By Natalee Kerr
When Newtown’s Iona Bulford got up at 6.58am last week, she never anticipated to shortly be crying “tears of joy”.
Following a sleepless night awaiting VCE results, the Geelong College graduate woke up early to check her ATAR.
She discovered she had landed a near-perfect score of 99.65, including a study score of 48 out of 50 for both English and Psychology.
“I immediately burst into tears, I couldn’t stop crying,” Iona told the Indy this week.
“I think it was just the build-up of all the nerves, stress and anticipation.”
The 18-year-old said she “couldn’t believe” the number on her computer.
“I stared at the screen for five to 10 minutes, I was just stunned,” she said.
“I definitely didn’t expect to get a score this high – I was shocked, but also very excited.”
With tears rolling down her face, Iona said her parents were initially worried she had not achieved the score she hoped for.
“I ran back upstairs to tell my parents and because I was crying they thought I did badly,” she said.
“But then I told them my result and they were so excited and proud of me.”
Iona was one of more than 45,000 year 12 students to receive the end of year score last week.
The college co-captain recorded the region’s third highest score, and landed the 2019 Dux for her school.
A keen musician, debater and hockey player, Iona credited her impressive schooling achievement to “keeping busy”.
“Year 12 was one of the best years of my life – it was a lot of work and tricky to manage at times, but it was so great,” she said.
The local teen, who plans on studying psychology at Melbourne University next year, said she looked forward to pursuing her passion.
“It’s very sad and strange to have now finished school as it’s all I can remember, but I’m also really excited to head to university,” Iona said.
Other top performers from across the region included St Joseph’s College’s Ethan Near (99.90), Kardinia International College’s Szu-Yun Lo (99.85) and Sacred Heart College student Xinyu Lyu (99.55).
This year 49,324 students graduated VCE – marking a record completion rate of 98.1 per cent, with 21,969 study scores of 40 or more awarded, according to state government.
