Life beyond Radford
Luke Letcher
What does life look for you now?
Last year I made my first open age Australian rowing team so the next few years of my life will hopefully be spent training three times a day out of the AIS with the rest of the men's squad and trying to make the team from year to year. That pretty much means that I'm tired most of the time, but I get to spend every day with a bunch of good mates and experience the extreme highs and lows of elite sport. On the academic side I'm also slowly studying engineering at ANU.
What is your favourite Radford moment?
One of my most lasting memories of school was my time as a part of the co-curricular music programs. I played cello in the chamber orchestra which was led by a fantastic conductor named Rowan who always made it fun but challenging. I was also a part an incredible West Side Story musical orchestra where I can guarantee that the orchestra had more fun than any other part of the production. But most of all my little string quartet which started in Year 7 and made me some of my best friends and took me on some great adventures.
Do you have a particular role model or inspirational figure from Radford or now?
I'd be hard pressed to pull out any one name who left the greatest impression on me at school but I'd rather say that the one thing that I found in common with all the very best teachers I had (and there were many), was that they were incredibly capable people who could have done almost anything they'd wanted with their careers and earned more money in other areas, but they had chosen to do what they loved and were passionate about instead.
Anything else that you would like to share?
When you think of your time at Radford, what are you most grateful for?
Mr Leyshon always used to talk about school giving you keys to doors for you to unlock, and behind every door was a different opportunity. I'm most grateful to Radford for the number of keys that they gave me across all areas of life, I felt like I could have unlocked a door to any area that I was possibly passionate about and I probably had some keys given straight to me which I would never have even thought of beforehand.
What is unique about Radford?
Having finished school and spent time with people from lots of other schools I'd say that one thing that I found was unique about Radford was the way that our time there had taught people to think critically and challenge the world around them, not just accept that what other people say is right.
