Bernice Cullen
Her love of sport often lands higher on the priority list than homework or recovering from her injuries, but that unrelenting attitude has seen her set records and take home medals.
Although the 17-year-old is involved in a variety of sports, such as cricket, touch, tennis and squash, her main passions are athletics and netball.
She started them both when she was about 5 and has loved them both since.
At first she started off doing every athletics event, but along the way honed in on long jump and triple jump.
"There’s something about flying through the air into the long jump pit. It’s just so cool."
She also focused on netball, as she found it the perfect contrast to the individual style of athletics.
With athletics the responsibility was all on her, but the satisfaction of victory was all hers too.
Netball was a team sport and she could rely on others and celebrate wins as a group.
This year she was selected along with 84 others throughout the country to attend the Netball NZ national development camp to help develop her skills.
Despite her urge to train, Bernice was constantly battling her body’s need to rest.
About two years ago she tore a muscle under her calf which never healed, which was a factor in a stress fracture that developed in her tibia this year.
At times she struggled to participate in events due to the injuries.
During a national triple jump event this year, she was in pain and started the event with two no-jumps and one poor jump.
She knew she should pull out, but due to a lack of numbers she was given another set of jumps and could not say no.
"I ... just knew I wanted to do better."
By pushing past the pain she set a new personal best in triple jump and received championship medals for both triple jump and long jump.
She planned to use that drive to pursue a career in the sports industry by studying physical education and nutrition at the University of Otago.
Achievements: Athletics Otago secondary school female athlete of the year (2022); NZ U20 long jump champion (2022); NZ U20 triple jump champion (2022); Otago academy of sport (2022); St Hilda’s long jump record (2021, 2022); Netball NZ NDC (2022), Dunedin U18 team (2021, 2022); Steel Steps Accelerator programme (2021); St Hilda’s sports overall senior champion cup (2021); South Island 1st long jump, 3rd triple jump (2021); Otago secondary schools U19 long jump record (2021); St Hilda’s senior A netball team (2021, 2022); St Hilda’s netball coach (2021, 2022); Academic blue (2020); netball liaison (2022).
Role model: Former New Zealand netball player Bernice Mene, whom she was named after.
Hopes for the future: To study physical education and nutrition at the University of Otago.
Lily Knox
Whether it be taking photos, making her own clothes, writing poems or creating short films, the St Hilda’s arts prefect takes great pride in everything she does.
The 18-year-old began with painting when she was very young and felt hooked by the creativity of it.
Her grandfather was very interested in filmmaking and that passion rubbed off on her as well.
Before long, her list of creative pursuits grew and grew.
Now she is known around the school for wearing coloured homemade clothing and painting bright neon-style artworks.
She has a particular interest in light and colour, which comes through in her work.
"There’s not a minute of my day I’m not making something."
Those days often creep into nights, as she sometimes catches herself getting carried away and working on projects in the late hours of the nights.
She will regularly wake up and find the art she produced needs a lot more work than first anticipated, but she always keeps at it and polishes it into something she can stand by.
"When I make anything, I’m going to make it something I’m proud of."
Those high standards have resulted in placing as a finalist in the 48Hours under 18 film competition, the national winner of the Showquest OnScreen film competition and placing first in her art, photography and English classes last year.
She draws inspiration from a variety of different things, but her main muse is people.
Everybody has a unique identity and story, which she likes being able to explore creatively, she says.
Her current obsession is photography and she draws much inspiration from South Korean music videos, which have a punchy, professional and colourful style she loves.
She hopes to one day work on similar music videos in the future.
Outside of her creative pursuits, she is most proud of her work with the school’s Queer Straight Alliance, a school group which organises events such as Pride Week.
She wants to be visible as somebody who is unapologetic about who they are and the group helps normalise those values.
Achievements: Showquest film competition national winner (2021); Otago regional debating team (2022); St Hilda’s arts prefect (2022); St Hilda’s Showquest co-ordinator (2022); OarFM youth radio host (2019-2022); Robbie Burns poetry competition unpublished adults winner (2019); First in class art, English (2020), art, English, photography (2021); economics 1st in class (2020, 2021); highest academic achievement year 11 and 12 (2020, 2021).
Role model: A three-way tie among her photography teacher ,Mrs Pickering, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and South Korean pop star Park Ji-min.
Hopes for the future: Spend some time travelling the world before pursuing photography as a career.
