Nya: Welcome to the Gold Coast isn't it beautiful here and this is where I go to high school.
I'm Nya from Thailand and I'm a student at Queensland Academies Health Sciences campus.

Teacher: Let's bring it home girls we've got 20 seconds left, working hard here!

Vanessa Rebgetz: Here at QAHS is Queensland Academy for Health Sciences and we are a senior high school for students in year 10, 11 and 12. Exclusively we do the International Baccalaureate diploma program at this school we're very fortunate with beautiful facilities people describe it as a University campus style it's a school but not as you know it.
For many years now we've had a fitness coordinator who trains with students morning and now in the afternoon and we have purpose-built big gym area the Mantra is be well in order to do well for others.

Nya: I would say QAHS is my second home and as an international student I'm being away from family it's important to get to know new people to be involved in new activities to kind of find myself a little bit and QA has definitely offered that to me and I definitely have made really good friends there and I've definitely really gotten fitter and healthier.
Being a student you need to have a balance between just relaxing and studying. 
I just felt like this is where I'm meant to be and just because I've always wanted to go into a health science career. My mum has a PHD in Biochemistry and I've always loved, you know, what she's been studying.

In the science labs we have amazing things like anatomy models we've got models of the brain, models of the heart.

Vanessa Rebgetz: Each year we would have about 60 to 70 percent of graduates seeking careers in health and medicine. State-of-the-art laboratories are set up here in the academy  and state-of-the-art equipment so we have equipment at this school that no other school would have and that is to facilitate the richness in the scientific investigation and research.

We are the only school located in the Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct  
this is a precinct recognised in the Gold Coast as a hub for scientific research.

So literally our students can be five minutes walking distance across the Footbridge  
accessing all the richness that comes in their learning with knowing that there's internationally acclaimed, and world first research that's being undertaken.

Over the years our students, for example, they've been able to be in laboratories over at Griffith University and for a future medical student that is an opportunity that they just wouldn't get anywhere else.

Nya: I've been to Griffith and I've seen their labs and it's amazing and that confirmed, and sparked my interest in science, and how I really really want to go down this path. 
I love experimenting, I love learning about new things and I have ended up with an experiment about how capsaicin, which is a chemical in chilli, potentially capsaicin would be able to help slow down Alzheimer's.  
I felt really close to this research topic because I'm from Thailand and I love spice and I eat everything with chilli.

Vanessa Rebgetz: It's fundamental to the IB ethos that you're not just developing as an academic learner but you are developing in your creativity you know over 50 in-school activities that are running so students can choose anything from K-pop, Bollywood dancing, they will do dragon dancing, battle of the bands, surf life-saving, we also have a rich community connection beyond school here.

Nya: Queensland Academies on the Gold Coast offers so much more than just quality education it's the scenery, it's the beach, it's the people. Coming to QAHS has really set me up for my science career in the future. My big aspiration would be to make an impact in the science field one way or another maybe as a medical doctor, maybe as a researcher, or maybe as a you know the next person who finds a new cure for something and I feel like I could definitely do something amazing.