Caitlyn Baljak may only be 17-years-old, but this Queanbeyan resident is already planning how to change the world.
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The Year 12 St Clare's College student has just been awarded a prestigious Tuckwell Scholarship to study at the Australian National University.
"It's pretty exciting, it was a super long process getting through the various stages," the Queanbeyan teenager said.
"Having the honour of being awarded one was a real dream come true."
Caitlyn hoped the scholarship would be an opportunity for her to get more involved in community and volunteer work and connecting her with "other like-minded students".
She plans to study a double degree in science, politics, philosophy and economics, but that's not all.
"I'll probably do some further study after that following the science path, but I'm hoping to look at disruptive technologies and innovative industries particularly power in Australia [and] energy consumption because there's so much potential in Australia for development in sustainable energy that just isn't either being utilised or people don't hear about it," she said.
"So I'm hoping politics, philosophy, economics will help me to communicate that to the public and to the political sphere but the science degree will help me actually develop those technologies."
The scholarships, established by ANU alumnus billionaire Graham Tuckwell and his wife Louise in 2013, are awarded to 25 students each year.
The scholarships hold a value of $100,000 per student over five years for a program of undergraduate study. Students must have an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank of 95 or above and display a "well-rounded set of personal attributes".
Earlier this month, the Tuckwells announced a record for personal philanthropy with a donation to ANU worth about $200 million over 30 years to fund the scholarships in perpetuity
Caitlyn said the Tuckwell Scholarship had appealed to her because of its difference from traditional scholarships.
"When I was first looking at scholarships and uni, I looked at the criteria for a lot of the scholarships and I saw the Tuckwell Scholarship. It was a bit different from a lot of the others, which were mostly just academic requirements," she said.
"I saw that there were certain characteristics and I was going through the checklist and thought 'hey, I fulfil some of this criteria, why don't I give it a shot'.
"Living in Canberra, I was lucky to know a few current Tuckwell scholars through various community work that they do with debating and UN Youth so I was able to talk to them about their experience and really wanted to get on board."
Caitlyn said she was looking forward to starting university and the opportunities the scholarship would afford her.
ANU vice-chancellor Professor Brian Schmidt looked forward to welcoming the 2017 Tuckwell scholars to the university next year.
"The program has a vision to provide opportunity and to inspire role models and leaders who can make a difference to Australia and the world," he said.
