An insight into our Ministries - Clonard College
This year we are asking our ministries to nominate a staff member or student who represents and embodies the values and vision of Kildare Ministries. Two ministries will feature in each newsletter. Clonard College chose students Yu-Shin Tan and Saskia Frake. They also chose their departing Stewardship Council Chair Greer Lamaro-Haintz.
Living out the Kildare Ministries Values
These young women- Yu-Shin Tan and Saskia Frake- are now in Year 11 at Clonard. They are both excellent students, they have a strong circle of friends and they get along well with their families and with their teachers. That’s normal, isn’t it? But what makes these students worth taking extra notice of is the way they go about their lives. They have chosen to try to act to make a difference in everything they do.
They are both active student leaders and operate out of a commitment to service- the things they do and organise are always for the benefit of others. They also both share an interest in making sure the voices of young people are heard clearly in the forums that are available. This is what leadership is about, particularly in our Brigidine tradition.
They are busy seeing a need and then doing something about it. Here is a snapshot of some of the activities they have led recently:
- Helped to organise and serve regularly at the breakfast club at a nearby primary school
- Helped organise the subject expo, science week and book week activities
- Attended Palm Sunday rallies in 2018 & 2019
- Helped organise and coordinate the ‘circle of solidarity’ for refugee week.
- Organised other lunchtime activities for refugee week
- Regularly attend refugee tutoring/homework club at Northern Bay College
- Organise and run activities for the refugee holiday program- at Clonard, for several years
- Organised and staffed the fair trade hot chocolate stall for the Clonard Night Market
- Helped host the Reconciliation student seminar in May, at Clonard.
- Helped organise and serve at Justice Meal Day
- Have attended several Caritas Just Leadership workshops
- Attended community cook ups
- Helped organise and run food drives for BASP
Much of this impressive list comes from their roles as leaders of Clonard’s Justice & Democracy Group. As such they have also regularly attended the J & D student seminars. Our J & D leader says of them: “These young women are amazing. They are great workers, so generous and they help the girls see what difference J & D can make. They are such great role models and examples of what our values are all about."
Greer Lamaro-Haintz
Clonard is very reluctantly saying goodbye to Greer Lamaro-Haintz as she finishes her term as chair of our Stewardship Council. This is, though, the second time we had to say farewell, given that Greer was a student at Clonard between 1995 and 2000, when she graduated as one of our highest performing Year 12s. In that final year she was also school captain and involved heavily in sport, social justice and leading student activities.
Greer generously took up the offer of joining our Stewardship Council in 2011. We were looking for someone who understood education, our community, our school and, of course, the Brigidine (KM) ethos. In Greer we felt we had it all… and we were right. We did know she was fully indoctrinated into Brigidine ways: she was, as a student, driven by a desire to serve others, she was determined to see the world made a better place and she operated in accordance with the values.
As a member and then chair of the Stewardship Council she has been able to help us remain faithful to those values and to build our capacity to serve our community authentically. She has brought spirit, wisdom, that love of learning and, as a lecturer at Deakin in Health, she has been able to challenge us to ask how we are looking to develop the minds, the bodies as well as the emotional health of our students.
Greer has taken on more than a job or a role here: she has lived the responsibility but worn it lightly. We have been so blessed to have her leadership, her wisdom but we have also enjoyed her company in the school on many, many occasions: Greer has been determined to represent the Council as often as she could and consequently she has taken up many invitations to assemblies, ceremonies, special occasions and even small scale events.
Living out the Kildare Ministries values… thank-you Greer from your grateful Clonard community.