A recently arrived student from Kastoria in Greece has set an example and has reaped the rewards of her efforts, achieving an impressive score in her VCE exams, despite changing schools, countries and language only three years ago.

Alexandra Bampakou was attending Year 10 in a Greek high school in Kastoria when her family decided to emigrate to Australia. The years that followed were difficult and unprecedented for all the students who had to adapt to online learning during the pandemic, but the young Greek girl had the additional challenge of adjusting to a new school, a new country and switching to a different language on her own.

And yet she did it. With an ATAR score of 96, the South Oakleigh College student achieved her goal to study law, and is hoping that next week she will receive an official offer from Monash University to start a double degree in 2023.

“From the moment I came to Australia, I knew that what I wanted to study was law, so I chose my subjects accordingly,” Alexandra told Neos Kosmos.

She explained, that on arriving in Melbourne to settle in their new home, they had to prepare so much paperwork, there was a huge amount of bureaucracy and she was struggling to find all the information she needed “for school enrolments and anything to do with government services.” Alexandra, the eldest of three siblings, was in charge of all this, since her English was better than anyone else’s in the family.

“And all the while I was thinking about how many others are arriving here who won’t be able to cope with all the paperwork, and won’t know what to do, so I decided to learn as much as I can, so I can help them, and become an advocate for them. ”

Her path to success? Hard work, a lot of studying, and discipline, she told us. This routine is not new to her if you take into account that in Greece she always achieved perfect scores in all her subjects. Her teachers at South Oakleigh College were also incredibly supportive, she added, and helped her achieve outstanding results, and her family was a great support too.

On arriving in Melbourne in 2020 she sat her first VCE exam in Modern Greek and came first in her school, and this year she got a first in Business Management and came second place in English as a Second Language.

It may have been a difficult adjustment at first, but with so many Greeks around her, Alexandra Bampakou says that Australia is starting to feel a lot like home.

After so much studying over the last few years, Alexandra wants to rest for awhile and help her parents run their restaurant in Bentleigh, before embarking on new adventures.