St Albans teenager Maria Tomanoska was selected to attend the UBS Financial Academy in Sydney this month. 84149 Picture: SUPPLIED
By VANESSA VALENZUELA
MARIA Tomanoska is excited to spend the rest of her holidays working with numbers.
The Year 11 student from St Albans Secondary School was one of 50 public school students from NSW, ACT and Victoria selected to attend the 10th annual UBS Finance Academy in Sydney.
Maria said she had never considered pursuing a career in finance but decided to apply for the position after receiving good grades at school.
“I do accounting at school and I was doing fairly well at the subject so my accounting teacher suggested that I should apply,” she said.
The 16-year-old said she was both excited and shocked to learn she had been accepted for the position at the academy and was grateful for the opportunity to learn more about the industry.
“I was really surprised because there were so many people applying for the place that are really smart and I thought I wouldn’t get in,” she said.
Over the course of the week, UBS will provide students with the opportunity to interact with key players from the industry and gain working knowledge of financial markets through practical workshops.
“I think I am going to get a great insight into how things actually work, rather than just doing work in class,” Maria said.
Maria said she only realised her flair for finance after deciding to study the subject this year and admits always having an interest in biology.
“I’ve loved science for ages and I had never actually experienced any commerce subjects before so I tried accounting and I really enjoyed it,” she said.
Maria said she was torn between the two subjects and did not know what to study after high school.
“I am still not sure what I want to do but finance is looking pretty good even through the work hours are a little shocking.”
