Harmandeep Singh Sunner's family has lived in Australia for 50 years, but it was important to him to learn their native language.
Years of getting up early on Saturday morning to study Punjabi has paid off. He was among those who topped the HSC subject in New South Wales.
"For me it's like the bridge between you getting in touch with your culture and who you are as a person – what forms your identity," he said.
NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian welcomed the "enormous diversity" of the high school graduates.
"We see... diversity of backgrounds, diversity of schools, diversity of geography and that's what makes today so special. Each of you have dug deep and showed enormous resilience and grit." she said.
What the top students all have in common is a passion for their subjects.
For Serena Gao, that is software design - a male-dominated field where she wants to prove women are every bit as capable.
"It balances logic and creativity. There are rules to follow in terms of the programming languages and all that but then there are no rules in terms of what you can create," she said.
"I think females tend to see problems slightly differently from males and so if you have more females on the team you can bring a new perspective."
While many students celebrate their academic success, too many teenagers do not make it to Year 12.
The Smith Family children's charity supports 38,000 disadvantaged students – about a quarter from non-English speaking backgrounds – to get the most out of their education.
The charity's chief executive officer Lisa O'Brien told SBS News there was a large discrepancy of performance between students from different socio-economic backgrounds.
"The difference in Year 12 completion rates between kids from our wealthiest communities and from our lower socio-economic quartile is 30 per cent," she said.
"It's hard for a parent, where English isn't the first language, to help with a child's homework and support them in their study."
NSW high achievers will have to wait until Thursday for their overall score. High school graduates in other states will find out over the next week.
