Zoe Petropoulos

"As long as I try my best and can help someone else – that’s success to me.”

In the past few years, Zoe Petropoulos has gone from student to colleague at Yarra Valley Grammar, and the School has had a significant impact on Zoe’s educational achievements and her career path.

Zoe has dyslexia and so reading and spelling were challenging at school. Dyslexia also meant that maths sometimes became difficult when she confused numbers.

“My teachers were patient and Yarra has a great area for people who struggle academically. I could do SACS and assessments in a quiet space and I could type instead of handwrite my work. That extra support helped me a lot,” says Zoe.

Zoe joined Yarra in Year 2 and has fond memories of the pirate ship that once stood in the playground. Going to the snow during a Year 6 camp is another happy memory.

Her favourite subject at school was Drama and she was part of every Senior School production. She continues that passion outside of school with a local community theatre group.

“Before Yarra, I did drama as a form of speech therapy but I discovered that I loved acting. Mum took me to see Mary Poppins when I was 11 and that was it. I did Beauty and the Beast Junior at Yarra and then every senior production. It’s fun to step into someone else’s shoes for a while,” says Zoe.

Zoe decided to do unscored VCE and completed Food Tech, Maths, English and Drama.

“I’m proud of my efforts. I had to read some very content-heavy books for English but I passed everything. I did better than I anticipated which was a huge deal for me.”

Outside of Yarra, Zoe is a founder of the Flicker of Hope Foundation that raises awareness of, and funds for research for, Neurofibromatosis. Zoe was diagnosed with the genetic disorder that can cause tumours, blindness, epilepsy, learning difficulties and some cancers.

“I was diagnosed when I was a few months old. A list of things can happen and you don’t know what you will get,” she says.

“In 2018 I was having surgery to remove a tumour and Mum wanted to donate to research and realised there wasn’t anywhere to do that so we started our own charity. In just over three years we’ve raised over $1 million.”

Zoe has some high-profile supporters and her next fundraiser, Kick Butt for NF, will be at Port Melbourne Football Club.

“We want to shine a light on neurofibromatosis and meet and support people who are on a similar journey,” says Zoe.