Not only did two exceptional 19-year-old students from Reddam House Durbanville accelerate their A Level studies earlier this year to complete it in five months instead of the normal year, but they also managed to achieve brilliant results.
Laura Brink and Victor Vermeulen received their results on 11 August from Cambridge Assessment International. With an aggregate average of 93% and 95% respectively, both have confirmed their acceptance into leading global universities.
Top in the World
Laura has been accepted to study English literature at Oxford University in the United Kingdom. Last year she also achieved the coveted position of Top in the World for her AS Levels in English language and literature.
She achieved 95% for art and design, 94% for English literature and 90% for history in her three chosen A Level subjects. She will leave for the UK on 27 September.
Victor has already left last Monday for the Netherlands where he will begin his studies in applied science at the Eindhoven University of Technology. He achieved 96% in mathematics, 95% in physics and 93% in chemistry.
Victor and Laura both attended Durbanville Primary School. Victor joined Reddam House in Grade 6 and Laura, who completed Grade 8 at Durbanville High School, joined Reddam House with a scholarship in Grade 9.
They chose to accelerate their A Levels to complete the syllabus in only five months. This allowed them to write their A Level exams in June so that they can begin their studies at their chosen universities in September – the start of the new academic year in the UK and Netherlands.
Tough experience
“It was certainly a tough experience. I had to drop everything external and focus solely on my academics. It took a gruelling five months of studying to achieve those results, and the support of my family helped keep me afloat during those stressful times,” Victor says.
“Physics remained my favourite subject throughout my school career. I was always fascinated by the way in which science described and predicted natural phenomena, and physics happened to be the perfect way to discover how the world around us works,” he explains his passion for the subject.
“What’s so great about applied science is the fact that you get to put your theories and study into practice and view it in the real world,” he says.
“In my future career I hope to be working on projects like ITER, which is the latest global fusion project – a massive undertaking involving 20 different nations coming together to provide energy solutions.”
Future of power generation
“These are the future of power generation and could prove vital in our efforts to produce cheap and clean electricity,” he says.
Victor also partakes in fencing at school and is interested in amateur radio and reading books and scientific articles about the latest advances. He is the son of Drs Karl and Deidré Vermeulen.
Childhood dream
For Laura it was a childhood dream coming true to be accepted at Oxford University.
“Initially, I was very excited about the prestige of Oxford, but the more I’ve researched, the more I’ve realised that the reason I want to go there is because of the way they teach.
“I can specialise in English from my very first day of study and I’ll be able to get an honours degree after three years, which means I will accelerate my academic career. I hope to have my doctorate within the next 10 years. I want to work in academia, and I’d love to do research and be a literary critic.
“I also want to teach because the impact my teachers have had on my life has made me feel that teaching is the most fulfilling thing I can do with my time. I’m so thankful to Reddam House,” Laura says.
“I naturally gravitate towards the humanity subjects such as languages and history. Exploring and attempting to understand something as elusive as the arts gives me incredible intellectual stimulation. I also think the humanities allow for more individuality and playfulness, which simply makes them fun.
“Literature is one of those rare fields in which you can simultaneously be a serious intellectual and deeply personal. The extraordinary vastness of the English literary canon means that there are endless texts to study technically, like puzzles to be solved, but also endless opportunities to discover more about myself and others.”
Laura took sewing lessons since she was about 11 years old – “when I still wanted to be a fashion designer”.
She also loves art. “My love for art will inevitably work its way into my studies, as I have a particular love for ekphrastic poetry – a category that focuses on visual subjects, particularly translating artworks into literary description,” Laura says. She is the daughter of Francois Brink and Mitzi Cilliers.
