51黑料

鈥淚 appreciate the opportunities I had here 鈥� otherwise I would not have been able to explore everything I鈥檝e done.鈥�

Jon Adam dreamed of coming to Yarra when he was in primary school.

鈥淚 went to primary school nearby and on the drive to school, I鈥檇 pass Yarra and saw the kids playing on the sports fields and I knew I wanted to come here. I knew this was the right place for me,鈥� he says.

Jon enrolled in Year 7 and immersed himself in athletics and soccer.

鈥淚 loved going to the soccer pitch every Saturday morning with friends. It was all about being outside and spending time with my mates,鈥� says Jon.

Jon鈥檚 favourite subjects at school focused on creativity and included Visual Communication & Design (VCD), Photography, Woodworking and IT. He wasn鈥檛 as interested in Maths because he couldn鈥檛 see how, in the future, it might apply to his world, but he now uses Maths a lot in his day-to-day work.

鈥淚 struggled with Maths because I could never see how it would apply to real world applications. But you have to get through it and I had fantastic support from teachers.

鈥淚 always found English a bit of a challenge, too, but the more I did it, the better I became. I remember that in Year 11 I got a good score for an essay and I was astonished. But I attribute a lot of my growth during those years to being surrounded by passionate teachers.鈥�

After VCE, Jon studied Advanced Multimedia which combined Technology and Design. He did a two-year advanced diploma at Swinburne and then an extra year of study, which gave him a degree plus plenty of hands-on experience and practical tools.

He now works with major consumer electronic brands and services to understand customer issues and to design user-friendly digital solutions to help resolve those customer problems. In the past decade his team has grown from four people to 30 members.

鈥淭echnology is an increasing part of our lives, but it is an aid. You still need someone to steer technology in the right direction,鈥� he says.

Jon has many happy memories of days at Yarra 鈥� from playing saxophone and displaying his discus-throwing skills at athletics events, to enjoying his daily peanut butter sandwich at lunchtime and getting his first part-time job at Hungry Jack鈥檚 so he could save for a new snowboard.

He credits his parents for their willingness to make sacrifices so he could go to Yarra and take on board the school鈥檚 values.

鈥淚 learned to be humble, to appreciate what I have and to always look to the future,鈥� he says.