2019 Laureate Assembly celebrates student success and service

The 2019 Laureate Assembly was a wonderful celebration, as our community gathered together to acknowledge the achievements of our 2019 Graduates and this year’s Scholarship recipients. You can read our full 2019 Honours List here.

Blackfriars 2020 Head Prefect, Peter Le, greeted old scholars, distinguished guests, staff, students and families to the event with his welcoming address.

Peter discussed the importance of striving for excellence, and of supporting others on their own paths.

‘When we seek to discover the best in others, we bring out the best in ourselves,’ he said.

Principal Simon Cobiac echoed Peter’s sentiments in his own address, encouraging students past and present to ‘Be a man for others’ and use their gifts and efforts in service of others as they become ‘the engineers, doctors, entrepreneurs, scientists, husbands and fathers of the future’.

2019 Dux, Youngmo (Silas) Koo, who achieved an ATAR of 99.60, delivered the traditional Laureate Address at the assembly, expressing gratitude to God, his family and his teachers for the roles they played in helping him develop the resilience needed to succeed in Year 12.

‘Some might say that it’s too hard to build resilience on their own… I want to strongly remind all students that most of the support that you need is already provided for you but just not taken. Your friends are there for you. Your teachers are there for you. And your family is there for you. So, make the most out of the support that you’re already provided with,’ Silas said.

Silas entered Year 12 in 2019 having already achieved a Merit in Stage 2 Specialist Mathematics and scoring 19.7 in Stage 2 Mathematical Methods as a Year 11 student in 2018.

As a result of these outstanding results, Silas was awarded with entry to the prestigious University of Adelaide Headstart Scholarship Program, which saw him undertake first year University Mathematics as part of his Year 12 course in 2019.

Silas, part of our Korean student cohort, was the first International student in South Australia to have been awarded a Headstart scholarship. As art of his address Silas thanked his parents for bringing their family to Adelaide.

‘They have sacrificed everything for me and my brother from bringing us from Korea, sending us to Blacks and providing us with everything that we need. I can never thank them enough for everything they have done for us,’ he said.

Meanwhile in the House Shield presentations, Horten House accepted the St Albert the Great Shield for Academic Excellence and Burke/Lacordaire accepted the overall House Shield. The full list of scholarship recipients for 2020 was also presented to the school community. To find out more about scholarships at Blackfriars Priory School, click here.