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General News
13 February, 2026
Backed by community, bound by friendship
THEY met the way many enduring friendships do in small regional schools: quietly, with a gentle nudge from a teacher who noticed two kids drifting on the margins. It was Year five. Seth Manns and Caleb Cassar were asked to sit together. Neither remembers the exact conversation that followed, only that it stuck. From there came shared classes, shared lunch tables, and the long companionship of high school years that were not always easy. Now, nearly a decade later, the two best mates are again stepping into the unknown side by side. They have left home, moved into a shared house in Melbourne, and are preparing to begin university with the support of scholarships from Youthrive Victoria, an organisation that backs young people who have faced significant hardship and shown resilience, leadership and potential.
Seth Manns and Caleb Cassar outside the original school building at Stawell Secondary College, now undergoing renovation — the place where their friendship grew and a decade-long journey toward university took shape.
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