Chrizia Cayanan was named dux of Ashburton College for 2018 on Wednesday night. Photo supplied.Eighteen-year-old Chrizia was named Ashburton College dux on Wednesday night at the Year 13 prizegiving and her brother Carl, 17, was named deputy head boy on Thursday at the Year 12 prizegiving.

The family came to Mid Canterbury from the Philippines in 2012 and Chrizia said mum Christina and dad Christopher, a motor mechanic at Honda Country, were very proud of what they’d achieved.

Chrizia was top student in physics, stats and accounting and scored highly in her other subjects to become dux ahead of the proxime accessit Artem Kravchenko. She was also awarded several scholarships.

Chrizia is heading to the University of Canterbury next year and has plans to be a secondary school maths teacher. She will be studying towards a Bachelor of Science, majoring in maths.

She said she had wanted to be a maths teacher since she was a young child and loved working with numbers. She also excelled in German and was one of two Ashcoll students to attend a scholarship language school in Germany last summer holidays.

Chrizia said she had worked hard over the years on her school work but also found time to be a member of the Ashburton Youth Council and hold down part-time jobs at a supermarket and berry farm.

The siblings have encouraged each other too, though they have different talents. “I am the brains and he is the people person,” she says with a laugh.

Teachers have also provided plenty of support and she names German teacher Ken Pow and accounting teacher Claire Bedward as her favourites.

She and Pow are competitive chess players.

Chrizia said her focus now was on exams, with calculus and accounting first up on November 13.

At the Year 12 prizegiving, the school’s 2019 leaders were named – head students are Mollie Gibson and William Wallis, with Harriet Stock and Carl Cayanan as deputies.

Principal Ross Preece said 10 girls and 13 boys put their hand up for consideration and the final four were chosen after an intense selection process.

“There were some quality candidates who didn’t make the short list and some quality candidates who were not chosen.”

He said the school had been well served by this year’s student executive, who were on hand as the head students’ names were revealed.

Naming deputies, which happened for the first time this year, had been successful and the four had shared the roles well, he said.

© The Ashburton Guardian - 3 November 2018