From the Senior Years
On Friday 10 May, St Aloysius College hosted the Mother’s Day Breakfast – an important event and celebration of important women in the lives of our students. This was a major success, thanks in no small part to the leadership and support of our Senior students in particular our College Prefect team who worked both behind the scenes and in key supporting roles to support the smooth running and success of the morning.
For high school students, these women often serve as mentors, supporters, and guides. Their influence extends beyond academics, nurturing emotional growth and offering invaluable life lessons. Today, let's honor and appreciate these remarkable women who enrich our lives.
The role the mentors in the lives of Senior students is important and not to be underestimated as students reach their VCE years. Often, Senior years have important milestones: part time employment, gaining a Learners permit, 18th birthday celebrations, obtaining Provisional licenses and enrolling to vote, to name a few. These are important makers of increasing independence and responsibility; and yet, the role of support behind VCE students is not to be underestimated. This is particularly true as VCE students enter Week 5 of Term 2 and they will draw on the experience, wisdom and guidance of mentors – mothers, aunts, grandmother – especially as they reach the mid-way point of the Term when sage words, calmness and encouragement to students to draw on their personal strengths and those of all the people around them.
On the theme of connection between important female mentors, below is a short article from Year 11 student Edelweiss, who recently joined her mother in a cyber safety and security event hosted by Le French Tech with a focus on security, digital marketing and analytics and the powerful potential in emerging technology and the impact on people’s lives and possible work futures.
I recently joined my mother in a cyber event hosted by Le French Tech with a focus on the impact of technology on cyber security, work futures and the impact technology can have on communities. Le French Tech also invited a range of technology start-ups which were founded by Australians and French people living in Australia.
I was fortunate to meet my mother’s colleague and friend, Jacqui Loustau, who is the founder of the Australian Women in Security Network. This showed me the powerful impact women have in this important and rapidly changing industry.
I learned the following:
1. Cyber is not only on computers and mobile devices. They discussed cyber security in France for the Olympics. They considered the protection needed for public transport, airports and Olympic venues.
2. Cyber is not only about coding. There are other jobs which are considered to be part of cyber technology which harness a range of digital skills, competencies and systems-thinking. Some examples included sales, marketing and education industries.
3. Non-technical people who want to work in cyber-related industries. The personal story of a chef who lost her job during lockdown was inspiring about the way in which technology and her determination to bounce back in an industry that she had never considered from her training had offered her new direction and career opportunities despite not having a formal training or background in software engineering.
This was an inspiring conference and I’m grateful for having attended and all that I learned.
Tom Crowle
Senior Years Leader