Julia Wells, one of the top scholars in Year 13, is too successful for her own good at the moment.  She has had to agonise over a decision involving two amazing opportunities.

First of all, she gained recognition at the IYPT Physics challenge, where she was selected for the NZ team which would have been going to China later this year.  She had to turn this down due to huge time commitments required, which would have cut into her school-work.

Then she was selected for the Wellington debating team to go to nationals later in the year, after wowing selectors at the regional tournament.  This is a team commitment and allows her to have continued top-level coaching during the year.

And last week she was offered the opportunity to go to the Asian Science Camp in Japan, all expenses paid, by selectors at Victoria University, who were also impressed by her skills shown in the IYPT competition.  This camp involves opportunies to listen to Nobel prize winners and take part in exciting labs.

Unfortunately, the camp fell at the exact same time as the debating nationals.

After agonising over the pros and cons of each opportunity at 4am in the morning, Julia came to the hard decision of passing on the free trip and keeping her commitment to her team. 

A nice twist came after that, when as Victoria University was informed that she was declining the offer, they then said that we could choose another WEGC student to take her place.  Georgia Stewart, another Year 13 student, was offered and accepted the trip to Japan.

More information on this story is in April's Wellink, coming out next week.