Earlier this year we interviewed sports reporter, presenter and producer at 10 News First Perth, Rebecca Perrie (nee Killen) from the Class of 1997.

The sports enthusiast has had a fruitful career since her time at the College, with many professional highlights, including covering several Ashes series and interviewing her childhood hero, surfing world champion Kelly Slater! It is no surprise to hear that Rebecca loves her job.

When asked if the subjects she pursued in high school translated to her career she said, “Absolutely!”

Rebecca went onto describe how her favourite subjects were Year 11 English with Ms Ruddy and Year 12 English with Mr Martino, sharing that, “both teachers inspired me with their zest and enthusiasm for story writing and I just remember having fun in their classes by being given the freedom to be creative”.

She also attributed her Year 11 and 12 Drama classes, from which some of her favourite school memories of participating in the productions are from, as having helped with her confidence in front of the camera.

After graduation, Rebecca went on to study a Bachelor of Arts (English) with a double major in Journalism and Film & TV at Curtin University.

She admitted, “I persisted (pestered the sports team!) with work experience at Channel 10 through uni and annoyed them into giving me a job eventually, which started with a traineeship in 2001”. She also worked in radio news and sport at 6PR, Triple M and Nova, before her current role as a sports reporter, presenter and producer at 10 News First Perth.

Rebecca simplifies her job down to her two favoruite things - watching sport and writing stories. She describes her days as varying, but that they usually entail “going to footy training, interviewing inspiring from a variety of sports, and covering sporting events and their lead-up.

I work with a great team to create story ideas, arrange, and conduct interviews and produce vision, write, and edit stories - and on occasion - I sometimes present the sports bulletin too!”

I do In terms of life achievements, Rebecca shares, “my greatest personal achievement is our three daughters and my greatest individual achievement is writing an as-yet unpublished children’s novel”.

With her eldest daughter having commenced at the College in 2022 and her two other children soon to follow, we asked Rebecca how much influence her own favourite memories from school, which included the great people and of course, the sport - watching the Quit Cup footy team success (which included Josh & Matt Carr and Simon Black who went on to AFL careers), had on her decision to send her children here.

“I’ll admit I felt a sense of home when I came back to the school for a tour when considering options for our girls (this may have been because the first thing I saw was Mrs Farrington’s beaming face - she was my Year 9 homeroom teacher)!”

She explained, “as a family, we could see that the school was going to embrace children as individuals - those good at sport, children who had an interest in the arts or technology, as well as those academically gifted. Which brings me back to the importance of finding something to do with the rest of your life that you truly enjoy.

We could see with the attitude of those at the school tour and families with children at the school already - that this would be not only possible at Av�԰�, but a clear focus in their high school journey,” she concluded.

Leaving our students with once piece of advice, Rebecca shared, “I implore high school children to follow your dreams and choose to do something you love - chances are you can find a career in it!”