Kalani Knight | Class of 2019
Did you have a plan when you left school?
When I left school I had a rough plan to move to Melbourne, study biomedicine, and from there possibly study medicine or something similar in the health sciences. This has mostly gone to plan as I am currently studying medicine in Melbourne!
Since leaving school, what have you been up to?
After leaving high school I moved to a residential college at the University of Melbourne and completed an undergraduate degree in biomedicine. Despite the pandemic I still managed to explore many parts of Victoria and go backpacking in South East Asia.
After completing biomedicine I started medical school, also at the University of Melbourne. I moved out with friends establishing a sharehouse in Melbourne’s hipster Inner North. While in medical school I have mainly been based at hospitals in Melbourne’s West, treating patients from diverse sociocultural backgrounds. I have also completed rural medicine and general practice placements in the foothills of the Victorian Alps.
In an attempt to overcome the grey and gloom of Victorian winters, I have taken up skiing, a sport I first tried on the school ski camp many years ago! My love of travel and skiing recently took me to Japan where I further honed my ski skills.
I am currently in my final few months of medical school and will be starting work as a doctor in Melbourne next year. As much as Melbourne has to offer, I look forward to returning to the sun and surf of Byron Bay some time in the future.
Can you think of a skill you learned or an activity we did at Cape Byron that became more important or meaningful to you after leaving?
I think one of the most important skills I learnt at Cape Byron was the ability to plan and write essays. Even in science-oriented fields like medicine, the ability to plan and write a good essay is a vital skill and one which I built in high school thanks to the myriad of practice essays I wrote in preparation for my HSC exams.
Is there something you remember from school that always makes you laugh?
Comparing the casual, personal nature of my Steiner education to the strict academic focus many of my peers experienced always makes me smile. I feel so fortunate to have enjoyed such a nurturing, relaxed high school environment. It’s funny to look around a medical lecture theatre and realise you can reach the exact same goal without having to sacrifice a caring, balanced high school education.
One thing I miss about Cape Byron is?
More than anything I miss the small close-knit community. Moving to Melbourne and starting university can often feel like being a small fish in a very big pond where you get lost in the crowd. Being in a small school and in a community where everyone knows your name is something I dearly miss!
Most memorable school moment is?
The memory that most stays with me is the school camp we took to Kakadu in Year 11. Despite the intense heat and humidity the opportunity to see a completely different environment and to visit remote Indigenous communities is something that has always stuck with me. It was a real privilege to see a part of the world very few people do, and doing that with my close-knit classmates made it all the more special!
