Despite the unpredictable impact of COVID-19 throughout 2020, our Year 12 graduates remained remarkably resilient. Rachel Yang is one such student worthy of acknowledgement for being one of thirty-eight students to receive a Queensland Certificate of Education Distinguished Academic Achiever Award.

Rachel commenced her study of medicine at the University of Cambridge in October 2021 and shared her experience so far with us.


"Cambridge is an amazing city with beautiful architecture and a unique scholarly atmosphere. I moved here a few weeks ago, but everything still feels so surreal. The feeling of walking across a 500-year-old courtyard for supervisions, watching people punt on River Cam, and eating dinner in a hall lined with paintings of legendary Trinity alumni (Newton, Bacon, Maxwell, Rutherford, Huxley, Bohr, Lord Byron…) is truly indescribable."

"A Cambridge term is very intense, with quite a heavy workload that requires a high level of work ethic. As I study medicine, a subject with notoriously long contact hours, I am busy with lectures and practicals from nine to five on weekdays. As all lectures are online at the moment, a typical day consists of two to three online lectures in my room or the library, and sometimes an in-person practical in the morning. I also have supervisions (small group tutorial) three times a week. At the end of the day, I head to Hall for dinner, which is often filled with incredibly fascinating conversations and debates that can go on for hours."

"As cheesy as it sounds, ever since I was four or five, I have not imagined myself doing anything other than medicine, and I always had this goal in mind during high school. I really love helping people, and I’m fascinated by the human body. This passion has only grown since I came here and studied more anatomy, physiology, and sociology. The medicine course is really everything I imagined it would be, and I can’t wait to become a real doctor."

"I am very interested in surgery. In fact, I have been told by my anatomy supervisor that the way my brain is wired would most definitely lead me to surgery (maybe that has something to do with the fact that my proposed solution to almost every clinical scenario involves ‘cut it open!’). I would like to use my skills to do humanitarian and missionary work in the future, so I wish to choose a speciality that can deliver service to a wide demographic and provide the most help in underdeveloped countries."