HANDS ON THE PRIZE: Sam Cook with his vocational student award and nomination certificate for TVET Student of the Year.
Since Sam Cook graduated from Inverell High School last year with his HSC, he has completed a TAFE Certificate II in Tourism and is now studying a Bachelor of Information Studies, externally, through Charles Sturt University.
He was also nominated for TVET Student of the Year, for which he received a nomination certificate.
“I was really surprised to be a recipient of the award,” Sam said. “It had been a while since I was nominated, so I didn’t expect anything to come out of it really.”
The prize consisted of an award, signed by Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth, Peter Garrett, and enclosed was a cheque for $2000.
The award was granted to a handful of students around Australia for their efforts in vocational subjects.
It recognises those who have been outstanding in their commitment and achievements in their vocational education and training undertaken as part of their senior secondary certificate.
Sam was the only recipient of the award from the New England/north west region.
Sam is now considering putting this money towards good use, to continue his studies and perhaps fund a research project as part of his studies or travel.
“I do want to do quite a bit of travelling in the future, perhaps I could use the money to fund an educational trip as part of my studies.”
His area of expertise is history, particularly genealogy (family history) and archives, and this is what he hopes to take up in the future.
“I would like to either work in an archive, or in any other centre where one of the focuses is on history, archiving or genealogy,” he said.
“The course that I have just started is primarily focused on libraries and information management, but I have the opportunity to branch out into archives and history, including local and family history.”
He hopes to, with this, blend in the skills he attained during his Certificate II Tourism course.
“I would also like to one day take guided history tours and perhaps even travel around to or work at different archives or heritage centers, museums etc.”
Sam is also the youngest member of the Inverell District Family History Group Inc., which he has been associated with for the past few years.
He is looking towards the future with anticipation and hopes to kick off his career as an archivist/historian after he completes his tertiary qualification.