Ashburton College’s top students for 2019, Dux, Ben Holland and Proxime Accessit Emma Stagg. Photo Sue NewmanWhen the trophies, awards and scholarships kept coming at Thursday night’s Year 13 prizegiving, it was almost a giveaway who Ashburton College’s two top students would be.

Before Ben Holland was announced as dux for 2019 and Emma Stagg runner-up or proxime accessit, both had amassed a string of academic and sports awards.

For Ben, gaining the top prize was a reward for five years of hard work.

He admitted he knew it could be a close race to the top, but kept hoping he’d done enough throughout the year to win.

And when his name was called, Ben admitted to heaving a sigh of relief.

And then he couldn’t stop grinning.

“I’ve always tried to work hard and get good grades and I’m feeling pretty good about this,” he said.

He might have won the ultimate prize, but study is far from over for Ben.

He has scholarship and NCEA exams to focus on now and until they’re over he won’t be shifting far from his desk.

Come the end of November, Ben will be shifting his focus to earning as much money as he can before he heads off to Canterbury University to study towards his ultimate goal of becoming an accountant.

Finishing school was exciting, but it was also pretty scary knowing the real world of hard study and work was just around the corner, he said.

When Ben is not studying, he’s a keen footballer, playing for both college and Mid Canterbury.

He plans to keep his sport up when he moves to Christchurch.

In addition to being named college dux, Ben won academic awards for mathematics with Calculus (Hogg Memorial Prize and Robb Cup), Physics (John Hefford Memorial prize), statistics and modelling (John Stewart Memorial prize), Accounting (Gabites Ltd prize), economics prize and the 1st XI soccer trophy for outstanding contribution to college soccer.

Proxime Accessit Emma Stagg says she was stunned to hear her name called. She’d already received more prizes than she anticipated and like most in the Ashburton Event Centre auditorium was sitting back waiting to see which of her peers won the two top awards.

“I certainly wasn’t expecting this, but I have worked pretty hard this year,” she said.

Emma admitted to being a “bit overwhelmed” by the number of prizes she’d received; proxime accessit topped the night off.

She was quick to congratulate Ben on his win and saying it was well deserved.

“I’m really so happy for him,” she said.

Emma will to Otago University next year where she will major in her favourite subject, geography.

For her school and exams are over and yesterday she headed off on holiday with her family to Rarotonga for a well-earned few days’ break before coming back to her holiday job at Carrfields.

As a top rower, Emma said she chose Otago University because of the opportunities available to develop her sport.

In addition to the proxime accessit Emma was awarded prizes for geography (Arnott and Jane Taylor Cup), Otago University, New Frontiers entrance scholarship, Butterick trophy for scholarship in English and sporting endeavour and Cochrane Cup as the top all-round female sports person.

By Sue Newman © The Ashburton Guardian - 1 November 2019