Ben Okely was nominated for the VCE Leadership Awards by a teacher at the school for the award for his work both at the school and in the community.
Both 2020 and 2021 have proven to be a challenge like no other for leaders of all stripes across the country, and Ben said he'd found it no different.
“It's been an interesting year,” he said.
“I thought we'd be learning from home for some parts of the year, but not nearly six months’ worth.”
Instead of organising fundraisers and in-person school activities, Ben has spent more time focusing on his peers’ mental wellbeing than he ever expected.
“The role's been a bit different. It's been more about facilitating wellbeing, activities and stuff to boost morale,” he said.
“Once a week we've been doing a Kahoot! trivia, with first, second and third getting prizes.
“We do daily challenges, today was talking about a place you'd like to go to - for me it was NZ. We've done Wear it Purple days, R U OK? days.”
His focus has especially been on Year 12 students who have missed significant milestones across the year, including camps and events at school before getting into 18th birthday parties.
Outside of school, Ben has spent more than a decade in Scouts, working towards the Australian Scouts Medallion and the Queen's Scout Award - both of which take three years each to earn, and picking up countless leadership and life skills along the way.
He'll find out if he's won the Leader of the Year award on Friday, September 17 and said he was happy to have been nominated.
“I didn't expect it, I got nominated by a teacher and didn't take much notice of it, but now I'm one of six in the state,” he said.
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