Student Activities

Greetings from Jamie Bastian (Year 10) who is currently on exchange in Switzerland

Hey Koonung, I have now been in the land of Cheese and Chocolate for close to four months, a third of my exchange already gone *arhhhh* !!! As you can imagine Easter was extravagant, and we made a quick trip to Italy for a couple days- one of the perks of being positioned in the middle of Europe.  So much has happened and I’m having a blast, I have joined a baseball team here so I can keep occupied and not get too homesick, while making a few new Swiss friends along the way.   Spring has approached and may I say that Switzerland is as stunning in the sun as it is covered in snow.   I’m looking forward to many more adventures throughout Switzerland and Europe.

Interact Movie Night - "Avengers: Infinity War"

Last Friday evening, the Koonung Interact club hosted a movie night, and raised $1300 for the Alannah and Madeline Foundation! Many students, parents and the public alike came along and watched Avengers: Infinity War, which went for a long 2 hours and 40 minutes! Although the film was long, it was an action packed film, and did not bore anyone because it delivered excitement and absorbed the attention of the audience. Viewers saw their favourite superheroes: Iron Man, Thor, Doctor Strange, Spiderman, Star-Lord, Black Panther and far more clash with the evil Thanos to defend Earth. Food was brought (both homemade and purchased) by Interact club members for everyone to enjoy before the movie. There were cakes, baked goods, sandwiches, chocolates, muffins and a lot more! A huge thank you to the Interact Club for organising the event, and to the community for coming along and enjoying the marvellous movie.

Arun Olifent, 11F

Interact volunteer at The Barn

On Friday the 6 April, as a part of Interact, we went to volunteer at The Barn. This is a place where a dinner is provided for people in need. It is ran by the Mont Albert and Surrey Hills Rotary (MASH). It was a very rewarding experience and  opened our eyes to the hard conditions people, even those living so close to us, have to deal with. Neither of us had ever volunteered with anything like this before, so it was a bit daunting at first, however the people from Rotary were very kind and welcoming to us. We found the experience very rewarding and  would recommend it to anyone who wants to try to get involved with the community!

Charlotte Terrill and Claire Morgan, Year 10

Koonung students, Alex O'Brienand Hamish McLean, visit MUNA with Rotary

Over the last weekend, we had had the immense privilege of being able to attend MUNA, or the Model United Nations Assembly. It is a large event where 80 students from all of Victoria’s Rotary Clubs visit  Old Parliament House in Melbourne in teams of two. Each team is assigned a country and must represent the country’s real views upon a series of Issues called resolutions. This year, we were lucky enough to be the delegates representing Italy debating on the resolutions of refugee migration, food security, wars in Syria, Rohingya rights to settlement, the South China Sea, nuclear non-proliferation, violence against women and the US and China’s possible trade war.

MUNA has been a thoroughly amazing experience. All countries are required to dress up for the occasion in some clothing related to their country, encouraging traditional dress. Naturally, we dressed up as Mafioso members, although our toy guns did get confiscated by security. The whole atmosphere was quite vibrant, because no-one was afraid to point out any mistakes with anything, and everyone was constantly trying to get everyone else on their side so as to best represent their country and win their resolutions.

There were certainly some highlights, one example was when the delegates from Ireland proposed an amendment to the South China Sea resolution stating “In order to solve territorial disputes, all land be delegated to the control of Ireland”, While another was being encouraged by the secretary general herself to speak imitating the godfather, which we promptly did, ending our speech with a rather grave threat to everyone’s family’s. Needless to say, the whole environment was friendly while simultaneously being extremely serious and professional.

Perhaps the best part of the event is the friendships that have arisen out of it. Meeting so many strangely like minded people is really quite a good thing, and getting to talk with them about something we are all so passionate about, namely massively controversial issues and global politics. We made some good friends in the grand space of about 14 hours. The whole event has been absolutely thrilling, and both of us have thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it to all future students.

Hamish McLean, 11C