While many teens across Australia prepare to let their hair down at Schoolies Week celebrations, Nulkaba’s Grace Whitaker has decided to make a real difference.
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On Friday – which also happens to be her 18th birthday – Grace will travel to Cambodia as part of a mission trip where she will be lending a hand to local schools and orphanages in underprivileged communities.
Grace, who has just completed her Higher School Certificate (HSC) at All Saints College St. Mary’s campus, first applied to take part in the two week trip at the end of 2013.
After a successful interview she was selected as one of 10 of the school’s students to take part.
Since then, the group have managed to raise more than $15,000 through various charitable initiatives, with every cent of the money to go directly towards helping organisations in Cambodia.
Grace said that she is very excited about the trip and is hoping it will be an experience that she will treasure forever.
“I always wanted to do some sort of mission trip instead of schoolies,” she said.
“When I found out about this opportunity I thought it was perfect.
“I really wanted to do something that would make a real difference and hopefully it will be something that I will remember for the rest of my life – something to be really proud of.”
Not only will Grace fly out of the country on Friday, she will also be celebrating her 18th birthday and sitting an exam to receive her green-provisional license.
“It is definitely going to be a big day in my life,” she said.
“I am really ready to just hit the ground running.”
Grace said that she feels fairly confident with how she performed in the recent HSC and is hoping to study either primary teaching or speech pathology at Newcastle University next year.
