On Tuesday, Anand Bharadwaj, a Trinity Grammar School alumni, who scored an ATAR of 99.95 was recognised as the Top All-Round VCE High Achiever by Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews.
Scoring a high ATAR score is one of the many achievements of this Indian-origin teenager who says he has ‘always enjoyed learning’.
“I like to explore and learn in depth and have always enjoyed learning,” Bharadwaj told SBS Hindi.
Bharadwaj’s VCE journey has ‘been unique’, according to his father, Kannan Sethuraman.
“Anand started with taking his VCE in Year 8. He took VCE Mathematical Methods as a Year 8 student in 2014, Specialist Mathematics and University Extension Mathematics as a year 9 student in 2015, Biology and French in 2016 as a year 10 student and received perfect 50s in both and a Premier's award for French.
“He took VCE English and Physics in 2017 as a year 11 student and received a perfect 50 in English and a Premier's award for English,” the proud father says.
His parents migrated from India to Melbourne when Anand was approximately one-year-old.
Anand Bharadwaj (centre) with his parents - Kannan Sethuraman (right) and Lalitha Sundaresan (left) Source: Supplied
Anand’s mother Lalitha Sundaresan says he was always into books.
“I use to bring him lots of books and would take him to the library. He enjoyed it. I believe his love for learning started really early,” she says.
“I understood he had that spark in him, the love for learning. We never had to push him to study."
"You can never plan such things but we feel blessed. He is a special child and what makes me happy more than anything is he enjoys learning,” Mr Kannan adds.
Anand’s achievements reflect in not only his many achievements at school, but in other areas as well.
He was the youngest winner of the World Youth Scrabble Championship at the age of 11 in 2011; he can also fluently speak Tamil, French and Mandarin besides English.
He has also authored a book - Checkpoints, VCE French 3&4 in association with his teacher which is currently used as exam preparation material.
When asked about his future plans, Anand says, “I don’t like to lock in plans. I am interested in research and hope to pursue PhD in Economics in the future.”
The 17-year-old is currently pursuing his Bachelor of Science with a specialisation in mathematics, statistics and computer science after accepting the Chancellor's scholarship at the University of Melbourne.
