Academic Excellence

Treasure Trove: Stories of St Norbert’s Past

Staff and students have been lucky to have some of our ex-students give up their time to come and visit us to tell us about their time at St Norbert College, what they have been doing since leaving and what lessons they learned that assisted them in their lives.

Treasure Trove 1: Michael McLevie (Class of 2018)

Exactly a year after graduating from SNC, Michael McLevie returned to explain his unconventional approach to success, which began with an investment project while he was in Year 9. At age 14, Michael bought a website for $8500 (with the support of his father) which he estimates is now worth about $200,000. Michael describes the site – MC.MK (or Minecraft Market) as the eBay of Minecraft, the action-adventure computer game. MC.MK allows its 193,000 followers to buy, sell or browse advertised Minecraft-related wares. Michael was a user of the site and admits he stumbled across the opportunity to buy it - and fortunately the risk of borrowing the finances paid off. He is now studying a commerce degree at Curtin University, with a major in entrepreneurship.

Michael did not study ATAR subjects, electing a general pathway, and says being involved in Drama Club, including the 2018 production Oliver The Musical, helped with his public speaking ability, self-development and confidence within himself. Studying multi-media, robotics and IT at school also gave him a solid foundation of computer concepts and he credits the College will setting solid learning techniques. “The thing I’ve realised is that it’s not what you are learning but the process of learning, so now if I want to learn something new, I know how to approach study,’’ he says, adding: “It is not always a straight path to get where you want to go.’’

Treasure Trove 2: Spencer Flay

(Class of 1991)

Spencer Flay had not been back to the College for some time and was surprised to see how much the structures had changed. During his time, there was no Fr Peter O'Reilly Centre, Br Patrick Doolan Forum, Cappenburg, Trade Training Centre or Xanten Performing Arts buildings. Spencer spoke about his love of his time at St Norbert College and the lifelong friends he made here, including the late Br Patrick. Spencer’s favourite subjects were Physical Education, Drama and English as a student and he enjoyed being part of the Xanten Singers, an after-school singing club.

On leaving school, Spencer completed a Law Degree and then spent a few years travelling the globe. He said his ‘piece of paper’ came in handy as it allowed him to use his degree to find work along the way and he ended up spending a few years based in London.

Spencer is a successful lawyer and partner in one of eight Australian major law firms. He deals with commercial law and enjoys his work. The students were interested in hearing about his cases.

Spencer encouraged the students to follow their passion and to make sure they have a balanced school life, remembering that study is important along the way. He said that with hard work you can do anything in life.

Treasure Trove 3: Fr CJ Millen

(Class of 2000)

We were very proud to have the first St Norbert College student to become a priest, Fr CJ Millen, as one of our guest speakers.

Fr CJ spoke fondly of his time here at the College. He said he wasn’t a strong student academically but did his best and liked to be involved in College life. We were told that Br Patrick and Br David were both positive influences in his school life.

Born in Kalgoorlie, Fr CJ lived in many country towns when he was young as his dad was a primary school teacher and then headmaster. The family was truly involved in community life. Later the family moved to Perth and that’s how the young CJ came to be a student at St Norbert College.

Fr CJ credits his upbringing and family for his faith formation. His parents made him go to church every week whilst he was younger. However, they often had open conversations with him about faith and his relationship with God. They wanted him to take his own journey.

While in senior school, Fr CJ had regular jobs, working in Kmart and being a swimming instructor. Once he left school he went to TAFE to do Computer Engineering, followed by completing a degree in Education and had other jobs in electronics and telecommunication but he always felt that there was something missing. A conversation with a priest helped him to realise that maybe his vocation was priesthood.

He was ordained a Deacon in November 2013 studying at Charles Seminary to be a priest and in March 2015 was ordained a priest and began working in the Thornlie area. Fr CJ now works with the bishop at St Mary’s Cathedral focussing on helping the youth. He has been promoting the Australian Catholic Youth Festival (ACYF) being held in Perth 8-10th December.

Fr CJ told us to be open to anything and to do what you love. He also shared a few jokes, another passion of his, and gave us a blessing before saying goodbye.

Treasure Trove 4: Lucas East

(Class of 2001)

The final of our four guest speakers, Lucas East, has not been a stranger to the College since graduating in 2001. He returned has to be part of ex-student and staff/student pantomimes and recently visited the College to speak to a drama group too.

Lucas admits that he was a chameleon at school. He had many friendship groups and was able to adapt to fit in with the students in each group but always strived to be part of the “cool” group. Lucas said that he was often the sounding board for friends that had problems. After completing high school and when he realised that it was okay to be himself he re-connected with a group of friends that he still calls his close friends from St Norbert’s. During his time at school, Lucas loved Drama class. He said it allowed him to be the real version of himself and to gain many skills that he has used in life after school.

He admits that he probably enjoyed the social side of school too much and paid the price by not gaining a direct pathway to university. After some hard work, Lucas made it into university and successful completed an undergraduate Bachelor in Psychology. But the hard work had made him tired of study. He took a four-year break where he travelled to and did part-time work in many countries, his favourite being the Greek Isles.

On his return, Lucas went back to university and completed a Masters in Psychology. He now works as a Clinical Psychologist. He told us about the highs and lows of his job and how enjoys his work immensely.

Lucas had two main messages for the students. One was that in life you may not always take a direct path to where you want to go but with persistence you will find your own path that will take you there. The second being that you should be yourself and people will accept you for who you are.

Thank you to all our guest speakers for giving up their time to visit us and share their stories. It is much appreciated. And as you can see, each guest speaker had a common theme to work hard and persist so that you can love what you do.

Assessment of Languages Competence - Japanese

Congratulations to the Year 10 and Year 11 students (see below) for their efforts in the Assessment of Languages Competence (ALC) Tests for Japanese. The online tests are designed to assess language competence in learners of additional languages and our students have proven that they are indeed competent at Japanese language.

The Year 10 students aimed to gain a Certificate I. They all earned the Certificate I and some excelled in their achievement. Congratulations to the following students:

Yin Yin Feng, Alina George, Sophia Lu, Alice O’Malley and Ava Pemberton for earning a Distinction in the Listening Test.
Alina George, Sophia Lu, Ava Pemberton and Alyssa Yang for earning a Distinction in the Reading Test.
Yin Yin Feng and Alice O’Malley for achieving a High Distinction in the Reading Test.

A fantastic effort by all the Year 10's.

The Year 11 students aimed to achieve a Certificate II, although a slight hiccup saw them completing the Certificate III listening assessment. All the students (Shin Bawar, Shania Cura, Amanda D’Cruz, Yen Ngo and Elsa Tan) earned a High Distinction for the Certificate II Reading Test. What an awesome effort!

And Shania Cura, Yen Ngo and Elsa Tan gained a Distinction in the Certificate III Listening Test. Amazing!

I hope that these results give them the confidence to do bigger and better things in Japanese in 2020.

Academic Excellence Lunch

This week we celebrated the amazing effort that the Academic Excellence students have made throughout the year with a special lunch. The students from Semester One and Semester Two were treated to platters of sandwiches, hot food, fruit, chocolates and fruit juice. The students were awarded their certificates of completion for the Academic Excellence Program.

Thank you to our Leadership team for joining the students in the celebration.

We look forward to the remaining weeks of the program and to 2020.

Mrs L Cardenia (Academic Excellence Coordinator)