JIBI KUNNETHEDAM
2013: Kunnethedam was a national finalist in the Lions Young Speechmaker Competition and had received the school’s top scholar award two years in a row. He hoped to become a doctor and a politician.
2023: A registrar at Dunedin Hospital, Kunnethedam is completing specialist training with the Royal Australasian College of Psychiatry.
During his time at Auckland Medical School, he was elected student president and then president of all medical students across New Zealand.
At 22, he was also the youngest board member of the New Zealand Medical Association. Concerned about health disparities in smaller communities, he and some other students founded Students of Rural Health Aoteaora (SoRHA) and he served as the first chairman.
Kunnethedam also served on the board of the rural GP network and, more recently, took up a position with the education committee of the Medical Council of New Zealand.
MOLLY FARRELL
2013: Farrell was one of the school’s top speech-makers, gaining grade 8 (honours plus) in Trinity Guildhall Speech and Drama and receiving an Edmund Rice Service Award. She was keen on becoming a journalist.
2023: A primary school teacher, Farrell recently relocated to Dublin.
She attempted to move to Ireland in March 2020 but returned home after only five days when schools began to shut because of Covid.
She has a bachelor of arts and a postgraduate diploma in teaching and learning.
"In my personal life, I’m not involved with speech and drama [any more]," she says. "However, I bring drama, music and dance into the classroom at every opportunity."
