By CASEY NEILL
JAMES Simonis has a thirst for knowledge even his teachers struggle to keep up with.
His drive has earned him the 2013 Greater Dandenong Chamber of Commerce Youth Enterprise Award.
James is studying a certificate III in automotive mechanical technology, specialising in heavy vehicle mobile equipment, at the Chisholm Institute.
Teachers said he was a natural achiever that went beyond what was expected of him, and they struggled to keep up with his thirst for knowledge and drive.
“They saw the knack and really pushed it,” he said.
“I flourished as a result.
“There’s just so much to learn.
“I just want to keep learning new ways to do things.”
James has won his employer’s apprentice of the year award three times during his three and a half years in the job.
“There is no way you’re going to keep that up,” awards chairman James Sturgess said, lamenting he’d never won such a prize during his 27 years at law firm M and K.
“It’s a shame, you deserve it,” James quipped.
He said every machine was different and he loved the challenge of finding more efficient and cost-effective ways of using existing machines, and creating new technology.
His career dream is to own a machinery fleet.
Sam Billing, Kiara Haworth and Cameron McDonald were this year’s other Youth Enterprise Award nominees.
Sam Billing is completing an advanced diploma computer systems course and started his studies because he “used to sit at home 12 hours a day on the computer”.
The Dandenong North student’s teachers described him as caring and said he took time out to help fellow students understand hard-to-grasp concepts.
“From here, I want to go on and do the bachelor of IT,” he said.
Kiara juggled two TAFE courses with her VCE studies and a healthcare job.
But the 19-year-old Berwick student didn’t complain about the hard work – she relished the opportunity to take steps towards her dream of becoming a nurse.
Kiara is a diploma of nursing student at Chisholm and works as a patient service assistant (PSA), maintaining patient comfort in a care facility.
“I’m in a hospital and I get to know what it would be like to work there rather than jumping straight into nursing,” she said.
Her teachers said she displayed great maturity and was a confident and hard working young woman.
“I know I truly want to be a nurse,” she said.
“There is always going to be a demand for health care.”
Cameron is completing an advanced diploma of electronics and communications engineering course at Chisholm and working at SP AusNet.
Teachers said his results reflected his strong attitude to his studies.
At SP AusNet, the 20-year-old applied for an apprentice linesperson position, but after aptitude tests was offered a communications power technician role.
“I immediately grew to love what I do and this only increases as my understanding increases,” he said.
