Mercy Connections
On Thursday 6th to Friday 7th September, nine Year 10 students and two staff members attended the Semester Two Seeds of Justice Conference in Anglesea. The Seeds of Justice Conference is a social justice conference that involves Mercy Schools across Victoria coming together to learn about and share ideas on Social Justice issues and continue the legacy of the Sisters of Mercy in their schools. With students from College's in Melbourne, Bendigo, Geelong, Camperdown and Warnambool in attendance, this conference offered a wonderful opportunity for students across the Mercy Schools to meet each other, collaborate and share social justice ideas.
There were two keynote presenters. The first presenter was Hayley Marriot from McAuley Services provided background information on the Sisters of Mercy and their work from past to present. A quote that resonated with me and the students was that Mercy is bigger than themselves. This highlighted that being part of a Mercy school or working in any Mercy organisation allows you to see that there is hope and change is possible.
The second guest speaker was Sophie Rowan, the UN Health Advisor for Micronesia. She spoke about her journey as a Mercy student from Mercy Regional College in Camperdown. The seed of Mercy was planted during her Mercy secondary school education experience. She was involved in fund raising and awareness projects. She went on to study at ACU and was awarded a New Colombo Plan Scholarship. She was able to use her degree to work in Micronesia. She spoke about their rich and proud culture and their poverty. She highlighted the prevalence of diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV. While these are treatable here in Australia, she explained that due to lack of medication and resources, many people in Micronesia die from these diseases. Sophie was a very inspirational speaker with her biggest message being that there are many Social Justice opportunities and work available if students have the interest and passion.
Here is a reflection from the students that attended the conference:
On the 5-6th of September, nine Year 10 students attended the Seeds of Justice Conference in Anglesea. We heard an inspirational story from Hayley who works at Mercy Community Services for Women, which provoked lots of discussion and thought about what we can do to support this organisation after finishing school and where we can take our passion for social justice. We then heard from Sophie who is a Mercy College, Camperdown alumni. She spoke to us about her experience of using her passion for social justice in her education and line of work. She took us through her journey of self-discovery and gave us some advice that she wished she'd been told before leaving school. Her presentation brought forward discussion about what we can do now, in the future, and what pathways we can take after school and at university to help us make the biggest impact possible. We all really enjoyed being at Seeds of Justice Conference and have brought home many new discussions and ideas on how St Aloysius can continue to help our community.
Polly Jean B, 10A
ANZAC Spirit Awards 2024
This year St Aloysius College entered the ANZAC Day Schools’ Awards sponsored by The Department of Veterans’ Affairs.
To compete, students had to demonstrate a commitment to education and engage students in learning about veterans and Australia’s military history. St Aloysius students did this by participating in several events such as, attending The ANZAC Day dawn service at the Shrine, studying a range of Australian hero’s that fought in war, and presenting these stories to the Year 9’s as part of their modern-day prophet task.
A recent excursion attended by our Year 9 students to the Shrine of Remembrance included an education tour where students learned about healing and hope. A number of students also participated in events outside of school through scouts, army cadets, performing in one of the bands at the ANZAC Day March, or attending a local ANZAC Day Service.
The Year 9 students collected all their learning and experiences and put these into a visual Presentation as their entry for the Competition.
I am pleased to announce that St Aloysius College, North Melbourne received an Excellence Award for their work and participation in the learning of the ANZAC spirit.
Congratulations to all students that participated in these events and to the four students that put this presentation together.
Mary De Bono
Mercy Connections Leader