Gemma Taylor, winner of the Thistle Masonic Lodge prize for citizenship at the Ashburton College Year 11 prizegiving. Photo Sue NewmanGemma Taylor might be one of the busiest Year 11 students around, but she still finds time to give back to the sports she loves.

The Ashburton College student is this year’s winner of the Thistle Masonic Lodge scholarship for citizenship, earned through a long list of achievements both on the sports field and in the classroom.

It’s a prize with a difference, in that students are nominated and undergo an interview before a winner is found.

Gemma was one of eight students nominated and faced a string of questions from a two- person panel where she had to state what she had done for her school and her community.

She was also asked if her fellow students were asked to describe her in three words, what they would say.

And she’s proud that those three words were smart, responsible and respectful.

When it comes to achievements, Gemma gives new meaning to the word busy.

She is a member of the school’s 1st IX football team, XV rugby team, softball and volleyball teams, plays tennis for Aoraki, sails for the college and is a member of the school’s cricket team.

And out of schools she plays football and sevens in the Mid Canterbury women’s teams, plays softball for Fairfield and coaches under 16 softball, coaches a mixed football junior team and coached the girls Koru football team that was placed second in a national tournament.

In Years 9 and 10 she was awarded the top scholar prize and says she enjoys school and study and this year also won the top history prize.

And there won’t be any rest next year, with a full academic schedule – biology, chemistry, physics, classics, English, maths and PE and a trip to Indonesia on a Wallacea Trust school research expedition to work on forest carbon dating and a marine survey on the agenda.

By Sue Newman © The Ashburton Guardian - 7 November 2019