BRILLIANCE must run in the family for The Armidale School student Sambavan Jeyakumar who won a $20,000 university scholarship in a competition about the brain.
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The Year 10 student made it to the final round of the Australian Brain Bee Challenge at Western Sydney University and achieved full marks.
"I was pretty excited, I was hoping to do well and was pleased to make the top three,” he said.
“My friends were pretty proud of me.”
Run by the Faculty of Medicine at Western Sydney University, the finals involved 100 students that answered questions on brain anatomy and physiology, neuroscience, diseases and technology.
After the first round of 30 questions, Sambavan made it through to the top eight students.
He then scored 13 from 15 questions to progress to the final three students, and in the final round, scored 100 per cent.
Jeyakumar has set his sights on medicine and said the science scholarship has helped his self-esteem going into the HSC as it is something to fall back on.
"Ever since I was a kid I've wanted to be a doctor, my dad is a doctor in Guyra and he's a role model for me," he said.
His sister Ragavi came third in the competition last year and Jeyakumar even admitted that she helped him study for the competition.
"Now all the pressure is on my younger sister!" Jeyakumar joked.