The sky is the limit for 18-year-old Greek Australian Martina Theodorakakos, the only girl among the five year 12 students who excelled in this year’s SACE exams in South Australia.

Enthusiastic, down to earth, determined to succeed and focused on her goals, the student of Walford Anglican School for Girls, wrote history last week achieving an ATAR of 99.95 and was awarded Merits in Modern History, English Literary Studies, Geography, Research Project and Economics, in addition to receiving the Governor’s Commendation Award.

“I am very happy with my results although I must admit that throughout the year, I doubted myself a lot.

“I never thought of the final score. I never do. To me it was never about the number, it’s about having the bigger picture in my mind and then achieving the smaller goals in order to get there. Put the effort in, get the job done. Giving up on my dreams was simply not an option,” says the young Spartan who did her research project on the organ transplant system because her ‘biggest supporter’, her dad, John, had needed a kidney transplant but endured a wait of more than two years.

Despite being a tough couple years for the family of 5 Martina remained focused on her goals, studied during the week and also was part of Adelaide University’s Headstart scholarship program, reading legal studies while on the weekends she worked at the local bakery and as a babysitter.

“I never studied on the weekends. I worked, I went to dinner with my family, out with my friends, and watched movies with my little sister but during the week I was focused and always remembered what was important to me,” says Martina, the eldest child of Olga and John Theodorakakos and sister to Kosta and Stavroula.

“We are very proud of our daughter because she worked hard and saw her work paying off. Martina is a caring and determined young woman and really wants to make a change to the world,” says the 18-year-old’s mother Olga whose family originates from Molaous in Lakonia.

With offers from universities in SA, NSW and Queensland, the young student is keen to follow a career in law, human rights and advanced economics.

“Life begins now, and it is my responsibility to think carefully about the path I wish to follow. I am definitely blessed with options and I am open to anything but deep down I know that if I work hard, I will succeed at whatever I put my mind to. I want to make changes in a lot of areas where females aren’t well represented.”

The first person Martina shared her exciting news with, was her father John.

“Good reward for effort. Martina put the work in and got the results. My advice to parents is to keep talking to their children. Martina and I talk a lot. She tells me how she is feeling, and I tell her the practicalities of life. I told her that her result is one thing but a whole new world is opening up from today and she needs to be ready for it and choose jobs that are relevant in ten years and she enjoys otherwise she will not be happy,” says John whose family originates from Karitsa in Sparta and Leonidio in Arkadia.

Despite being born in Australia, Martina says that Greece is very close to her heart and a place she loves to visit often.

“I am so in love with Greece and I am also very proud of my Greek heritage. I don’t like saying that I am of Greek background. I am Greek and I am proud to be Greek,” says Martina.

Paras Stefanopoulos, 18, from St Michael’s College, was the second Greek Australian to make the top 5 list. Paras does computer programming as a hobby – which dovetailed with his strong science subject mix and research project into what extent artificial intelligence will influence the future.

“I am so happy that there was two of us at the top and I hope that with our results we can inspire other Greek Australians to aim high so that we can continue to make our parents and grandparents proud with our achievements, here and in Greece.

“We are Greeks after all. We have got this,” concludes Martina.