Perhaps that’s something to do with the fact Leatitie Umuvyeyi, Razan Al Wadi and Radieuse “Clara” Ncuti have already been accepted into degrees at the University of Wollongong through its early entry programs.

Perhaps it’s because each arrived in Australia within the past four years, and adapting to a new country – and mastering English – are challenges to toughen up any teenager.

Or, after a childhood spent largely in refugee camps, fleeing conflicts which took family members’ lives, perhaps a few exams at the end of a school year aren’t too much to handle.

Particularly if the trials were harder.

“These were more, like, chilled,” says Razan. 

Tall and confident, Razan, who came to Australia in 2014 as the conflict in Syria grew increasingly bloody, has plans. Speaking to the Mercury after Friday’s English as an Additional Language or Dialect (NEALD) listening exam, she disagreed that English is a difficult language to learn, and sports an Aussie accent to prove it.

“I’m Syrian, but I lived in Lebanon, and basically everything we learned was in English, so that helped me a lot,” she said. 

“So coming here I just wanted to learn the accent, and like, the rules, and stuff.” 

Is English a hard language to learn?

“English? No. I love English. Arabic is hard. I’m going to do the [Arabic extension] exam on Monday, and everything I’m going to do is going to be in the formal language. But I’m used to the informal language. 

“I can’t speak formal. But English I think is all the same – except for swear words. Those aren’t formal.”

She’s into a Bachelor of Business and Bachelor of Communication and Media at UoW, from where she might angle towards a law degree.

Cousins Leatitie and Radieuse came to Wollongong in 2015, the latter’s family taking on Laetitie after her parents were lost in the conflict that has plagued the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a long-running combination of ethnic violence and civil war.

Radieuse (who is known as Clara, but her Year 12 jersey carries her given name, which is French for radiant) has been accepted into pre-medicine, having spent her earlier life surrounded by medical professionals – her mother a nurse, her father a doctor.

She brings to her course of study a mind that is not just hungry for learning, but “desperate” – her choice of words.

“I grew up with a love of medicine, I was surrounded,” she said.

“It just grabs my attention – it makes me focus, like I want to know more. Desperate to know more.”

Clara did “biology, chemistry, mathematics advanced, ESL English, geography, hospitality as a backup”. Plus the university early preparation program. 

Leatitie has her mind on your teeth. She will start a science degree as a foundation to study dentistry. 

The cousins joke about how in the various refugee camps, be it Zambia or Burundi, it would be Leatitie who would help the little kids when their milk teeth needed to come out.

“You pulled out my brother’s teeth!” says Clara, demonstrating old wrap-the-cotton-thread-and-pull technique.

A work experience stint at Wollongong’s Jones Dental and Leatitie’s path open up before her. She will start a Bachelor of Science next year, but is already thinking further, towards a PhD or pre-medicine.

“Where I grew up, there was no hope. I couldn’t say ‘this is what I’m going to be’ because there was not the education,” she said.

“There was discrimination, genocide, my tribe didn’t have a voice, didn’t have a home.

“And I loved doing people’s teeth. The environment I was in, if you don’t wash your teeth, you have to remove your teeth. You’d come to me, say ‘can you remove my teeth?’ and we’d do it. And I said I’d like to be a dentist.”

Each still teenagers, but already highly impressive people. Anyone would hope their lives will be easier now, and Australia is lucky to have them.