Sri Lankan Revish Karunasinghe is the first international student to be awarded Dux at Hastings Boys'. Photo/Warren Buckland
Sri Lankan Revish Karunasinghe is the first international student to be awarded Dux at Hastings Boys'. Photo/Warren Buckland
A Sri Lankan international student has gone from limited English to prefect and taken out his school's top academic honour.
Four years ago Revish Karunasinghe left his family, his friends and "all the delicious food back in Sri Lanka", and started at Hastings Boys' High School.
He's now the school'sDux.
At 14 he moved to New Zealand live with his aunt and uncle in 2018, and after submitting a biography to the high school they offered him a place.
"My family believed that this was a blessing from God, and we did not want to miss the opportunity that I got," he said.
The most challenging part of acclimatising to a New Zealand school was "understanding the Kiwi accent as it was completely different for me, however the school supported me to improve my knowledge about English, which helped me a lot".
Graeme Barrett, deputy headmaster, said Karunasinghe was a "quietly spoken great kid, who really leads by example".
Revish Karunasinghe's goal is to bring his parents to New Zealand from Sri Lanka. Photo Warren Buckland
"He has gone from strength to strength and from class to class, each year we visually saw his improvements."
Karunasinghe said he worked hard to get to this point.
"I have given up many sleepless nights on studying for exams and finishing off assignments."
Being awarded Dux "was a huge honour for me, and it feels really good, but not all that honour goes to me as there was a lot of support given to me by my parents and by all the teachers at school".
Karunasinghe's parents are proud of his achievements.
"They miss me very much and they were waiting to attend my prizegiving but unfortunately they couldn't.
"They are feeling really happy as it was one of their goals to see me doing well during high school here at New Zealand."
The drive came from a few factors, with one being he wanted to give something back in return to his parents, uncle and aunty.
As an international student, university in New Zealand is not an option, as he says the fees are too high.
