What are the Trailblazer Awards?
The Trailblazer Awards celebrates Year 12 students beyond their ATAR, recognising those who have overcome personal challenges and used their final year of school to positively impact their community.
Our Trailblazers will have the opportunity to network with industry leaders, build their personal brand and profile as a future leader, learn key career skills in our 3-day Pathfinder Accelerator, and so much more!
Find out how Amy navigated Year 12 differently throughout 2021!
Introducing: Amy Nguyen
Category: Business and Entrepreneurship
School: Bankstown Girls High School
Career Aspiration: Investment banking
Achievements
- Passionate legacy volunteer
- Peer mentor for younger students
- Found ways to cope during lockdown
What makes Amy a Trailblazer?
Throughout high school, Amy has been heavily involved in the Legacy Program, managing a range of projects, community events and fundraising initiatives to help relieve financial hardship and deliver social services to veterans and their families. She is incredibly passionate about this organisation as she strongly believes in the importance of supporting her community and lending a helping hand whenever possible. Her involvement with the Legacy Program has allowed her to help provide disadvantaged individuals with support and assistance.
In her senior years of high school, Amy also participated in a peer support program — an initiative which sees older students mentor new students as they navigate their first year of high school. Amy was able to offer useful advice and guidance for the students as they faced different academic and social challenges.
Amy recognises that her work with the Legacy Program and the peer support program has helped her build a lot of valuable skills.
“I developed strong communication and teamwork skills and have since become more open and understanding towards people as I listened and empathised with their stories.”
She also learnt how to adapt to different situations, which has enhanced her ability to make quick and well-informed decisions. This has greatly improved her ability to lead effectively — a skill she sees as being super important for her future career aspirations.
While the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns proved very challenging, Amy overcame this difficulty by being flexible and open to change. She made sure to maintain strong relationships with her friends, as well continuing to pursue extracurricular passions.
An example of this is Amy and her friend group’s submission for the Triple J Unearthed music competition. Whilst they were not successful, continuing to partake in activities that she loves, Amy was able to better cope with lockdown and online learning.
Amy describes herself as “an enthusiastic lifelong learner” and someone who is keen to continue learning new things. As a result she is considering pursuing a career in finance, an industry that will provide a space for her to continue learning and challenging herself. More specifically, she would like to focus on investment banking in my future career to help others reach their financial goals.
Amy is one of our Top 50 Trailblazer finalists!
The Top 50 Year 12 Trailblazer Awards
The Trailblazer Awards aim to identify and celebrate students who use their final years of school to invest holistically in the skills and experiences that will maximise their own future opportunities and make a contribution to the future of our society.
Our winners for the Year 12 Trailblazer Awards have demonstrated initiative in volunteering for their school or community, have participated in co-curricular activities, and have held leadership positions within their schools.
Learn more about who placed in the Top 50 Year 12 Trailblazers here!
About Art of Smart Education
At Art of Smart Education, we’re an award-winning provider of holistic tutoring and mentoring for students in years K-12. Our mission is to help students answer the difficult question, “What am I going to do with my life when I finish school, and how do I get there?”
We understand that true success involves mastering study, career and leadership skills while maintaining your wellbeing, not just excelling in academics and as a result, over the last decade, we’ve supported over 10,000 students to achieve their best and maximise their options for life after school.
Each year over one million young Australians, parents, and teachers access our guides, videos and resources to navigate the journey through high school.
