he was also awarded the vcaa's 2007 vce achiever's award. during his vce year, ballard competed in and won the vcaa's plain english speaking award with a speech titled "bullying.com". he went on to place second in the national competition to daniel swain, with the two being chosen to represent australia in the international public speaking competition held in london in may 2008. his success in the public speaking competition and his activism with school and local youth communities on topics such as homophobia and cyberbullying helped earn him the achiever's award.