Gunnedah’s youth are filling boxes and loading up their cars as they prepare to head off to university.
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The annual exodus will see 2017 and 2018 Year 12 graduates leave the town to pursue their chosen careers at tertiary institutions all over the state, while others stay behind to do a gap year to travel or save money.
Local teens Max Crowhurst and Jess Moore will leave their family homes on the weekend ahead of their orientation weeks in February at the University of Wollongong and the University of Newcastle.
“I feel so grown-up now – I’m talking to banks and real estate agents,” Max said on Monday.
“My room is full of pots and pans and random chairs.”
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The former St Mary’s College student is leaving on Friday and will move into a share house with some former locals.
“I’m really excited about new people and a new environment,” Max said.
“I’m hoping to get a job [and] I have the month to set myself up.”
Max will take on a bachelor of law and a bachelor of international studies, totalling four years of study. He will start the International Studies course in his second year and has the opportunity to study overseas.
“I’m really interested in travel. If I’d had a gap year, I would have travelled,” he said.
I’m really excited to go. It’s a new chapter and it’s something that’s been a long time waiting.
- Jess Moore
Fellow HSC graduate Jess Moore is moving to Newcastle on Sunday and will stay with her grandmother in Branxton until she sorts out accommodation.
She is relieved to know she will receive $750 from the Gunnedah Community Scholarship Fund and is hopeful she will also be able to secure assistance from the Country Education Foundation of Gunnedah. She has been working two jobs in an effort to save and will start a bachelor of communications (journalism) next month.
“I’m really excited to go. It’s a new chapter and it’s something that’s been a long time waiting,” Jess said.
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She said she “can’t wait to meet new people” and was looking forward to a “completely different lifestyle”.
“Going from a farmer in dry conditions to a coastal area will be a nice change,” she said.
Grace Jaeger is among those who have chosen to stay behind this year to work and travel. She is deferring a bachelor of education (PDHPE).
“I couldn’t imagine going on Friday [to university],” she said.
“I need a year to mentally get over my schooling life.”
Grace is working two jobs and hopes to fit in some travel after getting a taste late last year when she visited Barbados and America on a netball tour with Wanderers Australia.
