Taupōnui-a-Tia College dux 2024 Luka Leusink doesn’t let learning disability hold her back

Taupōnui-a-Tia College dux 2024, Luka Leusink. Photo / Rachel Hume Photography

Taupōnui-a-Tia College dux 2024, Luka Leusink may have long harboured the goal of coming top of her year level but she also understood it might be “a bit of a stretch”.

“I have dyslexia and APD [auditory processing disorder]. But I was always going to be in the running for it. I felt, ‘I will give it a go and I will try hard’ and I did it.”

Alongside these barriers, her final school year was disrupted by a planned visit to Europe as part of the French/History trip in April, but also because she was off sick for some time.

“I had surgery this year, so missed quite a bit of school but I stayed on top of my work.”

While two dyslexia diagnoses - one when she was 7 and a second at 14 - eventually helped her get assistance, Luka struggled for a time during primary school.

“In Year 4 I didn’t meet the National Standards and nearly had to repeat that year.”

But once diagnosed, and with the help of a lot of her teachers, she said the support systems from primary school to intermediate and then Taupōnui-a-Tia College have helped.

“It’s been through those people that I have been able to put my best foot forward. And friends, family, everyone else like that, I am grateful.”

Leusink said she was inspired to aim high in Year 9, after reading an article about a dux in a previous year.

“I thought that’s so cool, maybe that could be a goal for me.”

She said she doesn’t see herself as a poster girl for succeeding with a learning disability but does acknowledge the fact that both she and the year’s proxime accessit, Nicholas Steed, are triumphing over their challenges.

“We’re a sort of learning disability power duo, it’s quite funny.”

Leusink said despite having always struggled with words on the page she has discovered a love for them, and her Year 13 course selections involved language-rich subjects - History, Geography, Statistics, Classics, English.

She said she particularly enjoyed History thanks to her teacher of four years Roger Gregory and she was sitting the scholarship exam for it as well.

Plans ahead see her studying law in Auckland, boosted with a top achiever’s scholarship from the University of Auckland, with a conjoint Bachelor of Arts degree focused on international relations in history.

Taupōnui-a-Tia College dux 2024, Luka Leusink. Photo / Rachel Hume

Her interest in that was sparked through her participation in the New Zealand Model United Nations in Wellington in August.

“Representing countries, learning about politics that was really fun … [I realised] there’s this whole other world of opportunities, in things like international relations and politics. That opened my eyes to the world and possibilities for me.”

Studying law – five years for the conjoint degree, then more for a Master’s and maybe a PhD – could easily take up the next decade of her life, she said.

“After that, I want to find something that is going to allow me to travel, probably go back to my family in the Netherlands [where she was born and her mother, and father’s family come from] and either do something corporate or international.”

But Leusink is sure she will be back in Taupō every now and again to take a break from the pressures of study.

The Taupōnui-a-Tia proxime accessit Nicholas Steed gained excellence endorsements in level 1 and 2 NCEA and is well on track for an excellence endorsement at level 3, said Deputy Principal Stephen Fowler.

“He is a very clever young man, a mathematician/scientist with a gift for English.”