Anna Engelbrecht - Arts Prefect

Before coming to St Hildas and Tolcarne, I attended Palmerston Primary School and East Otago High School. I grew up in a rural community where Dunedin seemed like this big, scary city that I thought I’d never be able to even navigate. Coming to boarding school in Dunedin was a bit of a shock to my system but I couldn’t be more thankful for what it has provided for me!

For the past 5 years St Hildas has given me the opportunity to explore the arts a lot. I have been a member of Sings Hildas since Year 9, and was a member of Madrigal in Years 9 and 10. Choir has been one of the highlights of my time at school. It has helped me build great friendships, presented fantastic performance opportunities at community events, and even involved a trip to Wellington in 2018 for nationals. I have also explored art through photography and painting as NCEA subjects, and through school productions. Aside from the arts, St Hildas has also given me the chance to explore many sports, such as rowing, netball, badminton, basketball, and touch (none of which I was very good at). The school has also been great at providing ways for me to develop my leadership skills and increase my involvement in the community. I enjoyed being Vice President of Z club and a member of the Student Council in Year 12, and I believe these roles helped my Year 12 be a very memorable one.

Tolcarne has been a pivotal part of my journey at St Hildas. I had been excited to come to boarding school ever since my olders brothers went. I would hear all about how much fun it was from them when they came home on the weekends and in holidays but, experiencing it was so much better than they could have ever said. The friendships and culture established at Tolcarne are like no other and something that I will miss greatly when my time at St Hildas is done. From sitting in the common room late at night, to lounging by the pool during study leave, and begging the matrons for a maccas trip, not too many bad memories come to mind when I think over my time at Tolcarne.

I feel very privileged to have been selected for prefecture at St Hildas, it is such a special thing and it has made my year 13 so much more fulfilling. It’s been such a great way to get more involved with the girls and our school community. Putting time and effort into organising activities and then seeing how it can benefit someone, or the school community as a whole, has been the most rewarding part of the role. It is also so encouraging to see new people putting themselves out there and performing in assemblies.

And now the big question, ‘What are you doing next year?’. At the moment, I am going to attend Otago University and take the First Year Health Sciences course, with the intention of hopefully getting into Medicine in 2022. Doing medicine has been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember and I’m very excited to start down that part of my life. I also hope to find some time to do research throughout my studying. At the moment I’m more focused on making my Year 13 one to remember and spending my last few weeks of school surrounded by my amazing year group, making some long lasting memories.