Imagine being a year 12 student with a major work to complete all the while studying for your final exams and then a worldwide pandemic hits and you're suddenly forced to learn from home.
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How would you cope?
La Salle's Charlee Kinney, Hannah Smith, Bridget Hadley, Amy Cooke, Christian Northey, Samuel Lane, Will Brown and Kiran Gajula proved they were up to the challenge.
With five of the students doing graphics and three doing timber, they completed their HSC major works on time.
It took timber student Charlee Kinney eight months to create her 'family bar'.
To create her project Charlee used two slabs for the top from Good Earth as well as recycled palings from old fences and was lucky enough to be gifted old floor boards from teachers for the front of it.
"Originally in the top slab there was a heap of holes and damaged parts, so I used epoxy to fill them and get the resined spots," she said.
She said she felt better that her project was complete after months of worrying she wouldn't have it finished in time.
"I kind of wish I was still working on it but I'm proud of and happy with the final result," she said.
Charlee planned to take her bar table home for her family to get some use out of it.
Graphics student Kiran Gajula worked on his project 'Earth Shelter' for 11 months.
"'Earth Shelter' is a self-sustained underground house with a small part above ground," he said.
Kiran said he felt like a weight was lifted off of his shoulders now his major work was complete.
"I'm feeling pretty good now that it's complete because I can focus on other things now."
He said he chose to do Graphics as a subject because he planned to study architecture at university in the near future.
"I'm looking at studying at either University of NSW or Western Sydney University," he said.
TAS/VET/IT coordinator Jenny Holgate said given the terrible year it's been with Covid and causing extra stress to the students, they had done an exceptional job.
"All of our students finished their projects on time and we're really pleased with their results." she said.
She said the students creating projects of such highs standards had been fantastic to watch.
"This is what we would see at university, that's the level they're kind of bridging between - school and university.
"This is the first time they've attempted anything so big and to be able to complete it with such professionalism has been fantastic to watch," she said.
TAS/VET Teacher/careers adviser Peter Tracey said he was proud of every student for completing their work on time.
"You have to be very proud of the work that they've done because it's been a hell of a year.
"They're all stand outs, they really are.
"They're a beautiful bunch of kids and they try really, really hard. You can see that from the efforts of the work that they've produced, it's wonderful," he said.
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