General News
16 December, 2025
“Follow what you’d like to do”
Graduating Year 12 calls for a celebration, and getting the highest ATAR at your school calls for another, an achievement shared by two local students this year.
Highview College’s Paul De Mesa and Maryborough Education Centre’s Ashley Mason can breathe a sigh of relief, not just for graduating, but earning the title of DUX for 2025.
They’re among a record breaking cohort of 65,586 students who completed VCE this year.
Paul said he was relieved to see his results last week which showed all his hard work paid off.
“For me it’s like my efforts and persistence were recognised,” he said.
During VCE he studied English, Physics, Maths Methods, Product Design and Technology and Systems Engineering.
Last year he was DUX of both Physics and Product Design and Technology.
Ashley said getting DUX was her goal, but not as a competition, just as proof of her best effort.
“I didn’t really need a specific [grade] I just wanted to get as high as I could get,” she said.
Ashley studied Maths Methods, English, Chemistry, Biology and Specialist Maths.
Despite their grades both Paul and Ashley have struggled with an age old question: what do you want to be when you grow up?
It turns out it doesn’t get any easier even when you get the best marks.
While Ashley has decided to study Science at La Trobe University she said for her whole life she’s never known what she wanted to be.
“I’ve always dwelled on it, I’ve always been lost, even this year I’ve been lost. I had no idea what I wanted to do at the start of the year,” she said.
Her advice to the next Year 12 students is to not let that hold them back.
“Try your best in school so then you can broaden your pathway, you can open up any option you want, and just follow what you’d like to do,” she said.
“It will lead you into something hopefully. I’m hoping.”
Paul’s next chapter is Computer Engineering at RMIT, a broad degree covering his interests in code and hardware.
It’s also one he hopes will put him on the right side of the artificial intelligence boom expected to up-end the workforce.
“I realised maybe I should dabble in some of that to secure myself for whatever the future holds,” he said.
He encouraged the next Year 12 students to not dwell on their mistakes.
“I’d say a really good mindset to have is not to think on the mistake but what you can do because of it,” he said.
“It’s like a game of chess, there is always the best move even if you’re in a losing position.”
Year 12 students began receiving their much-anticipated VCE results online on December 11.