Student Voice and Leadership
Schools Podcast Challenge
Thank you to our wonderful Melton Secondary College community for tuning into the MSC radio Crew’s Gambling Harm Podcast.
On Wednesday, 31 May, our students and their families attended a launch event for the Schools Podcast Challenge to celebrate the impact that each school’s radio crew has had on their communities. While MSC missed out on the big prize, we received a runner-up prize for our efforts to produce a student-led podcast that informs our community of the serious health risks associated with gambling. This will be put towards re-introducing the student podcast at MSC.
An especially big shout-out to Mason, who participated in a panel interview with students from the other participating schools. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experiences about gambling harm and about participating in the podcast challenge at the event.
ABCN – Focus Program
In May, a group of our young women leaders in years 10 and 11 took part in online mentoring sessions through the ABCN Focus Program. They connected with mentors from KPMG Melbourne Consulting Firm to discuss their strengths, and how they will develop their leadership skills.
On Friday, 16 June we had the opportunity to go into the KPMG offices at Collins Square in the Melbourne CBD to meet the mentors in person and create a leadership picture for each of our students.
The KPMG mentors shared that they were extremely impressed with our young leaders, their ability to manage all of the competing priorities in their lives, and their thoughtful reflections on their own strengths and challenges.
The data collected through this program showed that the participants’ awareness of their strengths and their confidence in their leadership potential both grew by 70%. This was also reflected in the mentor feedback, which included the reflection that “the greatest change I saw was the way the students perceived themselves and their ability to be a leader.”, and that “the students became much more comfortable with being positive and optimistic about their future.”
Well done to our young leaders on their thoughtful reflections on leadership, and active engagement with this amazing networking opportunity..
2023 Melton City Council Youth Summit
On 8 June, Year 9 and 10 MSC students attended the 2023 Melton City Council Youth Summit.
Our students collaborated with students from other schools across the Melton City municipality to share their lived expertise on the issues facing young people in the area – especially those relating to diversity and inclusion.
They also worked together to propose solutions to these problems. This summit was attended by local council members, who were taking note of the student suggestions, so that they could bring those back to the local council. The solutions that our students generated at this forum with have a lasting impact on the decisions of our local council in their work to continue to improve inclusion and diversity in our community.