Morley Senior High School student Dakota Colborne.
Camera IconMorley Senior High School student Dakota Colborne. Credit: Supplied/Supplied

Morley Senior High student Dakota Colborne has sights set on high-flying career

Kristie LimEastern Reporter

MORLEY Senior High School student Dakota Colborne has won the Education Minister’s Aviation Scholarship worth $3000 .

WA Education Minister Peter Collier awarded Dakota the scholarship for academic achievement, motivation and commitment to aviation.

The 17-year-old student said he was pleased to have won.

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“It just really came down to the preparation and I’ve got a lot of experience with aviation,” Dakota said.

“I’ve learnt everything that’s got to do with aviation, so that could be aviation law, communication, basic systems, more advanced systems and the theories of which I enjoy the most.”

Dakota said it would take at least 15 years to achieve his goal in aviation.

“My dream is to become a pilot, hopefully and after that, fly search and rescue helicopters for doctor services,” Dakota said.

The Year 12 student said he wanted to move to Sydney after high school.

“I’ve applied for the University of New South Wales, that’s the joint defence force university where there is air force, navy and army,” Dakota said.

“I hope to do a Bachelor of Technology and then study to be a pilot as well.”

Dakota said he had to thank his parents for pushing him on.

“I probably would not have gone this far as a teenager; they deserve a lot of the credit.”

His father Mark Colbourne said he did not see his “quiet, hard-working and disciplined” son’s professional side often.

“We only get to see what he tells us rather than seeing him in action, it is impressive to see this side of him,” he said.

His mother, Venus Morehu said she needed to urge her son to study in the past.

“Up until this year, I would have to say Dakota had to be pushed and that’s okay because that was our job,” she said.

“However as of this year, I have notice he’s taken it on himself.

“He has exceeded all my expectations with this; we’ve been working a long time to get here.”