Principal's Report
Parents’ Association (P.A.) Grants
Sallie Carman, co-President of the Parents’ Association and Chair of the Grants Committee, has just completed the enormous task of assessing all applications and notifying students and staff of the Round 2, 2017 outcome.
The successful projects include fitting out the new Library’s “Green Screen Room”, grants to Science, Food Technology, Rowing, STEAM, Performing Arts, Philosophy, Visual Arts, Mathematics, Sport and Wellbeing.
Enormously grateful thanks to Sallie and all Grants Committee members: Jane Wilson, Penny Wilson and Sean Carmen. Of course, none of these extra educational programs could be funded without the consistently diligent hard work of our P.A. lead by Gailean Hammond and Sallie.
Women Funding Future
On Tuesday the Australian Women Donors Network hosted global thought leader, author and entrepreneur, Lisa Witter. Lisa spoke about new perspectives on the forces of philanthropy, gender, entrepreneurship, impact investing and how they interact with government policy. Lisa exploredGlobal women's empowerment trends - what's actually working and what's not and how this compares to what's going on in Australia. This research informs future thinking for Melbourne Girls’ College.
Year 12 Product Design and Technology Success
Congratulations to Jo Jepsen who has four students shortlisted for VCE Top Designs! Well done to Sarah Betts, Emma Croker, Lilly Oshlack and Meshi Seymour-Pessah. We wish our students every success for the next two stages of selection for the Top Designs exhibition.
Congratulations Courtney McKenzie
From a field of 10,000 Australian candidates our 2017 College Captain, Courtney McKenzie, has been selected as an Officer Lieutenant of the Australian Defence Force in 2018. The field included young people from all over Australia and internationally, many candidates much older than herself. The selection is a testament to Courtney’s character, leadership and talent. The process included flying to Sydney for extensive interviews and interrogations while undertaking multiple hours of conference calls testing her knowledge of feminism, world conflict and military history. Courtney managed this enormous workload whilst preparing for her VCE exams. Courtney was inspired and supported by her VCE History Revolutions teacher, Lisa Rosos. Lisa briefed her on historical events, ensured peer reviewed references were available and gave enormous moral support throughout the process. Courtney is truly grateful.
Congratulations Lauren Pengelly
Lauren has been recognised as the 2017 Preston Leader Junior Sports Star, a great achievement given Lauren has also managed Year 12 and the training required for her elite gymnastics.
Our Students on Public Transport
It is a pleasure to highlight a very positive phone call about our students on public transport. A caller who had just left a doctor’s appointment on crutches said he got on a Bridge Road tram with many of our students already present. One student swiped his Myki for him and all of our nearby girls offered their seats. Thank you to all present for representing MGC with respect and kindness.
Artificial Intelligence and Future Thinking
“Creating better humans will always be more important than creating smarter machines”. Garry Kasparov, former world chess champion and author of "Deep Thinking", opened the OECD conference “Artificial Intelligence: Intelligent Machines, Smart Policies" on 26 October 2017.
There has been much in the media of late about Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) and the potential changes we will see over the next 20-50 years in education, health, transport, infrastructure and business.
This OECD post highlights the very human qualities which will always be needed. At Melbourne Girls’ College this is why Wellbeing, core subjects and co-curricular programs focus on character strengths to support our young people to negotiate the future they will lead.
Thank you to our students, parents and staff for your ongoing support to ensure MGC is a centre of personal best in learning and wellbeing for every person in our community.
Kind regards,
Karen Money
Principal