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 Lara navigated Year 12 differently throughout 2021!
Introducing: Lara Proctor
Category: Social Impact & Change
School: Engadine High School
Career Aspiration: Financial Strategy or Investment Banking Position
Achievements
- Initiated Women United at her school
- Attended NSW Women of the Year Awards
- Have reached over 100 girls to run sessions on female health
- Recognition and attendance by former Premier, Gladys Berejiklian
What makes Lara a Trailblazer?
Lara’s work as a young leader and social change-maker culminated in the creation of a new school collective called Women United. This program and social group aims to create pragmatic social change in the school environment, especially in how young women are treated. Casual sexism and female experiences in the school environment are often perceived as uncomfortable to discuss, however Lara’s Women United intends to equip girls with the skills to speak up and stop sexism.
Women United has reached over 100 girls in Lara’s school by running sessions on female health, feminism in the modern era and open forums which allowed for girls to highlight their personal areas of concern across a range of topics, such as body-positivity and eating disorders. Despite only being recently created, Women United has had great success, with Year Advisors reporting various instances in which girls have gone from poor school attendance and low academic performance to growing a renewed love for school!
If that isn’t amazing enough, the success of Women United has been recognised by former Premier Gladys Berejiklian who recognised the collective’s efforts by attending an in-person discussion session and commending Lara herself!
Lara is a natural born leader with existing phenomenal skills in public speaking, organisation and group cooperation. In the creation of Women United tested these skills, but also forced Lara to develop new skills. She listened to feedback from teachers, students and parents to continuously adapt the collective to the needs and wants of young girls. For example, an open discussion revealed many girls struggled to access sanitary items at school. This insight let to the reevaluation of the school’s supplies of such products within school.
Beyond online learning, Lara was also challenged in pursuing multiple passions and hours of work experience. She was forced to balance leading Women United, teaching and performing in dance, and her efforts in Social Justice. Unfortunately, due to border closures Lara was unable to visit her unwell grandmother and her grandfather who recently passed away. Her wildly emotional experience in Year 12 has truly built her resilience and made her Social Justice efforts even more important.
Lara hopes to focus her career in the Finance Industry with a focus in Financial Strategy or Investment Banking. She hopes to work across multiple disciplines to develop financial strategies in areas of marketing and leadership. Her work creating Women United has influenced her decision to pursue work in corporate finance that has strong community ties and aids supporting financially disadvantaged people! At this point, she also hopes to complete a Masters in Business! Wow!
“WU will undoubtedly remain one of the most important endeavours of my youth and I am incredibly proud of the shifts I have seen in school culture since its formation.”
Lara spearheaded the creation of Women United at her school, beginning to make waves of change in the female experience at school. There is no doubt we will see Lara continue to flourish as she is named one of our Top 50 Trailblazers in 2021.
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.
