THE captains of Orange High School are among the lucky few who will get a chance to meet the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in Sydney at a formal reception on Wednesday.
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Meaghan Kempson and Trent French were selected to represent high school students from across NSW and will shake hands with Prince William and his wife at the Sydney Opera House.
They were only one of three sets of captains to be selected out of 580 schools in the Department of Education’s Administrative Area Four, which stretches from southern Sydney and Wollongong to the Victorian, South Australian and Queensland borders.
Principal of Orange High School David Lloyd said it was a great honour to have students selected to represent the school and the region.
“It’s not only recognition of the school, it’s recognition of the students themselves and their leadership skills,” he said.
“They are well-liked by everyone at Orange High.”
But it wasn’t easy for Meaghan and Trent to get picked, with a highly competitive selection process run by the Department of Education.
“We wrote a submission and they were nominated by the state office,” Mr Lloyd said.
“The students then had to pass a whole lot of protocols. It really was quite competitive.”
Trent said he never expected to be selected at all, and has even changed his mobile phone wallpaper to a photo of Kate.
“It was pretty exciting and I had a lot of mixed emotions, but because we got told on April Fools Day, no one believed us,” he said.
Meaghan said she was also excited, and had even postponed gall bladder surgery for the event.
“They seem like pretty cool people,” Meaghan said.
“They’re down to earth, and aren’t really caught up in being a royal.”
The other sets of captains will come from Albury High School and Corowa High School.