New Zealand's top scholar has been named -- and she's in Australia studying environmental science.
The winner of the Prime Minister's Award for Academic Excellence is former Rutherford College student Oxana Repina.
Ms Repina received seven NZ scholarships, six at outstanding level. In two scholarship exams she received the best marks in the country.
"Happy and proud" to have won the award, Ms Repina is "glad all the hard work paid off".
Judy Farrar, Associate Principal of Rutherford College, says Ms Repina is a well-balanced, "extremely self-motivated, hard-working amazing young woman."
"A lot of high achievers just study, study, study, but she's not one of those. She has involvement in a huge number of things. She chose to go to Sydney University rather than Oxford or Cambridge because she wanted to be near a surf beach. "
Ms Repina says her decision wasn't really about the surfing, but "it was part of it -- outdoors are a big part of it for me." Oxford and Cambridge just aren't really her thing.
Graduating as 2015 Dux of Rutherford College, Ms Repina has a passion for conservation. That passion saw her selected to take part in Sir Peter Blake's 2016 sub-Antarctic voyage. Now she's studying toward a Bachelor of Science majoring in Environmental Science at Sydney University.
"New Zealand is an amazing country, and we have an amazing environment -- one of the best in the world. It's up to all of us to do our bit to protect it. We could be real leaders in conservation. There's more we could do, and we definitely could do it."
During her time at Rutherford College, Ms Repina successfully applied for a $4000 grant for recycling bins at the school. She also won the 2013 New Zealand Geographic Young Photographer of the Year award.
Newshub.
