The 2021 Investiture of Student Leaders Ceremony, held on Wednesday in the hall, was the first of our three formal events for the year; the others being Graduation and Evening of Excellence.
The live-streamed ceremony was a fantastic celebration of our community and its values.
We were very privileged to have Ms Mariam Koslay as our Guest of Honour. Mariam was the inaugural College Captain, in 2010, and is a journalist, advocate for black people and events and is Communications Manager at Parkville College, which operates within Victoria’s youth custodial setting. She is the creator of the rolling photo series #YourBlacknessisBeautiful, which I encourage the community to support. Mariam’s message to the students around leadership as affecting your own circle of people was very powerful. She is an extraordinary young woman and we were very proud to welcome her back to the CRCCS community.
We were grateful to have Deacon Chris Creo who officiated the blessing of the badges and incoming leaders. Significantly, nearly all family members attended via the live-stream and have commented that they were extremely proud to witness their daughter/son being given the opportunity to lead.
The Investiture Ceremony has become the occasion where we highlight one of the significant leaders recognised in the naming of our homerooms or buildings. This year Deputy Principal Dr Andrew McAlindon focussed on the life and leadership of Simon Wonga, a highly respected ngurungaeta of the Wurundjeri people.
A special part of the Investiture was the handover of Leaders Candles and Leaders Perpetual Diaries by the 2020 College Captains to the 2021 leaders. It was also wonderful to have other past student leaders participate in the ceremony and join in the College song. We extend a very big thank you to the following past Captains and CRC Sydenham students for giving their time generously to continuing to build strong links and leadership pathways for our students:
- Mariam Koslay 2010 College Captain (Inaugural & Guest of Honour)
- Tiobstia Alemu 2017 College Captain
- Alicia Azzopardi 2018 College Captain & 2020 CRC Syd College Captain
- Martin Nguyen 2019 College Captain & 2021 CRC Syd College Captain
- Jade Simunja 2020 College Captain
- Isabella Lipscombe 2019 Deputy College Captain
- Eliza Soriano 2019 Deputy College Captain
- Trista Zerafa 2020 Deputy College Captain
- Megan Mangion 2020 Deputy College Captain
- Janine Sequeira 2020 Deputy College Captain
- Ebony Mangion 2020 House Captain – Jackson
- Jordan Magro 2020 House Captain – Franklin
- Trinity Castellanos 2020 House Captain – O’Reilly
- Carly Madigan 2020 House Captain – Norman
Principal Jamie Madigan then presented the College Captains and Deputy Captains with their badges and then they in turn presented the rest of their team. It was a wonderful example of our College’s culture of excellence and pride in being a Catholic Regional College student.
College Captain Alexandra Wood delivered a very beautiful inaugural address to the community, highlighting her growth, passion for leadership and gratefulness at being a part of our College.
The full investiture footage and the 2021 team are included below.
(Alexandra Wood's speech can be found at 57:50 and Ms Koslay's speech at 21:35)
College Captain
Alexandra Wood
Deputy College Captain
Thomas Cheal, Joshua Di Lullo, Maria Ranasinghe
Franklin House Captains
Tiana Baba (Year 10) and Isabella Vignogna (Year 9)
Jackson House Captains
Carlos Antonio (Year 10) and Ivanka Portelli (Year 9)
O’Reilly House Captains
Madelyn Hartley (Year 10) and Lachlan Colaco (Year 9)
Norman House Captains
Patrick Calingin (Year 10) and Eniola Tiamiyu (Year 9)
Year 10 Leaders
Noor Elia (Transition Leader)
Anthony Galea
Kristina Ivic
Emanuall Kolaj
Year 9 Leaders
Meena Babawy
Monique Cefai
Ava McFarlane
Alyssa Piazzese
Angelica Powell
Chantelle Randan
Christina Stanford
Katherine Sulewski
Angel Yesudas
Year 8 Leaders
Rahma Alkateb
Stacey Culas
Zalaika Farrugia
Ella Hall
Augustha Morris
Ava Nesci
Charli Nugara
Maya Simunija
Kiara Trimboli
Liam Wilkins
Our Student Leadership Model
At Catholic Regional College Caroline Springs, student leadership is an essential aspect of our culture and tradition. We believe that leadership skills and practice can be both innate or learned, depending on individual characteristics and traits. Leaders emerge differently and the pathways to leadership must be varied and flexible in order to capture students with unique leadership gifts.
Our model of student leadership nurtures steady growth, responsibility and independence. In Year 7, each homeroom has a Class Captain elected for each of Term 2, 3 & 4, exposing 27 students to leadership roles. At Year 7, this is a unitary system that sees the students taking responsibility and being a voice for a group of 26 students each.
Year 8 sees a progression to a horizontal model of leadership where up to ten students are given the opportunity to represent the whole year level. There is not necessarily a leader from each individual homeroom.
A vertical aspect of leadership is introduced in Year 9 whereby House Captains are elected to support Year 10 House Captains. They take responsibility for encouraging all students from Year 7 to Year 10 from their House to participate in events and activities. As well, another ten students continue the horizontal model as Year 9 Leaders.
Four House Captains take on a pivotal role in Year 10, while ten Year 10 Leaders continue with the year level. Then ultimately, four students are invested as College Captain and Deputy College Captains and they take on a whole-school leadership profile.
