2009 Pledge Day
On Wednesday 26th April a majority of year 10 students attended ‘The Pledge Day’ at the Eildon Boat Club. The pledge is an agreement to stay in school and try your best, get employment or a traineeship for year 10 students to commit to. All year 10 students that attended signed the pledge board to agree to this commitment. We were lucky that the Eildon boat club supplied us with the venue of their restaurant and they also supplied us with a very yummy afternoon tea!
At Alexandra Secondary College we have a group of year 10 students who are called ‘Beacon Leaders’. This group consists of, Christopher Bowd, Nichole Goodman, Tess Malcom, Caitlyn Debono, Jessica McInness, Jarryd Biffin, Maxwell Church, Hannah Newton, Georgina Longland, Katie Robertson and Lauren Brooking. It was supported buy two Beacon Foundation Members, Jo Breen and Annette Torok who came to explain to us a bit more about The Pledge and the Beacon Foundation.
Two ex- students from Alexandra Secondary College kindly came to speak to us about there career’s and how they achieved their success. Sarah Simpson; Sarah completed her VCE at Alexandra Secondary College in 1998. Sarah then went to Latrobe Uni in Wodonga to study Business and Hospitality Management. After that she moved to Canberra and worked in events and Restaurant Management. Sarah then went overseas for 2 years to travel UK, Europe and North Africa. After coming back to Australia she started working at OEG as an Administration Assistant and is now the Head of Catering. Sarah now lives in Alexandra.
The 2nd speaker was Clare McNamara; after completing VCE at Alexandra Secondary College in 2002, Clare left the region to attend university in Geelong and after a year doing a Bachelor of Science, she transferred degrees to study Aerospace Engineering at RMIT. Clare had always loved flying, catching the ‘bug’ at an early age, and after a lot of concentrated effort, finally got accepted into the Royal Australian Navy in 2007 as a helicopter pilot. Clare has been busy training ever since, and is very excited about her future as an Aviation Officer in the Australian Defence Force.
Having these ex-student come and speak to us gave us all a good look at what we could do in the future for our own career. It also gave us the view that any achievement is possible.
The day turned out to be a great success and everyone had a good time. All the year 10 students got given show bags which consisted of, booklets about TAFE’s, universities, and getting a job, a blow up ambulance, lots of food, hair pieces, balloons etc…
It wouldn’t have been possible for the day to succeed without the ‘Fallons Bus Service’, the venue Of ‘The Eildon Boat Club’ and Alexandra Secondary College staff and for this we thank them.
By Caitlyn Debono 10B