From the Principal
Celebrating Our Graduates: Doors Opened, Doors to Come
This week has been one of great significance at Loreto College Marryatville as we celebrated the graduating Class of 2025. From the LOSA-hosted High Tea, to breakfast served by the Year 12 teachers, to the Graduation Mass, Academic Awards Ceremony, and Graduation Dinner — our College community has come together to honour the achievements, leadership, and spirit of this remarkable cohort.
As the Year 12 students stand on the threshold of new beginnings, it feels fitting to reflect on the journey that brought them here and share with you part of my Address from the Academic Awards Ceremony.
There’s a Chinese proverb that says:
“Teachers open the door, but you must walk through it yourself.”
During their time at Loreto, our students have encountered many doors — doors to learning, friendship, faith, and self-discovery. Some they walked through with excitement, others with hesitation. But every time they leaned into an opportunity, they showed courage and integrity — quietly building strength and character along the way.
Mary Ward once said, “Women in time to come will do much.” Our Class of 2025 are those women — tomorrow’s scientists, researchers, CEOs, innovators, and leaders. They are the trailblazers who will challenge conventions, open doors for others, and redefine what is possible.
Our graduates have led in classrooms and corridors, on the river at West Lakes, on the netball courts and soccer fields, and on the stage — in PAF, Mamma Mia!, Seussical, and Generations in Jazz, to name a few. Their leadership has not just been about personal achievement, but about how they have lifted others — with sincerity, humour, and grace.
The Loreto values — freedom, verity, sincerity, felicity, and justice — have shaped who they have become:
- Freedom: to think deeply and act with compassion.
- Verity: to seek truth, even when it’s uncomfortable.
- Sincerity: to be authentic in a world that rewards performance.
- Felicity: to find joy in the ordinary and gratitude in every day.
- Justice: to love others enough to want a fairer world.
Through their time at Loreto, our students have built a sisterhood that celebrates, supports, and understands. This connection does not end here; it will accompany them through lifelong friendships and into the Loreto Old Scholars’ community.
Mary Ward also wrote, “May Jesus, your friend of friends, have you in his keeping.” This is both a blessing and a call: a call to keep their hearts open to everyone they meet.
Today, as they step into new doors and new opportunities, they carry with them memories, lessons, courage, and the support of family, friends, and their Loreto sisters. The challenge ahead is simple, yet profound:
- Do ordinary things well, with care, faith, and joy.
- Seek justice, roll up your sleeves, and do the work.
- Step forward with courage, integrity, and grace.
We thank our Year 12 students for their leadership, generosity, and the joy they have brought to our College. As they step into the future, we celebrate them not only for what they have achieved, but for the doors they will open for others.
Go well, Class of 2025 — and go with open hearts.
Kylie McCullah
Principal