Student Voice     

End Of Term 4:

Student Voice

2024 College Captains

What an incredible year it has been! Greg and I are honoured to have been your school captains this year.  Looking back and reflecting on the year that has been, we are so proud of the growth of the college. 

This year has marked many important events for the College, from the opening of the Debbie Locco Science Centre, the first VM cohort to graduate, and the 10th year as Principal for Ms Koziaris. 

As your college Captains, it has been an honour to oversee and represent the school at many external events as well, including Oakleigh’s ANZAC Day Memorial Service and the John Monash service held at Parliament.

2024 has been an amazing year filled with so many milestones. For our graduating Year 12 cohort, we have successfully reached the end of our secondary schooling. It has been an upward trajectory since our HeadStart program last year December. Being provided with the best advice, which is, “To start early”. 

Whether it is creating a study schedule or becoming familiar with the study design to be taught, it is crucial that we are steps ahead and setting ourselves to achieve the best outcomes we can, aligning closely with our school HRRRT value of High Expectations. This is exactly what our Class of 2024 did! 

Although Year 12 may have had its intense moments, we didn’t let this overshadow the fun which we now have memories that we will cherish forever. Additionally, our Year 12s had an important motto that we went by, that was, “Together We Can”! This reminded us that no one was left alone in their Year 12 journey but instead, we had the momentum of a whole cohort. We could not have gotten to where we are today without the ongoing encouragement from our teachers and our families, and we thank you for this as it has made this journey remarkable. 

With this being said, we would like to say a big congratulations to the Class of 2024 on receiving their results last Thursday, including ATARs, VCE Vocational Major and VCE unscored. 

This year marks the first cohort of Vocational Major students to study at South Oakleigh. I have been lucky enough to be a part of this class over the past two years and through this program, we have gotten to take part in and run several events and activities. On top of our work placements and TAFE courses, our class have run a plethora of events and initiatives throughout the year, with some highlights from 2024 being our Dunk the Teacher event and our community fete. 

Throughout the past 2 years our class has come together to set what we hope to be an extremely high standard for VM cohorts to come.

Thank you to our Senior School team Ms. Monga and Ms. Ferguson for their dedication and word of wisdom for our year level as well as our Principal team, Ms. Koziaris, Mr. Katsianos and Mr. Picone for their support during our journey through Year 12.

A highlight for 2024, has been our school podcast. During our student leadership training last year December, this amazing idea came to light that ended up shaping the 2024 senior student leadership team. “What’s Up SOC”, has been an amazing hit throughout the College community, brought to you by our Banksia House Captain Stacey Maskas and Grevillea House Captain Ella Hayes and who were the hosts of this podcast this year. We would like to extend our gratitude to them for their work in presenting and writing the scripts for each segment as well as our Media crew, Mr Philip Clark, Athanasius Tuavai and Antosha Babiy on filming and sharing out to our school each week.

As well as working together this year, we both had our separate focuses for this year. Greg had the honour of being part of the Greek Independance Day March (Parelasi) earlier this year as well as The National Youth Parade, marking 100 years since the establishment of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia. Thank-you to Ms. Maniatis for giving participating students studying the Greek language the opportunity to be part of these significant milestone events. Greg was also a part of the year 7 transition period, making regular classroom visits in the first semester of the year, bonding and connecting with them, and leaving a big smile on his face. 

My personal focus was directed towards the Performing Arts department, specifically the College production of Newsies Jr. Being a part of these College productions since year 7, it was such an honour to play a part both onstage and during rehearsals in this year's show. Additionally, through the College’s art programs, I have had the amazing opportunity to connect and bond with the amazing current year 7 cohort. It has been a privilege to connect with our next generation of college leaders, and we hope that the impact we have left on them will be memorable for years to come.

Finally, we would like to thank everyone in the College community for supporting us this year. Your support and feedback have helped us great lengths this year and we are so thankful for you all this year. We would like to thank our senior leadership team and S.R.C. for their support as well. This extends to our college vice-captains, Kristina Andreev and Harvey Hamilton, for their patience and support in creating and shaping the role this year. This makes us even more excited to welcome Kristina Andreev and Stefan Krozian into the role of College Captains. We are confident in their abilities and can’t wait to see what they get up to next year.

Although we have graduated and passed the baton onto your 2025 captains, we would like to say a final farewell and sign off as captains. As we have been saying all year, it has been such a surreal honour getting to step into this role following so many other incredible leaders. We wish everyone in the South Oakleigh College community a joyous and relaxing holiday, and hope that 2025 brings prosperity and good fortunes to everyone. Even as we move on from high school, we would like to emphasize that it isn’t ‘goodbye’, but ‘see you later’, as we can’t wait to hear about what you all get up to.

Greg Acciarito and Genna Windsor 

College Captains

2025 College Captains 

Hey everyone, please allow us to introduce ourselves. We are Stefan and Kristina, and we are indeed incredibly honoured and excited to step into the role of College Captains for 2025. This opportunity is not only a privilege but also a responsibility we take on with a great amount of enthusiasm and commitment.

Firstly, we want to express our heartfelt thanks to the staff and students for considering us as your college Captains moving forward and for making our School Community so vibrant and supportive. Your hard work, encouragement, and dedication inspire us to give our very best in this role.

We also want to acknowledge the outstanding leadership shown by Greg and Genna, for their unwavering dedication to our school community. 

As we undertake this role, we aim in continuing to build on their hard work whilst bringing fresh energy and ideas to the 2025 leadership team.

We’re also excited to collaborate with our peers, teachers, and the wider school community throughout the year. Whether it’s celebrating achievements, tackling challenges, or simply encouraging one another, we look forward to creating an environment where every student feels supported, heard, and inspired to accelerate.

As the year draws to a close, we wish everyone a safe, restful, and well-deserved break. Take this time to recharge, reflect, and enjoy time with loved ones. 

We can’t wait to see what we can accomplish together in 2025 and are committed to making this a year to remember!

Kristina Andreev and Stefan Krozian

2025 College Captains

SRC Presidents

We would like to extend our thanks and gratitude to all our SOC community.

We’ve had so much fun planning and running events, navigating challenges, and fostering an inspired community. We know your next leaders will have just as much fun, and we hope to see them grow their skills as well. Don’t enjoy their newsletters too much!

See you all soon! If not in SRC newsletters, then elsewhere! Thank you so much for all the fun we’ve had this year. Goodbye for now!

Ana Donnellon and Mackenzie Dickson  

SRC Presidents