Thank you Michaela Goggin

Thank you Michaela Goggin, Mr Brendan McKinnon and Frankston High School ECO Team

"Sometimes we hear of great things, mentally noting them, but rarely giving them the recognition that they deserve.  Stepping outside of our well defined “box” is never that comfortable or easy, but when one does, we need to call it out.  Frankston High School does not suffer from “Tall Poppy Syndrome”, in fact we celebrate such tall poppies and luxuriate in their amazing colours, encouraging them to grow even further.

One such tall poppy is Michaela Goggin, one of our Year 12 students, who since entering the portals of our school has embraced all aspects of life here, aware of the wonderful opportunities that Frankston High School had to offer, pushing beyond the narrow confines that pure academia has to offer.  Even to someone of my vintage, she inspires passion, and the desire to do more and to do it well.  Michaela epitomises the belief voiced by J.F.K. “Everyone can make a difference, and everyone should try”.  Not only does she try but she also succeeds. 

Sitting at my computer listening to our Principal Mr Andrew Batchelor outline our trajectory as a community for the next few weeks in remote learning, my antenna picked up when he mentioned yet another achievement of Michaela’s: one of six winners in the State VCE Leadership Award, following on from her 2020 Frankston’s Young Citizen of the Year award.  I realised that I wanted to say thank you to her on behalf of our whole community for her work as a global citizen and as a wonderful emissary of needed change.  Her list of achievements for such a young person left me in sheer awe, and reinforced the need to give some added voice, even if just a whisper, to gain the ear of our vast community to listen to her message.  As I perused the long list of interviewees that she questioned and the probing questions that she asked so as to inform her audience, I felt a burgeoning need to share the list with the Frankston High School community, so that they too could be informed and be appreciative of her tireless work, hoping by so doing to nudge us towards some change to our societal norms and behaviours.  

Damon Gameau, (Director of “2040”), Tim Costello, Costa Georgiadis, (Gardening Australia), Craig Reucassel, (ABC series “Fight for Planet A”), Professor Mark Howden, (Director of Climate Change Institute, ANU), Maya Lillyin, (New York producer of “The Years Project), Sammy J. (ABC presenter), Kerry O’ Brian, (the guru of investigative journalism, and a professed climate change advocate),  and for good measure an interview of a different ilk, with our own illustrious leader, Mr Andrew Batchelor.

Suffice to say, behind every headline, there is the tenacious grind of the newsroom to get to the storyline and Mr Brendan Mckinnon has been the stalwart editor in chief of the Frankston High School ECO Team.  His tireless efforts to make a difference on a micro and macro level, have led to numerous changes of a sustainable and environmental nature at the school.  Not only has he fostered tangible changes but more importantly to changes within the nature of how we think about our environment and the need to preserve it.  He has above all given the students agency to say it as they see it, using a student-centred lens to view the world a little differently, or at least from a different perspective.  Michaela has flourished under his watch and realised her potential through the careful and measured guidance that he provided.  She is not alone in her quest for a better world, but is part of a group of students, from all year levels who show a passion and commitment to make a difference to the world around them.  How lucky are we to be the beneficiaries of such an endeavour? 

Michaela, I hope this small tribute goes some way towards acknowledging the great work that you have done at the school over the past five years and I have no doubt that in the years ahead I shall follow the journey that you are about to embark upon beyond the confines of Frankston High School.  On behalf of your Frankston High School community: thank you."

Mrs Rosemary Lardner

EAL / MYLNS Teacher