Our School motto, ‘Nil Magnum Nisi Bonum’ meaning, ‘nothing is great unless it is good’ is upheld by many of our exceptional Old Girls.

The Nil Magnum Nisi Bonum (NMNB) project embraces the motto and recognises some of the amazing achievements of past students of the School.

The list includes women from Academia, the Arts, Philanthropy, Medicine, Law, Business, Entrepreneurship and Sport.

Nil Magnum Nisi Bonum Project

In 2006, the 110th Anniversary of the School, St Catherine’s Old Girls’ Association (SCOGA) highlighted the achievements of some of our alumnae. SCOGA formed a sub-committee and began searching into the history of many past students and selected 25 to be honoured in the first phase. Together with the School, the first 25 profiles were produced and the Nil Magnum Nisi Bonum Project was launched in November 2010. In 2013, a further 10 woman were profiled, another 15 in 2015, and a further 10 in 2021. A total of 60 women have been profiled to date.

Over the course of the coming weeks we will share and celebrate the 10 new Old Girls profiled in 2021. To read all our NMNB Project profiles click here.

Professor Megan Cassidy-Welch (Cassidy ’85)

Megan Cassidy-Welch (Cassidy ’85) is a leading historian of medieval history, and one of a family of three girls who all attended St Catherine’s School. Megan graduated with an Honours degree in History from the University of Melbourne in 1989. She then undertook a Masters in Medieval Studies at the University of London, graduating with Distinction, and completed a PhD at the University of Melbourne in 1997.

Megan has held appointments at the University of Tasmania, the University of Melbourne and Monash University where she was Head of the School of Philosophical, Historical and International Studies. At the University of Queensland she was Head of the School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry and the first woman to be appointed to the McCaughey Chair in History. Megan has also served as President of the Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies.

In 2021, Megan was appointed as Director of the Medieval and Early Modern Studies program at the Australian Catholic University.

Megan has published seven books and dozens of journal articles, book chapters and reviews in academic journals. She draws on a broad knowledge of languages in her work including Medieval and Modern French, Middle High and Modern German, Latin, Italian, Old English, Anglo-Norman and Medieval Spanish.

Megan has served on numerous advisory boards and committees across the tertiary sector in Australia. In recognition of her contributions to scholarship, Megan was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2019.

Megan enjoys tennis, yoga, reading, gardening and spending time with her husband and two adult sons.