More than 180 people gathered at The University of Western Australia to see Year 12 students graduate from this year’s Fairway program and accept their certificates. 

The Fairway program is part of Student Equity and focuses on providing academic and social support to students facing financial challenges and other disruptions to their high school education. 

One of the students who graduated was Rhiannon Saunders, 18, from Mt Helena who heard about the program through her school supervisor.

The Eastern Hills Senior High School student had been experiencing disruptions at home and had not done well in Year 11 when it was suggested she apply for the program. 

 Image: Rhiannon Saunders accepts her certificate from Professor David Sadler.

“I thought it would be really beneficial for me to improve in my Year 12 and it helped me a lot, my ATAR jumped quite a bit,” Rhiannon said.  

“I had been struggling a lot with my motivation and concentration and I think going into Fairway and being around a group of other students who were also struggling helped me put things into perspective and focus a lot on Year 12.”

The 89 Fairway students who completed the program this year have demonstrated their academic commitment by completing short assessments and attending key events during the school holidays including Summer School, April Master Class and Winter School. 

As well as boosting her academic results, the program gave Rhiannon the opportunity to discuss her future with a group of people of a similar age in similar situations.

“I definitely became surer of what I wanted to do through Fairway because I realised how many options I had and I discovered how great UWA is,” she said.

Rhiannon was excited to receive an early offer to study psychology at UWA and is looking forward to starting her university journey. 

“I think Fairway really prepared me to go to uni and even though I felt like I was leaving something good behind with Fairway I felt really grateful for it,” Rhiannon said.

Guests of students, family and friends, school teachers and UWA staff came together for the graduation hosted by Fairway graduate and UWA student, Carol Xu. 

The ceremony also featured speeches from Fairway and UWA graduate Aimee Nicolas and representatives of the Year 12 cohort, Minal Charan and Sanjo Fobizi, both from Sevenoaks Senior College.