Reflection Day

“The greatest tragedy is not the brutality of the evil people, but rather the silence of the good people”. Martin Luther King Jr

Yesterday, all Year 10 students participated in Reflection Day at Little Flower Parish Hall. This reflection day was based on the Term 4 Year 10 Religion teaching and learning unit – focusing on social justice. During the day, girls were invited to consider the question - ‘Why should I make socially just responses?’ Students looked at examples of social injustice in our contemporary world, and reflected on experiences in reality by listening to, and interacting with, several refugees in our community, who have had to leave their countries due to conflict. We were very privileged to have these speakers join us to share their personal stories. The core to this day was justice, relationship, and service.

Our first speaker was Esther Abiya, a Youth Voice member. Being the same age as the girls, Esther appealed to our Year 10s is a special way. Esther was given refugee status in 2009, when she came to Australia at only five years old, with her mother and sister, from Malawi in south-eastern Africa. Her story revealed the challenges her family faced before fleeing to Australia and their determination and resilience. Esther’s outlook on life and moving to Australia – receiving an education, food, shelter, feeling safe, making friends, having her family around her, and learning English – hopefully has made us all think about things that we may often take for granted and not realise how lucky we are to live in Australia. This was definitely a story of courage and hope.

Our next two speakers were from the Work and Welcome Program in which both Mount Alvernia and Padua are involved. This program enables our colleges to provide work placement to new Australians – not only providing them with skills and work experience, but also providing a sense of welcome into our community. We listened to Johannes, who has been at Mount Alvernia College since the start of Term 3. Johannes is from Eritrea, in north-east Africa. Johannes told his story about fleeing to Australia - leaving his country where he has lost contact with family members and friends. Johannes can be found working in La Cucina and our gardens, where he welcomes the opportunity to share his story and chat to all members of the Mount Alvernian community. Our last speaker was Bahari Ali, who was placed at Padua College last term. Bahari is from Ethiopia, and also received refugee status when he left his home country due to conflict. He was a teacher and journalist in his home country; however, he is part of this program to receive appropriate skills to gain employment. He feels very lucky to have moved to a very welcoming and safe country. All these speakers, along with other refugees, are unable to return to their country, due to the conflict and danger and the real threat of persecution.

I hope that these stories allowed girls to broaden their perspectives and gave them the opportunity for some personal reflection, as well as enjoy the time in a different environment away from the classroom with the entire Year 10 cohort. I look forward to hearing the girls’ ideas and plans for action.

Thank you to Ms Denise Shaw for organising and facilitating this day, Year 10 Religion teachers for their support and ideas during the day, and Mrs Liz Feltrin for all her organisation behind the scenes, to ensure that this day was a success.

Teena Christofis

Conversation Starters

Can one person make a difference?

What is the difference you will make for newly arrived people in our community?

What is the UNHCR organization?

Who is a refugee, migrant, and asylum seeker?

What are some myths and facts regarding refugees?

MAD Workshop

On 23 September, the first Monday of the holidays, twelve Years 9 and 10 students had the privilege of being invited to the Making A Difference Student Leadership Summit, along with many other young women who portray the capabilities for being a future leader. This experience helped develop important leadership skills, taught us to find and own our strengths, and built our confidence to empower us to make a difference in our community. We were asked questions regarding our individual values to debunk why we believe they are important to us, and how they are useful when being in a leadership position. We heard from many guest speakers and how they have reached the position they are in today, and what struggles and setbacks they were faced with that held them to help them achieve their dreams. We heard about the different values that helped these leaders of our community be where they are today, and how each value shaped the decisions that led them there.

A phrase that was used a lot on this day was "identifying your 0.06%", as that is the amount of DNA that is unique to just yourself; we were encouraged to jot down what we were born to remind the world, what makes us feel alive, and a talent that we possess. These self- discovery questions helped us to build our confidence and benefited our ability to use the values, talents, and our own uniqueness to become the leader that we wish to be. One of the final activities we completed was working on copying and creating a large picture, split into six different sections that each group had to make. This activity helped us to work not only within our teams, but to work with all the other teams to ensure that we had a successful overall outcome.

Overall, the day was a great experience for all the girls who participated in the event, and we received a lot of help and more direction on how we are going to approach being leaders in the years to come.

Paige Gardem and Julia Cavanough

During the holidays I had the amazing opportunity of attending the MAD leadership Summit. This summit was created to help girls better their leadership skills, and give them the courage and confidence to achieve the best they can. It was an engaging experience as we met new people from many different schools who also aspired to be leaders.

We did many activities throughout the day, some of which included having to draw a picture but everyone had a single part of the picture so we had to use teamwork to make it all coordinate. Moreover, not only did we do fun activities but there was a small Q&A panel that consisted of a few guest speakers and we were able to ask questions about different life skills and leadership skills. This experience allowed me to develop real life skills in which I can utilise throughout life.

Mayah Rowbotham

La Cucina

Roster