Two years in the United States has helped Olivia Hughes achieve two goals.
The former Blue Mountain College pupil has just returned from completing year 12 and 13 at the Shattuck-St Mary’s High School in Minnesota.
Now she has started a bachelor of sports coaching degree at Canterbury University.
Attending the US school enabled her to finish secondary school but also gave her more opportunities to develop her ice figuring skating skills, Miss Hughes said.
The school offered a centre of excellence for ice skating.
‘‘I would be doing three periods a day at skating as well as my core curriculum classes.’’
That was about 25 hours a week on the ice.
She boarded at the school’s hostel.
The school had international pupils and it had been interesting meeting people from different cultures, she said.
She was part of the ice skating team, which had been the best part of the experience.
After finishing the year at Canterbury she hoped to transfer to New York University on an ice skating scholarship.
