Former Kurunjang Secondary College student Giovanna Zurzolo has etched her name into the history books.
On July 17, Ms Zurzolo won the prestigious VCE Premier’s Award for the subject of Australian History.
However, it was somewhat of an anti-climax.
“When I got it, I was midway through uni exams so I couldn’t focus on it. It was very unexpected,” Ms Zurzola said.
But that’s not to say that the learnings from the class did not leave an indelible mark on the 2023 graduate.
“It was probably the best subject I’ve ever done, including uni now. It influenced what I wanted to study and I’m very glad I did it.”
Ms Zurzola is now attending Monash University and completing a law degree, majoring in human rights.
She said the class opened her eyes to past and present injustices happening on our own soil and motivated her to tackle them.
“We studied a lot of activism and I realised there’s so much more that needs to be done,” she said.
“Our scope of study ended in the early 2000s but you could see how much is still wrong and how much was hidden for so long.”
“I know a lot of school do revs [History Revolutions] instead but its a very important subject.”
Ms Zurzola’s biggest supporter was her teacher, Dominic Snape.
“He wasn’t surprised at all. He was very supportive, engaging, and confident in me,” Ms Zurzola said.
It was also with the help of her friends that allowed Ms Zurzola to push herself and absorb the vast amount of knowledge needed to do well.
“We studied together after school until 6.30 doing timelines on the whiteboard. Without that I wouldn’t have remembered anything.”
Eddie Russell
