Objects of Substance – The Beris Korotcoff Outdoor Education

that the recipient would be decided upon after consultation with the Directors of Health and Physical Education and Outdoor Education. The 32 recipients of this memorial award (from 1989 to 2022, with 1993 being a non-award year) are presented with a cup on which is engraved the year and their name. This is permanently displayed in the cabinets of the McCrae Grassie Centre. The awardees also receive an engraved goblet as a personal memento. The description of the prize provides important but limited information, so it raises some very interesting questions about Beris Korotkoff, her time at the School, and why her fellow students, Elizabeth Datson, Daniela Gerber, and Julie Kinross, felt it important to remember her with a prize at her old School, and one in outdoor pursuits. Beris Korotcoff attended Girls Grammar from 1972 to 1976. She was academically gifted, and throughout her five years at the School, consistently achieved at a very high level. She was a natural leader and an active and involved all-rounder who was not afraid to embrace the challenging and the unexpected. In Year 12, she achieved what was then the top Tertiary Entrance score of 990. The following year, Beris embarked on a course in Chemical Engineering at The University of Queensland. Her sister, Narelle Ren dalls (Korotkoff, 1969), explained that ‘Beris worked for Australian Synthetic Rubber(ASR), a division of Exxon, in Altona, from graduation until she became a senior chemical engineer. I believe that she was their first female chemical engineer and, as such, was often shown in their graduate advertising programs’. (Email, 31/10/22)

Beris Korotcoff (1976)

Former Directors of Marrapatta, Ms Carol and Mr James McIntosh, described the qualities of girls who have received this trophy during their 19 years of tenure. They saw these girls as ones ‘who consciously sought opportunities to involve themselves in the outdoors above and beyond the compulsory outdoor program’. These students would often volunteer to be camp seniors, become members of the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme, or even embark on Antipodean adventures. They displayed ‘leadership, initiative, willi ngness to give things a go, self-motivation, self-confidence, and a sincere concern for nature and natural spaces’. However, such girls are not only all about the solo outdoor pursuits. They also interacted positively with other students. They were positive