Awesome to have Alex profiled by The Press – a well deserved front cover article no less!
Alex Brinkworth’s reaction to being told he was in the New Zealand team for the International Biology Olympiad was “really” but he can’t wait to get to Lithuania. Read the rest of the article by Michael Fallow, below.
Central Southland College student Alex Brinkworth has earned a place in the premier world competition for high school biology students.
He has made the four-member New Zealand team for the International Biology Olympiad in July.
The hard-won selection means the 17-year-old will be competing among the national winners of about 80 participating countries. Fundraising is under way to help him get there.
His reaction was a disbelieving “really?’’ when the call came through that he was in the quartet chosen from the 25 students who had been tested on their practical and theoretical knowledge at an April selection camp. “The camp was full of incredibly intelligent, wonderful people,” he said.
“Each and every one of them would have represented New Zealand with the effort and mana it deserves.’’
Reaching that camp stage had required working upwards of a year to build on natural ability in biology, team leader Dr Angela Sharples said.
“The learning they have completed is at university level, so these students really are outstanding academically,’’ she said.
The New Zealand team, also comprising Ericsson Ye, of Christ’s College, Christchurch, Luan Peterle, of King’s High School, Dunedin and Nichole Luo, of Macleans College Auckland, had shown not only academic ability, but diligence and passion.
The achievement also reflected the support of family, school and community, Sharples said.
Alex couldn’t agree more. His father Keith is a chemistry teacher at CSC, fellow teacher Alicia Harrison took a key co-ordinating role for his study path, and the support of his partner, family and friends has also been deeply felt.
The study itself was a highly individual process, he said.
“But without these people I’d likely have burnt out rather quickly. Their support means the world to me. I can’t wait to make them all proud.’’
Almost inevitably, the burden of fundraising $9000 for the trip to Lithuania now presents itself. Though as he chose to see it – “every $10 covers about 38km of the journey’’.
A quiz night fundraiser is being planned and a Givealittle page has been set up, with $1500 from the Winton Rotary Club kicking things off.
Alex has developed a keen interest in biochemistry – he likes the way it behaves itself with strict rules and patterns. One of his favourite practical skills has been gel electrophoresis.
For those among you who perhaps aren’t Olympiad-bound any time soon, that is a process that can separate DNA fragments by length, useful across a host of pursuits from forensics and crime scene analysis to paternity testing, for starters.
Alex has also become intrigued by the biology of the immune system; the body’s “incredibly intricate and effective defence system’’. But truth to tell, a host of fascinations from the science, technology, engineering and mathematics realms all still beckon to him, though there’s one clear thought behind it all. “I do know that I want to help people somehow.’’