Our Year 6 students recently had an online MS Teams meeting with Dr Katie Allen, our local Federal Member for Higgins. The girls were inspired by Dr Allen’s story that she has dedicated her life to helping others. The main theme of the discussion was persistence, perseverance and the importance of working hard to achieve your goals.

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“Dr Katie Allen spoke to us about becoming a politician and about her duties. Dr Allen told us about what she did before becoming a politician, that she worked at The Royal Children’s Hospital and helped many sick children. She realised that she wanted to help more people by becoming a public health researcher, to help stop the rise of food allergies and obesity. She wanted to help even more people, so she decided to run for politics and be the representative for Higgins and she won! Katie is now a politician for the Liberal party and she loves to help all of the people of Higgins. I learned that you always have to be yourself and know that it is okay to lose but you must get back up again and keep trying.”  Ava Murray

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“Katie Allen is the Member for Higgins and she is from the Liberal Party. I thought it was amazing that she used to work at the Royal Children’s Hospital and loved to help children. She also worked for family welfare at the same time, so she was very busy. Dr Allen was studying food allergies and obesity. She told us about the book she wrote called ‘Kids’ Food Allergies for Dummies’. It is amazing that she gave up a lot of her jobs, including a member of the board for the Cabrini Hospital and Melbourne Girls’ Grammar, to be a politician. Dr Katie Allen is an amazing woman who has achieved a lot so far in her life. I think she did a lot for our country and will do more! She told us that we should try and try again for something and never give up.”  Lily Van der Venne