College Captains Farewell to the Merici Community

"Upon reflection of our years at Merici we have all have experienced and made so many memories together."

Good afternoon students and staff. This year Bronte and I will share our own individual reflections as we have both gained so much out of the year individually and together.

Olivia Straker, College Captain -

“As Drake once said, “I’m way up, I feel blessed”, and it’s true, we have been truly blessed.

Good Afternoon all, it is a great privilege to stand here before you and speak on behalf of my fellow graduates, the class of 2018. I would like to start by recognising Merici College as a school that has constantly pushed us to our limits, taught us how to be self-motivated and most importantly supported us, along this 6-year journey through high school. Thank you to all of the teachers and staff who have fostered us into the extraordinary young women that we are today, and thank you to the students who have made it easy for our 2018 mission to come true. I cannot grasp the joy it brings to me when I see your smiling faces every day in the corridors, eager to learn and be a part of our Merici family.

Today, I don’t know whether to feel happy or sad, knowing that this is one of the last times that we will sit together as a group of Year 12 Merici students. Not long ago, we were looking up to the Year 12 students, absolutely petrified, but now it is us. As young, Year 7’s, we found ourselves lost in its corridors like they were the changing staircases of Hogwarts.

We continued to play buzz feed every IH lesson, tried out for every ASC sporting team just to get a day off school, and we said YOLO, swag and shrix like we were supposed to. We were struck by the sense of sisterhood and pride for Merici College, which we were proud of.

Over the years we have continued to uphold this legacy and it is amazing to look back and see how much this year group has achieved individually and collectively. I am proud to say that this year we have raised over $3900 through St Angela Merici Day stalls and events such as Socktober and the Merici Night Out, which is a credit to our hard work and commitment to College life.

To this group of Merici girls, what a ride it has been! Every day, we pushed each other to our limits, created a competitive environment, but most of all, helped each other. The companionship we share, is only one, of the key words that makes up our sisterhood. The memories that we have made at Merici are not just ones that we will always keep in our heads, but close in our hearts. These memories and good times go far beyond “high school Memories” these are Merici College memories that we have shared and created within our sisterhood. To say the least, I am ready to graduate high school, but not Merici. We have become a family, a Year 12 family made up of so many unique personalities and individuals. This has made me realise how lucky I am to have something, that makes saying goodbye so hard.

This extraordinary journey has shaped the young women we are today and for this, I am proud to call myself a Merici girl. It has been an absolute honour to stand beside you all as a friend, but more importantly a sister.  I have faith that each and every one of you are destined for great things, so work hard, opportunities don’t happen, you create them.

It’s now time to say goodbye, but I think goodbyes are sad and I’d much rather say hello. Hello, to a new adventure.”

Bronte Alexander, College Vice Captain -

“Wow it is crazy to think that almost 6 years ago we were all just Year 7s walking through the front office doors at Merici, which we were then all quickly alerted by the Senior’s that Juniors can only use the Student Services door.  

Upon reflection of our years at Merici we have all have experienced and made so many memories together. From the first day of year 7 where it felt like we were dumped into the deep end straight away where we had no idea of what high school was like other than our primary schools teachers claims and many of us didn’t know each other, however through the help of the student diary map and Year 7 camp we got the groove of this high school thing. And moved into Year 8 confidently, the year where some of us thought it would be funny to send spam emails and start to immerse ourselves further within the school with extra curriculum activities. Year 9 … the year which we all heard was meant to be the worst, fortunately for me at least it didn’t live up to the hype although we didn’t have a camp, we did have a STEM project. That brings us to Year 10 where we basically talked all year about the social and then gave back to the community in service week. Year 11 was definitely a shock to the system, but we were finally given the option to choose our own subjects and had to make a lot of hard decision on whether to spend our frees in Civic or in the iC doing work.

Year 12 has really come up in a blink of an eye!  It has definitely been the best year so far as we are finally the leaders of the school, we grew closer as a year group on retreat and we all took advantage of the 5 o’clock cut off, of the assignment drop box. 

Now today as we walked through the same front doors we attempted to walk in through in Year 7,  this morning as a Year 12 for the final time, all the girls in the graduating class of 2018 probably would have thought of all the good times that we have had here at Merici. However, many of these would not have occurred without the sense of community our College fosters, I would like to thank all our Merici sisters for creating a sisterhood within Merici that truly feels like family for the past six years. I would also like to thank the people that all of us Year 12s would agree are the reasons why we are graduating today, the teachers and support staff, thank you so much for sharing with us all your knowledge and passion for your subjects in our classes, supporting us when we are having a moment and inspiring us to be the best versions of ourselves, thank you! 

I would also like to personally thank the College for giving me the opportunity to be one of the leaders and ambassadors of Merici College this year and wish Malia and Olivia all the best next year. 

And to my fellow graduating sisters, you have made the past 6 years memorable, #joyful and it has been inspiring to see how much we have grown, not just as individuals, but as a year group. Thank you for all the memories and I hope that every one of you continues to love life, have hope, be faithful and continue to build your future’s more wondrous than you dare to dream. “

Gift Presentation to the Merici College Community

As a symbol of our appreciation for the school and reminder of our Year group’s contributions to the College over the years, we would like to present the school with a gift from the graduating class of 2018. This art installation is based off St Francis of Assisi ‘Creation of the Creed’ which highlights how interconnected all of us are to the earth. Our gift highlights the school's efforts for sustainability and community.

Class of 2018

Graduating Class of 2018 Farewell Video to Community

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