St Cuthbert’s girls chosen for international Olympiads

Two St Cuthbert’s College students are the only girls chosen for the NZ teams competing in the international Biology and Chemistry Olympiads this year.

Vicky Tai will attend the Biology Olympiad in Taiwan and Jade Leung will attend the chemistry Olympiad in Turkey.

Head of the school’s science department, Dr Jan Giffney, says: “I’ve never known it to happen to have two girls in the school selected for international Olympiads in two science fields at the same time.”

Jade and Vicky were also selected by the Royal Society of NZ to attend science events in Australia.

These selections are a real honour as they are based on academic achievement as well as involvement in extra-curricular activities and commitment to the sciences.

The girls passed a series of examinations and attended separate camps in their respective science disciplines over the past six months which whittled down the number of entrants and decided those who would attend the Olympics.

Jade will join Andy Chen from Macleans College, Kailun Wang from Auckland Grammar School and Thomas Fellows from Christ’s College for tutorials before the Olympiad.

Vicky’s team includes Jack Zhou from Auckland International College along with Benjamin Bai and Richard Chou, both from Macleans College.

Giffney says the work required for the Olympiads is at stage one or two university level. They include lengthy exams and an equally challenging practical session.