A love of study and travel is not the only thing Smiths Hill High School duo Serena Gao and Tianyue Zheng share in common.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The pair have also finished first in one of their respective HSC courses.
Serena excelled in a usually male-dominated field to be NSW’s best HSC performer in the Software Design and Development course.
Tianyue also did the Illawarra proud when she finished first in the popular Japanese language course.
Read more: Sharna’s secret gives hope to HSC students
Ironically Serena’s interest in information technology was inspired by Tumblr founder David Karp.
Like the American web developer and entrepreneur, 16-year-old Serena also spent time at the Bronx High School of Science in New York.
‘’When I was there I got told that David Karp actually went to that school for the first year and then dropped out and created Tumblr,’’ Serena said.
‘’And, I was kind of inspired by that because I kind of realised that technology has created more possibilities for us and it seems to be the direction that society is headed.
‘’So I decided there and then that I would give it a go as it will be useful for the future and probably be a unique experience for me.
‘’At the same time people were kind of telling me that the industry is predominantly male-dominated…..this sort of spurred me on to try and show the world that women can also be good at computers.’’
The Wollongong teenager has definitely shown girls can thrive in the industry, beating all-comers to finish first in the highly competitive Software Design and Development course.
But it wasn’t through luck.
When the Mercury caught up with Serena she was busy teaching herself different programming languages.
‘’Right now it is Java script and HTML. I’m just kind if building my skills,’’ she said.
‘’I enjoy kind of the whole process of learning. I think it is really rewarding when you are finally able to kind of apply that knowledge to real life and make an impact.
‘’I hope to keep doing that, keep applying what I’ve been learning and do some bigger things in the future.’’
Serena hopes to go to the University of Sydney next year and do a double degree in Advanced Computing and Commerce with a major in Computational Data Science and Finance.
‘’I know it’s a mouthful but I hope to get in and see what I can do,’’ she said.
Her former school mate Tianyue also hopes to do a course relating to maths or science at the same prestigious university.
But the 17-year-old will have to wait until at least 2019, as she is still only in Year 11.
When I was there I got told that David Karp actually went to that school for the first year and then dropped out and created Tumblr.
- Serena Gao
And even though she excelled in the Japanese course, Tianyue doesn’t plan on pursuing a career in languages.
‘’It is more of a side interest and something I think could come in handy in the future,’’ she said.
‘’After this I will probably spend some time reading in Japanese and possibly go to Japan at some point of time.’’
Serena and Tianyue were part of the brightest sparks of the 2017 HSC recognised at the First in Course ceremony on Wednesday.
The 120 students who topped 114 HSC courses, were personally congratulated by NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian at the event hosted by the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA).
The Mercury will have the full list of Illawarra’s HSC top achievers from noon on Thursday.
