The Challenge Newsletter

NBC Alumni

The alumni program, now in its second year, is always surprising. 

We come across alumni with interesting careers and perspectives, and we’ve met so many alumni who are happy to give back to their old school, and contribute by helping us enrich the current curriculum.

One such alumni connection we’ve met recently is Kellee Reissinger, who attended Corio Tech, and is now the Curator of the Geelong Botanic Gardens. After participating in our recent career panel, we are excited for future collaborations. No-one knows more about local biodiversity and horticulture than her, and that’s exciting news for our upcoming landscaping of our new build.

Below are two of our most recent alumni events, bringing alumni back into their old school.

Year 9 Career Panel

Year 9 is a great year to start thinking long-term, to begin to decide what pathway a student might want, and to be exposed to lots of different career options. 

With that in mind, this year we again hosted a Career Panel for our Year 9 students.

Inviting back five alumni guests to our Goldsworthy Campus. We invited five alumni guests to our Goldsworthy Campus and in a Q+A format asked them to speak on their career or study, and to explain what they do and how they got into their pathway.

 

Our panel consisted of: 

  • Kellee Reissinger (Corio Tech): Curator, Geelong Botanic Gardens
  • Ty Gilson (NBC 2022): Bachelor of Science (Maths & Statistics)
  • Joshua Barling (NBC 2013): Industrial Electrician
  • Lisamaree Bottomley (NBC 2020): Bachelor of Environmental Science and working at Corrangamite Catchment Authority
  • Stephen Kennedy (NBC 2020): Timber Machinist, A&R Timber

Some guests had gone down a university pathway, others via TAFE, or straight into work or apprenticeships. But all had plenty of sage advice to give our students. 

We are so grateful to the panel to take time from their work and studies. 

Hearing from real-world people, people who grew up in the same neighbourhood, is so impactful and has hopefully inspired students in the audience to think about their own future pathway.

 

Anita Peerson, Health + Human Development guest speaker:

Anita grew up in Corio, and now has 2 PhDs, and has worked for NGOs, government departments and as an academic, so our Health and Human Development students couldn’t ask for a more knowledgeable speaker on some of the recent topics they have been studying.

Anita explained her experience and knowledge on issues such as the sustainability of the healthcare system, climate change and food sustainability, all based on her real-world experience.

She also bought along some Australian National University brochures and explained how and why applying for a course at ANU is a great choice. Some keen students stuck around after she spoke to pick up some brochures and ask some questions… we may just have the next ANU scholar in our midst!

Year 7 & 8 Career Panel

Our Wexford Campus Year 7s and Year 8s, were lucky enough to hear from four passionate alumni, who have all gone down differing pathways. 

 

The panel consisted of Luke McConarchy, Electrician and business owner, Jasmine Lawrence, Employment Support Consultant, Samantha, studying Bachelor of Arts and Commerce and about to embark on her graduate position at Deloitte, and Cody Jeynes, fresh out of school and into his Space Science degree at RMIT.

There were some excellent words of wisdom from our panellists like ‘your path is not already determined, you can change it’, ‘you need to show up and be accountable each day at your work’, and the more blunt… ‘stay out of trouble’! 

 

A very engaged cohort, the students had plenty of questions for our guests, and some came up afterwards to ask more. A big thank you to our panel. 

 

Thank You 

Thank you for your support of our alumni program, we feel really privileged to work on this program in Northern Bay College. 

In its most basic form, the alumni program is bringing in ex-students back to their school, but it’s so much more. It grows school and community pride, and gives our current students aspirational, and inspirational role models.

Keep in touch

To follow the Alumni program, please join us on one of the below channels, and if you know of any Alumni who would like to join our database, we’d love to hear from them. 

Email: alumni@nbc.vic.edu.au.

Alumni Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/Northern-Bay-College-and-Schools-Alumni-108962595081117/

LinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12642026/

You can also follow us through our NewsletterLINK.