MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL

EMPOWERED WOMEN, EMPOWER WOMEN

As a Mercy community, inspired through the practical example of Catherine McAuley, we remain committed to carrying in the legacy of her vision for empowering young women through education to exert influence in their spheres of action. She was courageous and a creative thinker, always seeking to find innovative ways to approach works of Mercy; these are the very heart of the community’s charism. The beginning of 2022 has once again provided us with the opportunity to step up and support one another, to be inspired by Catherine and demonstrate resilience and courage, remaining agile and flexible to the challenges of our time. I would like to sincerely thank all in our community for their patience, their understanding and love. I truly believe this is what makes our College so special.

At the virtual Welcome Assembly held on Monday 7 February, I launched the 2022 College Theme. It was in October last year when I began researching a possible theme for 2022. I know I needed to find something that would build upon the past two year’s themes to be hope-filled, optimistic with heart driven intention and purpose. I came to the realisation that our theme had to be based on the concept of resilience and of grit – but not just any old resilience and grit. It needed to symbolise the energy that came after you harnessed a resilient mindset. In fact, our community would not be what is today without the collective energy, resilience and passion we have all demonstrated. What theme could possibly speak to this next step, this higher pursuit of excellence, this higher source of energy to keep us striving for excellence? It was then that I came across a Finnish word that meant – “a special strength and persistent determination to continue and overcome in the moment of adversity, a quality of stoic determination, tenacity of purpose, bravery, grit, and resilience.” This word is Sisu.

I am thrilled to announce that our College theme for 2022 is to Live and Learn with Sisu. I will be working closely with the staff and students to encourage and empower everyone to strive to be stronger in heart, stronger in body and stronger in mind. We are going to be more brave, more determined, and more resilient in how we live and in how we learn! I hope you are as excited as I am about our theme for 2022.

I was also able to share that our College continues to experience strong growth and coupled with internal staff promotions, we needed to find more great teachers and teacher aides to join our team from this year. These staff members have been featured on our social media and have been added to the Expert Teacher page on our College website.

Under the current COVID-19 safe restrictions we have still been able to reimagine and redesign special events. This has included the Senior Investiture Ceremony. Though sad we could not have guests onsite at this time, it was still a beautiful and moving ceremony where the 2022 senior cohort pledged to lead our College with purpose, faith, mercy, courage, and compassion. This group of young women are excited to continue the great work of those who have walked before them and leave their own legacy for those that will follow.

We have also honoured our 2021 Scholars in a virtual setting, formally announcing our College Dux, Charlotte Gugliotti and Proxime Accessit, Peta Dickinson. We were also able to acknowledge and congratulate the following scholars: Anna Baxter, Sarah Mosch, Harper Weekers and Kylie Wiltshire who all achieved ATAR scores of 90 or above and are commended on this incredible achievement. We are immensely proud of all of our graduates from 2021 and wish them all the very best for their futures. We know they will always remain closely connected to the College and the sisterhood of incredible Alumna.

Thank you for your ongoing support and may God bless our College community in the year ahead.

Amber Hauff

COLLEGE PRINCIPAL