Profile
Through studying the VCE, Yun Kong went from being a shy teenager to a confident young woman on track to realising her dream of becoming a professional engineer and, one day, undertaking her own research program.
In deciding her study path, Yun knew she wanted to broaden her global perspectives, skills and knowledge and study overseas at the best course the world had to offer. The VCE gave her all that and more.
‘VCE provided various opportunities to show our abilities, which made me more confident and love myself,’ Yun explains.
‘I was very shy at first but after graduation, I could stand on the stage to sing and dance. Moreover, I could change my role from a participant to a leader or a director of an activity. That was the most important impact of VCE for me.’
At first, Yun found her VCE studies challenging. She had to learn how to manage stress, how to learn, study and concentrate effectively, and how to stand up and present her work in front of others without being overwhelmed by nerves.
Her confidence grew as she learnt about good communication skills, problem solving, critical thinking and teamwork.
‘Before studying VCE, I focused more on how to get the answers correct even though I didn’t understand them clearly,’ Yun explains.
‘However, I became more interested in learning the clear theorem and trying to find a way of using it in the questions and normal life.’
‘The first time I tried to write an English paragraph in VCE studies, I knew how to express my thinking, but the grammar and logic were repetitive and messy.’
‘Throughout the two-year VCE studies, I became more logical in my English writing, my vocabulary improved, and I was able to plan better, which helped me a lot.’
Yun is now studying a Bachelor of Engineering at the University of New South Wales and feeling more confident in herself than ever before.
She says students who are considering studying the VCE should ‘catch every opportunity and try everything’.
‘It doesn’t matter if you are successful at everything or not — your studies will become precious experiences and help you in future studying.’