Wonder

WELCOME TO WONDER

It’s safe to say that COVID has thrown many obstacles at the Australian community over the past few years.  And for the most part these have forced us to respond to a number of different negative impacts.

But at Killester we are resilient.  And when given lemons we turn them into lemonade.  Through the development of Passion Projects for our students way back in 2020, we came to listen to both staff and student voice.  And through those conversations, the Wonder Program was born.

It has certainly been a steep learning curve for us all.  Stepping into the unknown is daunting and challenging on may different levels.  However, at each step in the process, the Wonder team have had the support of the wider Killester community; and, in particular, you, the alumni.

For the very first Wonder project, the focus was on Killester itself.  This allowed the Year 8 students reach out directly to the alumni.  With our first call out, we received over sixty responses from alumni interested in contributing to the program in some way.  From those sixty, we were able to host twenty alumni at a morning tea entirely planned and hosted by the students themselves.

It was wonderful seeing the students sit down with the alumni and listen to their stories of the Killester of old and their journeys since leaving school.  After the morning tea, students were able to take the alumni on tours through the College.  Further memories were shared there as well.

The students really enjoyed this opportunity:

“Out of all the alumni I met this morning. Caitlin’s story was the most interesting. She is a psychologist and graduated from Killester in 2013. Her favourite memory was the last day of school. She also said to be organised and don’t leave your work to the last minute. I learnt information about Killester that you should get yourself involved in the community.”

“I found Vithya’s story the most interesting because she moved to England later on in her life. I learned that many of the teachers have been here for many years and have taught many past students.”

“The person that was most interesting was Rochelle, she graduated in 1994, she is a registered nurse at the Royal Children’s Hospital. It was interesting to learn about her past at Killester. She shared some information about becoming a nurse and I found it very fun to listen to.”

“Today’s morning tea was such a good experience for me, I really enjoyed talking to the past alumni and really learning about Killester a few years back.” 

“One alumni whose story I found interesting was Ishika. She graduated from Killester in the year 2000, and is currently a commercial manager for the Walt Disney company. I think an interesting piece of advice she gave us was to be open when it comes to future careers and don’t rush to grow up. Be present because you’ll end up missing it.” 

“I think opportunities to meet with past Killester students should happen more often, as it is a good experience to know about how other people view Killester College.”

Moving forward, the Wonder Program will allow students to develop a broad range of micro credentials which are increasingly appearing on employers' wish lists. The students will be encouraged to seek the expertise of those beyond the confines of Killester College.  Now that we have such a number of alumni willing to be involved, it may be our students will reach out to you in the future.

The Wonder Team thanks you for your support to date and looks forward to working with you in the future.

Jacqui Dunstan

Wonder Leader

Wonder Alumni Morning Tea