Students and staff at the Dimboola Memorial Secondary College have recently been privileged to be addressed by some high quality guest speakers covering some very significant subjects.
Anti-domestic violence advocate Simone O'Brien spoke to the whole school last Friday and earlier this month motivational speaker Sacha Kaluri gave separate presentations to the junior and senior students on the topics of resilience, bullying and the transition from school to the workforce.
Simone O'Brien - White Ribbon presentation
Last Friday morning students and staff at the Dimboola Memorial Secondary College experienced a forty minute presentation by White Ribbon advocate, and former student, Simone O'Brien on the issue of family violence.
The visit was organised by Year 12 VCAL students Chloe Kalms and Ashley Blundell who introduced Simone and ran the entire assembly.
Pictured above are Chloe Kalms, Simone O'Brien and Ashley Blundell - DMSC photo.
Simone, who was a victim of domestic violence herself, shared her journey with all students from Years 7 to 12 and all staff, speaking for 40 minutes to a silent room as all present were clearly moved by her message.
Simone is fully committed to spreading the word about the need to tackle the scourge of family violence and she spends considerable time travelling around the country addressing groups such as AFL footballers, big corporate organisations, politicians, community groups and students.
She delivered a powerful message on the need to speak up and further emphasised that real change can come if we teach our younger students to be respectful.
While Simone's story is confronting, she focussed on the positives and how she can now use her journey to work towards change.
The school was very appreciative that Simone gave very generously of her time and she has offered to return for more smaller discussions with groups of interested students.
Sacha Kaluri - Resilliance, bullying and transitioning to the workforce
Motivational speaker Sacha Kaluri visited DMSC on Monday the 1st of May and led sessions for the Junior School in the morning and the Senior School in the afternoon.
Sacha was invited to visit the College as part of the "Empowering Youth' theme that had been explored in Mentor group,s to share her message of resilience and a positive attitude.
The pre-lunch session focussed on resilience with an emphasis on bullying and was focused on the years 7 to 9 age group.
The later session involved students from Years 10 to 12 and concentrated on the transition from school to the workforce, an experience that all of the students in the group will confront over the next few years.
This talk included Sacha recounting her experiences from late high school through her early employment history to her current position.
In her enthusiastic and engaging style, Sacha began the second session with the students asked to identify the song title and artist from brief excerpts of twenty songs, with the strict instructions to work alone.
With many in the group only getting half correct, and very few getting close to a perfect score, it was highlighted that if they could have worked in pairs, small groups or one large group, it would have been easier to get a maximum score.
This was then related to working together to survive the latter years of secondary school by looking out for colleges and offering assistance, or at least a shoulder to lean on, to help each other through the experience.
The remainder of the session covered the transition to employment after school, with the speaker entertaining the group with an engaging dialogue about her experiences.
The message was that an individual will be much happier and content if they enjoy their career and the importance of doing research to ensure a full understand of what a chosen job will actually entail, by seeking out those already in the industry and asking questions. A small investment here may avoid any surprises or disappointments later.
When choosing a career an individual needs to fully understand why they want to do it and be prepared to approach it with enthusiasm.
Whilst the choice of career is important, over their working life these students will on average have 29 different jobs over seven different industries through their working life, and these is no restriction to having multiple careers simultaneously.
Enjoyment and a positive attitude are both vital for an enjoyable working life.
Through personal experience Sacha highlighted that failures can be a great teacher as they are the start of learning and need not be a reason not to try or to progress.
All of her messages come down to enthusiasm and to appreciate that the more you put in, the more you will get out of anything in life, and to "do your best every day' as we expect the best from all of the people we encounter all of the time.
Sacha Kaluri addressing the DMSC senior school students.- Dimboola Courier photo.
|
