John Tilley Award Winner- Cooper W.
Cooper Whitbread was presented the John Tilley Memorial Award for Most Outstanding Student at Modbury High School for 2021. It was an honor to recognise his contribution to the Modbury High School community.
Cooper has always been a driven and focused student, who constantly challenged himself to achieve academic excellence. He had a strong plan for his high school career and aimed to finish year 12 with the highest ATAR possible! However, academics wasn’t his only focus, Cooper picked up a range of extra-curricul ar activities, which included playing guitar, school bands, Pedal Prix, interschool sporting competitions, STEAM Works, academic competitions, and student support, tutoring & mentoring. Outside of school, he was learning to code games while also playing cricket, footy and touch football.
During his Year 12, Cooper’s priorities began to change and started to choose activities that he knew could enable him to grow and become a better person. Rather than just be driven to get the highest grades possible, he became more interested in having a fun and fulfilling year doing as much as he possibly could. With reducing his stress, he was able to enjoy class more and didn’t become burned out like in previous years.
“Between the realization that I did not need A+ grades to get into my desired course, the positive impact I could make on those around me and the enjoyment that I was getting from spending time with different people, I knew that this was the right decision. I still worked hard on my studies and pushed myself with all assignments but I no longer needed the A+ to feel proud of myself.”
