Alumni Program news

Alumni attend Year 12 Camp at Wensleydale

What a pleasure it was to organise an alumni session for a cohort of engaged, polite and appreciative students. And to have four alumni go above and beyond, in order to give back to their old school, was the icing on the cake.

Thank you, Kelsey Bews ’17, Justice Cameron ’13, Kelsey Dunlop ’13 and Claudia Kelly ‘12 for travelling a significant distance to participate in the Year 12 Camp at Wensleydale; to share a meal with students and teachers and be our guest Q&A panellists.

This is the second alumni session the Year 12 students have been involved in this year and so it was decided to hand the reigns over to them.

Students were introduced to the four alumni and were then asked to think back to the previous alumni session held on the very first day of the school year which focused heavily on how students could best prepare and get the most out of the year ahead including: goal setting, how to cope during peak SAC times, preparing for exams, striking optimal balance between work/rest/play and the pathways followed by each alumna on the Q&A panel.

Having reached the mid-point of the year, it was time to ‘check in’ with students to see how they were feeling: What were they feeling good about? What were their concerns? What advice/help did they need/want from our alumni panellists? And what better way of having their questions answered than to have a Question Box! I’m sure this took them back to Year 9 Health!!

During dinner, students had the opportunity to think about, discuss and form their questions to pop in the question box. These questions would then be addressed by our panellists throughout the Q&A. The ‘control freak’ in me felt as though it was a risky operation, however, it turned out to be a risk worth taking. The questions were plentiful and thought provoking and one of the key ingredients to the success of the Q&A session- the students should be so proud of themselves!

The other key ingredient (reflected upon so eloquently by Kylie McMillan) was the fact that students received ‘real’ advice from ‘real’ people. Our four panellists were so diverse in relation to their pathways and experiences. They were down-to-earth, reassuring and open about the fact that they, like the Year 12s, didn’t necessarily have all of the answers, but, that was okay. 

If you’re a MFG alumna and have not been in contact please touch base and let me know what you have been up to since graduating alumni@mfgsc.vic.edu.au

Tanja Dunat Timms

(Ourschool Alumni Program Manager)