Lily Ferro
The 18-year-old dancer and musician has been honing her craft for as long as she can remember.
She regards her fellow dancers as like her "second family", and she finds dancing alongside them far more enjoyable than going head to head for the top spot.
She trains at ballet five times a week, but always opts for exams rather than competitions.
She cannot remember ever not being a dancer and she grew up alongside those in her dance grade.
She had tried sports and athletics, but found nothing had the same kind of support and satisfaction as her dance group.
"I’ve been with them all for so long. I wouldn’t enjoy it if it was competitive."
It would be very bittersweet to be splitting up with them as they all moved on with their lives in the next few years, but she plans to remain involved in the dance community for as long as she can.
What she loved was the physicality of ballet and how it could be used to express herself.
She appreciated the the discipline it required, as it took plenty of strength training and stretches to maintain correct form.
Aside from ballet, she also delved into the world of jazz.
Where ballet was about perfection, jazz was more free and chaotic, which scratched a very different itch for her.
She also played flute with the school orchestra, the Dunedin Youth Orchestra once a week and sung in the school choir.
Each group worked on projects which ran for a very long time and allowed her to meet lots of people.
At school she fulfilled the roll of deputy head prefect.
She found the discipline of her dance and music helped her in both her studies and responsibilities.
Being deputy head prefect involved much more planning and administration than she had first expected, but it was nice to have a say at the school after 10 years of being a pupil.
Achievements: Deputy head prefect (2022); Royal Academy of Dance grade 8 ballet distinction (2021), advanced 1 ballet (2022); NZAMD solo seal jaz (2022); school senior Madrigal choir (2019-2022); Dunedin Youth Orchestra 1st flute (2022); Columba College year 12 science overall excellence cup (2021), overall excellence cup (2021); DELF A2 (2020); Level 2 excellence (2021).
Role model: Her dance instructor Robyn Sinclair.
Hopes for the future: To study for a bachelor of arts and science degree at the University of Otago.
Riley Piebenga
The 17-year-old deputy head prefect spends most of her free time involved with sport, whether it be training, coaching, umpiring or playing.
Growing up, her mother was a netball coach and spent a lot of time at games, which exposed Riley to the sport early.
She first started playing when she was 6 and accompanied her mum to many games as a way to spend more time with her.
She grew to love the competitive, yet supportive, environment surrounding netball and slowly became more involved.
Not long after starting netball, Riley found a love for touch.
The two sports coincided with each other perfectly, as one season started when the other finished.
She began coaching touch in year 9 and netball in year 10, both of which gave her a better understanding and respect for the games, along with all the work that went into them.
Her hard effort has paid off, as she recently participated in a national netball development camp and has been selected to trial for the NZ U18 touch team which will travel internationally to play in a transtasman tournament. She also found herself in the role of deputy head prefect, which she thoroughly enjoys.
As a junior pupil, she looked up at the senior prefects and felt she could never achieve as highly as they had.
But it turned out those prefects were once juniors just like her.
She strived to be a role model her juniors could look up to, while staying down to earth and connecting with them.
Her discipline and success in academics and sporting is one of the ways that she acts as a reliable leader to them.
She has expectations and obligations to meet as deputy head prefect, but being a good role model was always something she enjoyed working towards.
Achievements: senior A netball MVP (2021), senior A touch MVP(2022); Otago touch (2015-2022), U16 captain (2020, 2021), MPV (2020), U18 co-captain and leadership award (2021); Dunedin netball U16 co-captain (2020); New Zealand netball development camp participant (2022); touch sports blue (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021); netball sports blue (2021); Level 1, 2 excellence endorsement (2020, 2021).
Role model: Her mother, who knew the sporting industry intimately, understood the struggles and pushed her to keep trying her best no matter what.
Hopes for the future: To study sports management and development at the University of Otago
