Russian-speaking probationary constable, Rebecca Molchanoff, might have ended up a renowned forensic scientist. The door to a life in the world of elite science was wide open to the bright teenager with a passion for the outdoors.

But a four-year stretch within the walls of higher learning was, she decided, not for her. So she shunned an opportunity to study forensic and analytical chemistry and, instead, chose to pursue a long-term police career.

Some of her friends, themselves police officers, had described policing to her as “an outdoors job” with a vast range of fields in which she could work. To a then prospective Const Molchanoff, the “diversity seemed really good, and (the job) secure”.

Probationary Constable Kirsten Di Salvio was another recruit with an academic option open to her. She could have returned to university to complete a degree course she had begun some years earlier. But, policing, with its “challenge and variety of work”, attracted her too.

With their obvious academic ability, both officers excelled in their recruit courses at Fort Largs. Const Di Salvio, 27, graduated as dux of Course 59 in March, while Const Molchanoff, 19, emerged as dux of Course 60 in April.

Accordingly, both women won the Police Association’s Walter J Wissell award for academic achievement. Association secretary, Andy Dunn, presented the pewter tray to Const Di Salivo as part of her morning graduation parade.

“Clearly, Kirsten put an extraordinary effort into what we all know is an unrelenting six-month training course,” he said. “But you could see that she exuded great mental and physical energy.

“I congratulate her, and wish her well in her career. And I expect that, like other Wissell award recipients, she will prove a great asset to SA policing.”

Const Di Salvio, who had worked in customer service in the building industry before joining SAPOL, said the Wissell award was a “nice reward” and good to receive.

The wife and mother explained that she had found time management the toughest aspect of her training. “It was intense at times, and challenging, with the amount of work and exams, but it was good,” she said. “It was either sink or swim, but I enjoyed it.”

Raised in Coomealla in western NSW, where her parents owned vineyards, Const Di Salvio paid tribute to her immediate family and in-laws for their support during her course. She said the time they had left her alone to study had “helped a lot”.

Relieved to have graduated, Const Di Salvio now works as a patrol officer at the Parks in Port Adelaide LSA. There, she has already taken part in the arrest of an illegal user, after a 15-minute high-speed chase.

“I love it,” she said of her new job. “It’s fantastic. It’s everything I expected it was going to be, but it’s better than that again. All my team is fantastic, too, so I’m lucky.”

Const Di Salvio looks at her police career as a long-term prospect, and hopes to work eventually in a Child & Family Investigations unit, or the Drug and Organized Crime Investigation Branch.

Const Molchanoff received her award from Police Association assistant secretary, Tom Scheffler, in an afternoon graduation ceremony. She later spoke of the excitement the Wissell honour had brought her.

“I wasn’t really aiming at it, until probably after the second phase (of training),” she said. “I realized that I was actually doing pretty well, because we’d had three exams by then. So it was like: ‘Hang on, I might get an award!’”

Mr Scheffler said he found Const Molchanoff an intelligent young woman, who “impressed me greatly”.

“I think she’ll do very well as a police officer, and truly leave her mark on SAPOL as an organization,” he said.

Const Molchanoff found her recruit course extremely intense, particularly in those weeks in which she and her course-mates had to undertake multiple exams. She also found it tough at times to master certain police reports, and the SAPOL computer system.

She nonetheless enjoyed her time at Fort Largs, and drew particular pleasure from social interaction. “I made friends with everyone, and some of them are friends I’ll keep forever,” she insisted.

Const Molchanoff’s Russian migrant father and her mother, however, were not always convinced that police work was the career for their daughter. The well-known dangers of front-line law enforcement deeply concerned them.

But speaking with some police friends of the family helped put their fears somewhat to rest. Today, both parents are intensely proud of their Wissell award-winning daughter.

Since her graduation day – on which she felt a mixture of relief, excitement and apprehension – Const Molchanoff has begun work at her first post, Port Augusta. She knew nothing of the town but volunteered to fill one of two country positions her course had to cover.

Further into her career, she hopes to work with the Bike Patrol section and, later, in the Mounted Operations Unit.

And Const Molchanoff expects to outdo by far the seven-year average length of service of women in SAPOL. “In seven years, I’ll only be 26,” she said. “I think I’m staying in the job for quite some time.

“It’s a job that you’d find really difficult to get sick of, because there are so many different aspects to it. There are lots of jobs within a job. So, for me, I see it more as long term.”