The HNHS Foundation Trophy for Dux was awarded to 15-year-old Tapas Kant. Photo / Paul Taylor
The HNHS Foundation Trophy for Dux was awarded to 15-year-old Tapas Kant. Photo / Paul Taylor
A 15-year-old Havelock North High School student has been awarded the Foundation Trophy for dux, making him one of the school’s youngest recipients.
Tapas Kant also received the Barrett Cup for excellence in sciences, the prize in year 13 physics, for which he received the Kenwright Cup, as well as year-13 prizes in chemistry and calculus, and distinction in year-12 external English, year-13 external statistics and year-13 biology.
It has been a busy year for the teen, who was only moved into year 12 in the third term of the 2022 school year and also decided to sit scholarship calculus, statistics, physics, biology and chemistry.
It wasn’t until he sat his mock exams and benchmark results came out halfway through the year that he thought about the chance that he could be in the running for dux.
When his name was announced for the award he wasn’t surprised, but he also wasn’t expecting to be named dux.
However, Kant says his life isn’t all study and grades. He is a keen sportsman, playing cricket, football and table tennis, and he also wants to play volleyball next year.
Next year the 15-year-old will continue with high school and complete year 13.
“I wanted to get a balance between not going to uni too yearly and not wasting too much time at high school, so I thought one more year, and if I can get some leadership roles next year, that would be a great experience,” Kant said.
At the moment, he is aiming to attend medical school at Otago University, but if he gets offered any overseas opportunities, he wouldn’t be opposed to taking those.
Tapas Kant (second from left) with his father Rashmi Kant, mother Neelam Tripathi and brother Tarang Kant celebrating Tapas being named as one of HNHS's youngest dux recipients, Photo / Paul Taylor
Kant is not exactly sure what he would like to specialise in at medical school. “The brain fascinates me quite a lot, with how much we don’t know about it and how it works, so maybe something like neurology.”
As of right now, the future brain surgeon is enjoying his school holiday before focusing on his last year of high school next year.
When asked if he would try for dux again next year, Kant said, “yeah, I guess so; there is nothing wrong in trying for it again.”
Kant started on his high school academic journey at a young age with above-average grades as a Year 8 student at Havelock North Intermediate, when he went to the high school to join the Year 10 extension mathematics class, completing Level 1 NCEA.
Gaining those credits set him up well for the following year, where he completed Level 2 mathematics, Level 1 science and Level 1 chemistry, successfully achieving Level 1 Endorsed with Excellence.
As a Year 10 student, Kant continued with all three sciences at Level 2, English Level 1 and calculus Level 3, all endorsed with excellence at the end of 2021. Then this year, he was advanced to Year 12.
When asked what pushed him academically, Kant said: " I have had a lot of support from my family to do well, and I felt that I could do it as well, I felt if I could get all the stuff out of the way, then that would set me up for the future really well.”
After prize giving, Kant’s family were very excited for him, his mother and father saying they were very emotional and proud that his hard work was acknowledged, and their entire family back in India was also very proud of him.
His older brother Tarang Kant said: “I was in tears when I saw him on stage, knowing that all that hard work he put in finally paid off.”
