Trio star in documentary comp
OVERCOMING homesickness can be hard, particularly when home is more than 7000km away.
Geelong Grammar students Frank Zhao, Jacky Zhang and Yao Xiao documented their daily lives as international students on camera for a state government competition aimed at high- lighting the challenges faced by students from overseas.
The Year 11 students were joint winners of the competition announced by Education Minister James Merlino, who commended them for providing genuine insights into the lives of international students in Victoria.
“Congratulations to the winners for creating videos that truly capture what life is like for international students studying and living in Victoria,” Mr Merlino said.
Yao moved to Australia four years ago and started at Geelong Grammar in Year 8, while Jacky and Frank moved to study at Timbertop three years ago. All three are from China.
“We have much more freedom here at (Geelong Grammar School). A lot more time to ourselves,” Yao said.
Frank travels home once a year but regularly visits family in Balwyn. He said the plethora of extra-curricular activities on offer was the major difference between school in Australia and China.
“The extra-curricular activities offered, particularly filmmaking and debating, sets the school apart from my previous school.”
They said learning English was one of the difficult aspects of starting school in Victoria.