara had been conducting mentoring sessions via Skype, so this was their first face-to-face meeting. There Barbara also met the school’s Principal, Andrew Fraser, who is particularly proud of Sarah’s achievements. After a tour of the school, the three shared lunch in town and chatted about Sarah’s options for Year 12 and the various activities she undertakes outside of school hours.

Back at school, Sarah and Barbara then spent some quiet time together in the library to go over some recent work and assignments. Like a lot of Year 11 students, Sarah is often unsure what is expected of her when completing assignments so Barbara was able to discuss this with her and provide some tips for evaluating criteria, self-assessment and reflection on her work.

Both Barbara and Sarah got a lot out of the visit with Barbara saying ‘It was really beneficial to have this time with her face-to-face.  I feel she may contact me more as a result and ask for more assistance with her school work and subject choices’. We wish Sarah all the best as she continues her Year 12 studies.