Zimbabwean teen tops in Australia

NEWTON Moore Senior High School student Stanley Garande has overcome the challenges of moving to a new country and now looks forward to a career in metalogy.

Mr Garande moved to Bunbury from Zimbabwe in 2009.

The student received a 77.7 ATAR score, which is enough to get into the metalogy course at Curtin University in Perth.

Metalogy involves analysing minerals.

While Mr Garande already knew English, his accent was the biggest challenge he had to overcome.

"The language barrier was hard because people couldn't understand what I was saying, but it got better everyday," he said.

Mr Gerande entered Year 10 a year behind because for the last year he was in Zimbabwe he could not go to school.

"The economic downturn was so bad that I had to work instead of learn," he said.

But Mr Gerande said school principal Sue Kerr told him he was smart enough not be held back a year.

The highlight of Mr Gerande's new life has been making new friends.

"People are very friendly, I was worried when I first arrived at the school because I was so different but I made lots of friends," he said.

The last year of school for Mr Gerande was definitely the hardest, having to study up to 30 hours a week outside of school.

"My dad gave me a lot of confidence and my maths teacher Mrs Houghton was an inspiration â€" she has helped me from grade 10," he said.

Mr Gerande ended the year on a high note when he was awarded the Edith Cowan University personal excellence award and the school's Annette Tilbrook award for his score in Information Technology.

"I wasn't expecting the awards, even though people got higher scores than me I kept trying and trying and the teachers saw that," he said.