The Illawarra achievers who prove your ATAR is really 'just a number'

From the emergency services sector to Instagram stardom, former Illawarra locals have proven there are many ways to build a future.

Natasha Maree now has a super-successful social media career with a following in the hundreds of thousands. She didn't feel passionate or interested in school.

"I couldn't wait for it to be over," the Instagram influencer said.

She did one term of a UOW business degree, as her dad had suggested it would be a good all-rounder, but found that in the first lecture she "was zoning out, it was so boring to me."

She did another year of a different degree, took a gap year, worked in bars, travelled Europe, and ultimately found a new creative outlet through friends in the vegan cycling community.

She started to share her sports passion with growing YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok followings, and now also coaches people in fitness and nutrition - something she would never have expected on results day.

"I have not thought about it since the day I got the result. I closed the tab and never thought about it again," the 25-year-old said.

"It becomes so insignificant and life just gets better," she said, "you have to do what you love and make it work; ultimately your parents just want to see you healthy and happy."

Rowena Scrymgeour works in emergency services now, but has had a career spanning lots of different areas.

"I wasn't a good student, I struggled to find the practical applications of what I was learning," she said.

"My husband was similar: trigonometry never made any sense until he got into carpentry."

Rowena often sees job applications from university graduates with non-relevant degrees - and HECS debt they might not have needed.

She suggested students try many things to work out their interests, develop their skills base, and define how they want their lives to look.

"So many people are in a career for five years and then leave, and the skills transfer," she said.

"You have to find out where your interests are and they may not be academic.

"Find a company you think does something cool, and you could start in customer service or administration, learn transferable skills, maybe go into sales and marketing, do Cert 4, diplomas, and build your career pathway that way.

"The good thing about getting experience in a work environment is that you're getting paid, instead of the other way around... but whatever you do, you're just at the beginning."

Something else that might surprise students: in 2017, over 60 per cent of offers to universities were made based on factors other than ATAR.

Programs like IllawarraYES help people aged 15-24 to match with industries with skills shortages, while NSW offers free training and careers advice.

For students with their heart set on uni, there are many routes to explore including the University of Wollongong will host an Options Day at 4pm on Friday, December 15.

"Remember, no matter your results, you are more than your ATAR and this result doesn't define you or your capabilities," UOW Senior Professor Eileen McLaughlin said.

"It is important to remember that the ATAR is only one of several indicators of a student's potential to succeed at university."

Some admissions decisions might be looking more at individual subject performances, and grades that demonstrate specific discipline strengths, instead of ATAR.

No matter what happens when emails are opened, HSC leavers also have huge reasons to be proud of themselves today as their learning faced unprecedented disruptions during COVID.

Ruby TR, a 2023 graduate from The Illawarra Grammar School, believes today's leavers should be proud of the resilience they've shown in their final years of schooling.

"A lot of kids still have to get a really high ATAR to get into a certain degree, even though we all went through the pandemic and had this messed up thing happen," she said.

"The system set up during the pandemic was not very sustainable, or feasible" she said, "and that made going back to school more difficult, and it was really weird."

Ethan Marshall, an incoming early-entry student at UOW, echoed those thoughts.

"The system of education during the pandemic changed everything, especially for more extroverted students - I struggled to work at home and it affected us health-wise and mentally."

But 18-year-old Ruby is excited for the future: "We've got time. It's not the end of the world if we don't decide this year."