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Student Achievers - Axel

Posted on December 31, 2019

Hi, my name is Axel. I am nineteen years old and am living with my parents and one of my sisters in Paris. My childhood was dogged with the triple whammy of ADHD, dyslexia and deafness. With both learning and consequent behavioural problems, school has never been easy for me. I seriously never thought that I would get through Year 12. For me, school life in Paris was an academic disaster.

My experience at OAC...

A few years ago, my mother was travelling from Adelaide to France and she sat next to a man travelling to Spain. He was working and living there with his wife and two sons. He mentioned that his sons were continuing their Australian studies through Open Access. He couldn’t stop raving about how great the school was and how amazing the teachers were.

Mum thought that it might work for me. I recognised this opportunity as being the only chance I had of successfully finishing school. For me, studying by correspondence was initially very challenging. I hated talking on the phone or Skype. I had little confidence in opening up to strangers and had zero organisational skills.

I did my PLP, Year 11 and Year 12 through Open Access. I nearly gave up on several occasions. Juggling time differences, technical hitches and local work commitments was often stressful. Also, this year, I was hospitalised for three weeks in July and slipped drastically behind.

Thanks to everyone at Open Access showing flexibility but overall thanks to Gill Maguire and Bruce Richardson, who kept constant positive communication up with me, through Skype, I managed to hang in and complete Year 12. These weekly conversations over a two year period have also made me confident to communicate via telephone, which is normal for most people but was previously impossible for me.

And today...

I am currently following a course in animation and video. It ends in May 2014. I am not sure what I will do next. Maybe a film school. I am looking forward to a six month break. Thanks to Open Access, I now have options.