MFG Alumni

Alumni provide counsel to Year 12 students

The honest, thoughtful and well-articulated advice provided by Matthew Flinders Girls’ alumni was gratefully received by Year 12 students. A huge thank you to the following eight alumni who returned to their old secondary school to participate in a panel discussion to get the Year 12 students off to a flying start: Sharna Whitehand ’94, Mariah Hogan ’12, Mikaela Hamence ‘14, Ashlee Hume ’15, Ashley Hall ’16, Serena Gravett ’17, Lily Dawson ’18 and Suraya Bandari ’18.

The alumni, a mixture of VCE and VCAL students, spoke openly about the pathways they have followed since leaving school. They also provided study advice, tips and tricks and words of wisdom to assist the Year 12s in achieving their goals in their final year of school and beyond.

A few take-aways from this alumni session:

• Display your goal: Set a goal, write it down and have it displayed to keep you motivated and on track.
• Pace yourself: don’t go too hard, too early. Be realistic with the workload you set yourself to prevent burning out before the end of the year.
• Stay organised rather than cramming at last minute: use a diary to organise your time and do a little bit each day i.e. regularly revise notes. This will assist with SAC and exam preparation.
• Don’t underestimate the value of personal (soft) skills. Try to develop a strong and diverse skill-set by seeking out and making the most of opportunities such as work placement, volunteering, studying abroad and travelling.
• Maintain balance: Prioritise your time to ensure you have an appropriate balance between work/rest/play and don’t underestimate the value of sleep.
• Switch off: Utilise available apps to switch off from social media as they can disrupt sleep, waste valuable time and create unnecessary stress.

 When the alumni panel were asked what it means to have been a student at MFG, the only regional all-girls secondary school in Victoria, they responded with words such as: ‘proud’, ‘supportive’, ‘sisterhood’, ‘fortunate’ and ‘inclusive’. Thank-you for displaying these traits to the current students, for giving back and for putting the Year 12s in good stead for the year ahead.

If you are a past student of MFG, we’d love to hear from you.

Contact Tanja Dunat Timms (Ourschool Alumni Manager): alumni@mfgsc.vic.edu.au