Every ounce of hard work and dedication has paid off for VCE high achiever Eleni Papaspyropoulou, who received an ENTER score of 96.25.

Only two years ago, the 19-year-old left her family in Greece to study at St John’s Orthodox College in Melbourne.

Despite the difficulties and language challenges in a new country, Papaspyropoulou received the highest ENTER in her year level, as well as dux of the school.

“When I saw my ENTER score at 7am on Monday morning, I didn’t believe it. I went to my mum (who has now moved to Australia) to see if it was actually the right one!” she said.

Papaspyropoulou said that she was surprised that her highest mark was in ESL (41), although added that she wrote many essays and studied long hours to improve her language.

“I had to show my parents that I ought to be here because they sacrificed their lives for us kids,” she said.

“Everything I did and managed, I owe to the support of my family and best friend, who I stayed with in my initial 9 months in Australia.”

According to acting Principal Jane Sulicich, Papaspyropoulou is one of the 39 per cent of students at St John’s College who received an ENTER score above 70.

She went on to say that all students studying Greek achieved a study score above 31, including Papaspyropoulou’s brother, Raphael, who received a perfect study score of 50.
Oakleigh Greek Orthodox College principal , Steve Charisis was as equally pleased with his student’s results.

“Of our 44 students, 12 achieved ENTER scores close to 80 and above while approximately 50% achieved an ENTER score close to 70 and above,” he said.

The highest achieving student was Christopher Piperidis with an ENTER score of 99.45, including perfect study scores of 50 in both Business Management and Physics.

The school dux of the year has since been offered a full scholarship at Monash University (Clayton Campus) to study a double degree in Science/Engineering.
“I’m still in shock,” he admits.

“On Monday I received a call from a woman congratulating me on my scholarship and inviting me to a celebratory lunch at the Langham Hotel. They called a chauffeur to come and get three of my friends and although we underdressed (in trackies) while everyone was in suits, it was a lot of fun.”

Independent Greek school, Alphington Grammar boasted its best ever result for local students.

“One fifth of local students scored 90 points and over,” said principal Mike Smith. He went on to say that nearly 62% of our local students were placed in the top 30% of the state ENTER scores. Students excelled at Modern Greek also, with one quarter achieving 40 points and over.

Alphington Grammar Student, Nickolas Zissis scored the highest ENTER score of the local students at 95.2, followed by school captains, Matthew Paris (93.05) and Stacey Katsaros (92.85).

Katsaros hopes to study journalism at RMIT, although says that she plans to take a year off and head to Europe including Greece first.

“I think you need a bit of a break really- 12 years of school is a long time,” she said.

Paris, who hopes to study a double degree of Civil and Infrastructure Engineering and Business Management says that he has dreams of becoming a civil engineer and to run his own business.

Doncaster secondary student, Adrian Michalopoulos attributes his ENTER score of 98 to time management and hard work. The 18-year-old spent the last two weeks of his study completing at least 10 practice exams per subject.

“You also have to be consistent with your studying throughout the year,” he added.

“I would advise one to two hour study sessions with 45 minutes breaks in between.”

“Don’t let nothing or anyone disrupt you from your goals,” emphasised Papaspyropoulou.

“Many things will happen to you during Year 12 so you have to be strong and that’s why it’s important to have a strong support base of family and friends to keep you focused.”

Papaspyropoulou hopes to become a forensic psychologist- a career opportunity that she believes would not have been possible had she remained in Patras, Greece.

She has applied for a Bachelor of Arts, Psychology at the University of Melbourne.