At our Academic Celebration Day, guest speaker Dr Samantha Smith shared her experiences and journey from her school days, to tertiary training, to being fully employed as a dentist at Palms Dental Centre.

Samantha Smith attended Papanui High School from 2013 - 2017. She came to us from Casebrook Intermediate and quickly stood out as a hard-working capable student. She involved herself widely around school taking part in Volleyball, Netball, Cross Country, and Rifle Shooting, was a member of the Year 12 Leadership Development Team and was a Peer Support Leader supporting the transition of our new Year 9 students.

Samantha achieved Level 1, 2 and 3 NCEA endorsed with Excellence. In 2017, at our senior prizegiving, Samantha was the recipient of the Jean Shalders Cup for Biology, the Mr A Shepherd's Prize for Statistics, and the Hugh McDougall Rankin Education Trust Award for Outstanding Achievement in Sciences. Samantha was also the recipient of our school's most prestigious academic award; Dux. These awards resulted in Samantha receiving over $6000 in prize money from our school.