Lighting the Way: Hannah Brown receives the 2025 Morongo Award

Nicole Roache, Marketing & Advancement Manager

The 2025 Morongo Award has been presented to Year 12 student Hannah Brown, who embodies both the spirit of academic excellence and the enduring legacy of Morongo Presbyterian Girls’ College.

For Hannah, the award is more than just recognition - it's personal. “The Morongo Award means keeping alive my connection to my uncle and godfather’s mother, Frances Ashburner (née Lowson),” she says. Frances was a proud Morongo alumna, dux of the College in 1952, senior prefect, and Lucernian editress. She was also a keen cricketer - no small feat at a time when female participation in the sport was rare. Frances pursued her passion for science with equal enthusiasm, taking classes at The Geelong College when they weren’t available to her at Morongo.

“Morongo offered opportunities that empowered young women to break new ground,” Hannah reflects. “As a female today, I feel no barrier to

entering any field I’m passionate about.” That confidence and clarity of purpose echoes Morongo’s motto: Sint Lucernae Ardentes – Let your lamps be burning. It’s a message that Hannah has taken to heart throughout her time at The Geelong College.

“The College has given me so many opportunities to follow my passions and has fostered a lifelong love of learning,” she says. While Hannah has thrived academically, it’s the experiences beyond the classroom that have left the biggest impression.

She speaks fondly of the Year 8 Cape Otway Camp, where she was nudged outside her comfort zone and gained confidence in new surroundings.

In Year 10, she participated in the Fulfilling Lives program, travelling to Lizard Island to learn about and contribute to conservation efforts on the Great Barrier Reef. “It was eyeopening,” she says. “It really shaped how I think about the world and our responsibility to it.”

True to her adventurous spirit and love of learning, Hannah is gearing up for a French immersion trip this July with fellow students from Years 10 to 12. “I’m so excited to experience the culture and language first-hand,” she says. It’s a perfect capstone to her years at the College - years defined by growth, opportunity and meaningful connections.

Looking ahead, Hannah plans to take a gap year in the UK in 2026, working as a boarding assistant in a British school. “I want to try something new, step into a different culture, and gain life experience before university,” she says. After that, she’s aiming to study science at Melbourne University, specialising in health science - a path that would follow in Frances Ashburner’s footsteps, who studied microbiology there decades ago.

“I hope Frances, who I met regularly at family get-togethers as a young child, would be proud of me,” she says.

There’s no doubt she would be. In recognising Hannah with the Morongo Award, the College not only honours a student with exceptional promise but also continues the legacy of women like Frances - trailblazers who used their education to challenge norms and pursue knowledge fearlessly.

As Hannah prepares to take her next steps, she does so with her own lamp brightly burning, ready to light new pathsjust as Morongo always intended.

Save the date

Morongo Old Collegians' Garden Party

Catch up with your Morongo Friends at the College, Saturday 25 October 2025