“There’s only one very good life… and that’s the life you know you want and you make it yourself.” – Diana Vreeland, visionary Editor-in-Chief of Vogue

Cited by Ingrid Mao (’15), Year 12 Residential Conference Welcome Address.

It has been a pleasure to welcome students to School this week and to greet many parents at the Heyington School gates during the afternoon. It was wonderful to hear the excited chatter as our girls returned to their Senior School classrooms, the Boarding House and co-curricular pursuits this week. Our Junior School girls quickly returned the rhythm of life in Barbreck and the ELC children returned with the excited enthusiasm of 3 and 4 year-old children to their newly refurbished classrooms in Campbell House.

I would particularly like to welcome new families to St Catherine’s School. I trust that all girls and children in our ELC will have a fulfilling and memorable time as students of St Catherine’s. I have no doubt that they will feel happy and comfortable, and I encourage them to seize every opportunity in both the classrooms and in the many co-curricular programs offered at our School.

This week, I enjoyed spending time with our Year 12 cohort when they attended their Residential Leadership Conference at Trinity College, University of Melbourne. Their conference was focused on developing an understanding of leadership as they prepare for the forthcoming year with the familiar warmth, generosity and spirit that proudly embraces our treasured St Catherine’s School culture. Our Year 12 Leaders Induction Assembly will be held on Monday 3 February when the Year 12 students will all receive their Senior Badge to mark a new chapter in their lives.

It was a pleasure to hear guest speaker, Ingrid Mao (’15), speak at the Opening of the Year 12 Conference, a Breakfast with our Year 12 students and their parents at Trinity College. I share for our community some of Ingrid’s eloquent speech, reflecting the thoughts of our School as we navigate this challenging period of time in Australia.

“Our thoughts are also with the families, firefighters, wildlife, many friends my age still at university fighting the bushfire crisis this summer in the army reserves, and also international volunteers from Australia’s allies around the world.

And the health crisis of the Coronavirus during this Chinese New Year have led to many Chinese cities in virtual lock down, with families being separated during what is for most people the only time they can reunite with their loved ones each year. During this time of isolation and separation, we need more than compassion, empathy and integrity more than ever today.

 In Chinese, the word for “CRISIS” 危机 – literally means “danger” and “opportunity.”

As you embark on the journey of leadership in Year 12, this is an opportunity for you to reflect on what difference you can make in our world in 2020 and after graduation. For the outcome of a crisis consists not only of the event itself – but of our response to the event.”

Ingrid has almost completed a Bachelor of Philosophy (PhB) at Australian National University. As a student of the unique 12-member PhB cohort, her colleagues are spread around the world following their passions and research interests. For Ingrid, this involved working as an intern with the Delegation of the European Union to Australia in Canberra, working on Australia-China relations. Recently, she has been working in the China-Israel space in high-tech innovation, especially interested in the idea of innovation, of what constitutes creativity, and how two very different countries have come together in an innovation partnership.

“I like to be in foreign environments and feel my way through a city. It is like being in an authentic theatre as an actress, engaging in the ultimate act of empathy and source of knowledge – that of trying to understand how the other person sees the world and learn how they express their desires through language.

Acting is the ultimate act of empathy and compassion, to inhabit the world of the Other, to understand what drives this human being, no matter how amiable or despicable. The task is to first understand before you pass them through the filter of your own biases. Enter conflict with questions rather than answers. Enter to seek to understand rather than convince. For to understand a person is to understand the biases and assumptions that give rise to their behaviour. And if the whole truth were to be told, the most despicable person would be the most amiable.”

For Ingrid, combining her academic studies with exploratory travel to Kashgar, Brazil and Paris, she created opportunity for her to seize employment in Shanghai for a high tech-entrepreneur enabling opportunities for Ingrid to facilitate China-Israel innovation partnerships. She actively demonstrated to our Year 12 students the sentiment – seize every opportunity – and through her actions, encouraged our Year 12 students to imagine and choose the kind of life they would like to lead following their graduation from St Catherine’s.

The School also shares Ingrid’s sentiments and encourages a need for compassion, empathy and understanding for families who have endured bushfires over January and now the health concerns caused by the Coronavirus. It is, undoubtedly, a challenging time for families and St Catherine’s must remain true to our School values and care for one another. The School’s response remains vigilant with monitoring the recommendations by the Department of Education and Health in Victoria, with the challenge being the disconnect across the States with recommendations made by the Commonwealth Government. Currently, our School response is well above the recommendations; whilst being alert, I ask for a calm and supportive environment in which to care for our girls. Sadly, this is an unfortunate disruption to the commencement of the School year, however, I am looking forward to seeing all girls back in class in the coming weeks.

I also invite all community members to join me in extending a very warm welcome to our new parents who have become a part of our School community this year. A formal welcome will be extended to all at the Years 7-12 Parent Information Evening on Monday 3 February commencing at 6.30pm, immediately followed by the Welcome Function hosted by the Parents and Friends Association (PFA). The Barbreck Parent Information and Welcome Function is on Thursday 13 February, commencing at 6pm and also followed by the Welcome Function hosted by the PFA. All parents are warmly encouraged to attend.