Mazenodian 2020

MAZENODIAN

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Contents Leadership Rector 4-5 Principal 6-7 College Captain 8 Prefects 9-10 Staff Report 11 Staff Farewells 12-14 Staff Photo 15-16 College Board 17 Mothers’ Association 18 Fathers’ Association 19 MOCA 20 NASA Space Station 22-23 Debating & Public Speaking 24 Faith & Mission 25 Prayer & Liturgy 26

Faculties Religious Education 27 Commerce 28 Design Technology 29 Digital Technology 30 English 31 Enhancement 32 Health & Physical Education 33 Humanities 34 Learning Diversity 35 Languages 36-37 Library & Digital Learning 38 Mathematics 39 Music 40 Outdoor Education 41 Performing Arts 42 Science 43 VCAL & VET 44 Visual Arts 45 Archives 21

Achievement Awards 138-141 Autographs 142-143 Editorial 144

Students Around the Campus 46-47 Year 7 48-59 Year 8 60-71 Year 9 72-83 Year 10 84-95 Year 11 96-107 Year 12 108-126

Sport Athletics 127 Chess 128-129 Cricket 130 Cross Country 127 Lawn Bowls 131 Swimming 132 Tennis 133

Reflections Year Year Year Year Year Year

7 134 8 134 9 135 10 135 11 136-137 12 137

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On February 28, we gathered as a community at St Patrick’s Cathedral to officially mark the commencement of the academic year for 2020. When we gathered that evening, as we faithfully have for many years, we had no idea what 2020 would have in store for each of us as individuals and as a community.

2020 is a year that will be etched into our memories forever. Social commentators have described it as the most significant moment in this generation and as a once in a lifetime event. That evening I preached a reflection on living the third guiding principle of the College Mission and Vision Statement: ‘We have but one heart, one soul.’

We strive to nurture a friendly and caring school, enabling students to develop a sense of loyalty, solidarity and service.

We provide pastoral care and encourage participation in all aspects of College life. Nourished by the Eucharist, and led by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, we believe that once a student enters the College, he and his family become part of our community for life.

In my homily, as I am sure no one would remember, I challenged the community to live this principle and create a community which reflected the reality in our world with the many challenges we face. I encouraged each of us to be contributors to the Mazenod community, not users and abusers, not bystanders and keyboard warriors; particularly for our Year 12 students as they prepare to become good citizens of the world.

In reflecting on the global situation we live in, I made the following observations which proved to more prophetic than I could have imagined: “At a global level there is conflict and division in almost every region of the world. World politics seems to be dominated by a small-minded approach of building walls and bunkering ourselves in, yet a virus like COVID-19 humbles us and reminds us of our connectedness. When our building industry stops because we can’t source supplies from China, we will come to the realisation of just how connected we are.”

One thing for sure is that we live in a connected world and an invisible microscopic virus has reminded us that rich or poor, one side of a border or the other we are all humans, that life is fragile and finite, that we have limited control, opportunity and choice on how we live that time. So it is important to make the most of it. This is all fairly obvious and we knew this, but have been reminded through the reality of COVID-19.

This year as a community and society we have had to discover within us a new resilience, something which we as a privileged society may have lost through our complacency. I have witnessed the best of the Mazenod Community living the principle of ‘One heart, one soul’ no matter what the challenges of 2020. I admired the way the teachers and College staff adapted and then re-adapted to new challenges to ensure our young men received the best that they possibly could under difficult circumstances. This is something which I have witnessed throughout my time at Mazenod, but has become more evident this year.

As I conclude my sixth and final year as Rector at Mazenod College, with four as Principal, it has been an amazing privilege to serve the Mazenod community, which was instrumental in my personal growth as a young man.

In the last six years I encountered many challenges. I brought with me a nice leather tissue box which I placed in my office, it had never seen so much use by those who came to visit me. At first I was a little worried about the effect I was having on people until I accepted that any role of leadership which involves the journey of young people will be a rollercoaster of tears for all involved. At times these were tears of joy and other times tears of sorrow. Tears in so many ways are the language of the heart and soul.

The word “sacrifice” is not that trendy at the moment but I witnessed people giving of themselves for others. I witnessed the sacrifice of families and parents, sparing no effort to send their sons to Mazenod and support them growing into men. I witnessed the sacrifice made by the staff to ensure every opportunity was afforded to the young men they served, assisting them to grow into fine talented young men. I witnessed boys sacrifice their youth, forced to grow into men through tragedy, and I witnessed students looking out for one another as brothers. I will always have a special place in

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Rector’s

Report

my heart for Mazenod College as an Old Boy and now a former staff member and I thank God for the opportunity I had to give something back to a community that shaped me.

In a formal sense, I will remain connected to the College in my role as Provincial, trying to guide the transition process at a Governance level which has been made a little bit more complicated through significant changes at a Diocesan level and the effects of COVID-19 restrictions.

The Oblates look forward to a long future of serving Mazenod College in a new model of leadership in partnership with the Archdiocese of Melbourne. I would like to acknowledge and thank the Chairman of the College Board Mr Peter Le Grand for his unwavering support of the College, in particular the College staff over many years and our longest serving Chairman to date.

A great man of faith, always available and willing to support and serve the community in whatever way possible. The College could have no greater champion or advocate than Peter. I thank him for his generous service and the many sacrifices he made as parent, Chairman and now grandparent of the College.

I acknowledge the staff of Mazenod who welcomed me into the College and who make an enormous contribution to making Mazenod College, the place that it is. I would like to thank the College Executive, in particular Mr Tony Coghlan, who embraced a young and green leader and supported me and helped me to grow into the role. I acknowledge and thank the Oblates who I have ministered with over the last six years but in particular Fathers John Sherman, Kevin Davine and Giancarlo Iollo for their commitment and service to the College in this challenging year.

To the class of 2020, I wish you every blessing as you leave Mazenod and join the esteemed ranks of Old Boys of the College. Always be proud of your College and continue to represent us and your family in all that you do as you explore the world beyond Kernot Avenue.

I leave you with the final words of the College anthem, both as my prayer for you and blessing.

With our eyes on tomorrow Its joy or its sorrow We ask God for light To keep faith ever bright Leave nothing undared for the Kingdom of God Leave nothing undared is our pledge Mazenod May we always be burning flames, not a smouldering wick, in our quest to “Leave Nothing undared for the Kingdom of God.�

Fr Christian Fini OMI

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Principal’s

Report

So much can change in a year. At the time of writing an article for the 2019 Mazenodian we had just returned from our Language Tour to Japan and I made reference to the biennial AHISA Conference, which adopted the theme “Forging the Future” reflecting on workplace structures and skills students will need to tackle the next decade. How pertinent one year later.

At the beginning of the year we proudly acknowledged the achievements of our VCE cohort, highlighted by the fact eight of our students achieved study scores of 99 or above. This caught the eye of the media who also recognised Mazenod’s outstanding performances in the areas of Science and Humanities. Victoria Police circulated information about Ryan Dean’s efforts to promote the Blue Ribbon Foundation and Phil Ryan’s work with the Mazenod Panthers All Abilities Football Club was being endorsed by the Victorian Community Sports Awards.

Our year then proceeded with great uncertainty and a sense of vulnerability. After being shocked by the devastation of the bushfires over the summer holidays, we were confronted with the coronavirus pandemic. Our community spirit and resilience were about to be challenged.

We nearly made it to the end of Term 1 with conventional face to face teaching and we managed to complete all the scheduled camps and Outdoor Education activities for the term. We commenced lockdown and our new Learning Management System, MazCom, was about to be tested. Thankfully, we had updated our infrastructure and spent considerable time training staff and students to use this new medium.

The development of the online classroom evolved and evolved rapidly. Assessment tools and video conferencing became a new art form. The students’ resilience and capacity to support the necessary changes were amazing. A significant number of students reached out for support during the year, whether for reassurance with their studies, vocational direction, or moral support, to keep motivated and on track.

By the second wave, routines were established, students and teachers were becoming quite innovative and several activities continued despite the isolation and lockdown restrictions. Debating and public speaking, Chess competitions, food technology, home fitness activities, social justice programmes, trivia competitions, Performing Arts festivals, music performances, virtual assemblies and award presentations all continued utilising videoconferencing. Parent Teacher Interviews proved quite successful, even to the extent many families stated the new format was preferred to the traditional mode.

In 2019 the College completed its NSIT (National School’s Improvement Tool) Review. The College Executive met in January to establish a clear and explicit agenda to respond to the Review and establish a Strategic Plan for 2020 to 2024. That plan is multi-faceted and was circulated throughout the community. Titled, ‘Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow’ the document reflects on our traditions and history with enormous pride, appreciates the rapid rate of change that is occurring in our community, and portrays a clear vision for the future.

The Review is designed to critique current practice and provide an improvement agenda so the College can continue to develop. The reviewers were stunned by the community relationships and networking. The College is truly blessed with the associated organisations that link our families and Old Collegians. The de Mazenod Family was introduced in Fremantle in 2019 and is designed to reach out to all who associate themselves with the Oblate Ministry across the country. We are poised perfectly to nurture and develop these communities and relationships as part of the de Mazenod Family.

As part of the Strategic Plan the College has developed an explicit learning agenda that incorporates ‘Visible Learning’ and ‘Visible Wellbeing’. Based on evidence-based research, the College has established a Visible Learning Framework utilising Professor John Hattie’s research that is designed to make a positive difference to maximise learning outcomes for students. Similarly, our Visible Wellbeing Programme complements all our existing structures, but also uses evidencebased research, in this case, the work of Professor Lea Waters from Melbourne University, who is an expert in Positive Psychology.

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A strategic plan would not be a strategic plan if it did not feature plans to build. Initially planned to start work in April 2020, the eight-stage redevelopment of the original buildings called ‘Middle School Works’ has been postponed until a financial assessment can be made in early 2021. This step allows for the potential impact of the economic slowdown due to the implications of the coronavirus pandemic. The College is determined to refurbish and revitalise current facilities including the Learning Centre, classrooms, Science laboratories, Language facilities, staff room and Canteen area.

Last year the College farewelled many iconic figures who have served the community for years. This year staff have resigned from their positions of leadership after years of dedicated service. I would like to thank Alan McAlister, Kaye Williamson, Joe Moore, Jacinta Girolami, Ian Steel, John Wright, James Tranter, Liz Duyvestyn and Josh Rajasingam for their tireless and amazing contributions to so many aspects of College life in their roles of leadership. We are still blessed to have their continued support of our students and our programmes, but it does indicate clearly, we are entering an exciting new period with so many current staff stepping up to new positions starting from 2021.

It is also a new era for Catholic Education with the new Governance model for the Archdiocese incorporating the governing entity, MACS, Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools Ltd. Many new members of our College Board have been inducted and the new Chairperson will be elected on the resignation of Mr Peter Le Grand. Peter has served the community on the College Board for 30 years and for the last 29 years as Chairman. His contribution to Mazenod and the Oblates of Mary Immaculate has been outstanding and the College is indebted to Peter’s direction and support.

There are new appointments for our Oblate Community for 2021. Fr Harry Dyer OMI is appointed College Rector for 2021.

Fr Giancarlo Iollo OMI and Fr Kevin Davine OMI continue to serve the community as members of the Chaplaincy team, but Fr John Sherman OMI has been appointed Chaplain to Burpengary Queensland. Fr Christian Fini OMI, remains the Provincial of the Oblates and will continue his important relationship with the College.

The leadership of the Oblates, present and past, is why the College is so extraordinary, and on behalf of the de Mazenod Family I would like to thank them for their witness and service to us all.

Thank you for all your support throughout the pandemic year of 2020.

The care and professionalism of our staff, the understanding and support of our parents and the brilliant way our students have accepted and coped with the conditions, have been extraordinary. I would like to wish all the students who have graduated and are embarking on tertiary studies or employment opportunities every success for the next phase of their lives Tony Coghlan

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College

Captain

“Integrity is the most valuable and respected quality of leadership. Always keep your word.” Brian Tracy Our College motto “Leave Nothing undared for the Kingdom of God” has nourished each of us with an immense sense of hope and guidance this year in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.

With the pressures of a global pandemic challenging our sense of normalcy, it has become more important than ever to remain connected within our community.

Pleasingly, in the midst of adversity and challenge our Mazenod community has been successful in maintaining its identity as a vibrant faith community where each Mazenodian has a sense of belonging and care for one another. This has been fostered through the integration of prerecorded Masses and livestream Eucharistic celebrations.

Commencing 2020 with our prestigious Inaugural Mass was the perfect opportunity for our Mazenod community to come together to celebrate the Eucharist, recognising the brilliant work of the Oblates, whilst renewing our pledges as passionate ambassadors for Christ.

Following this wonderful celebration, Mazenod College has maintained its rich history of success in all aspects of College life, including academics, sports, Music, Performing Arts, Debating, Public Speaking, Information Technology and Design Technology.

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the Oblates and staff who have guided us throughout our journey from little Year 7 boys navigating our way around a large school to young men striving to make a positive contribution in the world. Furthermore, it must be acknowledged that our successes would not be possible without the immense support which our teachers provide, going well beyond their duties to ensure the best outcomes for us.

To the Class of 2020, it has been an absolute pleasure to be with all of you throughout this journey. I am sure that each of you are feeling nostalgic towards the end of your days at the College.

Let us not forget the great times we shared, the friendships formed, and the people who have shaped us to become fine young men. As we venture onto our next chapter of life, I encourage each of you to take the next step in our guiding principle of “Enter to Learn… Leave to Serve.”

Dylan Peiris College Captain 2020

College Life Inspired by St Eugene de Mazenod’s model of service and commitment, Mazenod College has continued to embrace the qualities which make up the great people we have in our community. Indeed, 2020 has certainly been a difficult year for many, shifting between remote learning and face to face learning.

This year teachers and students were posed with a unique challenge of adapting to a new learning atmosphere.

Remote learning, to many, was unprecedented and foreign.

Importantly, however, through commitment, integrity and resilience, students and teachers were able to successfully adapt to this new online environment.

However, these disruptions were overcome by the implementation of Google Meets and Zoom lessons, ensuring effective communication between teachers and students. Furthermore, our Senior leaders have strived to leave an indelible impression on the College taking on unprecedented forms of communication to deliver student briefings, year level talks and visits into Junior and Senior Homerooms.

Additionally, under the guidance of the Dean of Senior School, Mrs Bourne, senior leaders adjusted to new forms of communication with younger year levels. Conducting student briefings, year level addresses and trivia nights has ensured that we remain connected during these challenging times.

Mental health and inclusion have also been very important challenges which student leadership have sought to address through initiatives such as ‘RUOK? Day’ and presentations about inclusion.

Serving as the College Captain for 2020 has been a great honour and privilege, and an experience which I will treasure for the rest of my life.

We wish all future student leaders the very best for the remaining time they spend at the College and look forward to seeing them take on new initiatives, emulating the great works of St Eugene de Mazenod.

On behalf of the Class of 2020, I would like to thank

Dylan Peiris

Prefect

Reports

College Captain: Dylan Peiris College Vice-Captains: David Botros, Roque Rosario and Ronan Fernandez Head Prefects: Terrence A’Hearn and Amos Duckett College Prefects: Noah Alwyn, Noah Andrews, Noah Crasto, Matthew Lewis, Gavin Liyanage, Dylan Ly, Francesco Mandarino, Harry Minack, Maneth Nagodavithana, Rishi Nagpal, Sean O’Connor, Thomas Raymond, Thomas Searle, Kurt Tellis, Jordan Tranter, Kyle Truong, Thomas Yong and Francis Zaar

Faith and Mission Faith and Mission are important aspects of the College spirit and community inspired by the charism of St Eugene de Mazenod. As an Oblate school, students are encouraged to lead a religious life of charity and humility through daily Mass and Social Justice initiatives. During this COVID-19 pandemic, students viewed Mass online and participated in reflection days virtually, as well as starting and participating in Mazenod’s own youth group, Ember.

The College’s normal community service programs such as the Winter Sleepout, the Year 11 Red Cross initiative and contributions to Rosies by Year 12 students were not able to go ahead. However, our plan for a ‘Student Eucharistic Minister’ Program in the College is still being developed with the eventual goal of receiving approval from the Archbishop of Melbourne. We congratulate students for their initiative and dedication to their faith during these challenging times and thank the Oblates for spreading an optimistic message of love and hope which has certainly given students strength throughout the year.

Roque Rosario Academics and VCAL Remote learning was a concept that very few had considered until this year, posing a number of new challenges in a very short span of time, especially in regard to studying and attending class. However, the students at Mazenod were able to adapt to their new circumstances with ease, testament to the amazing staff and the work ethic of those at the College.

Whilst initiatives such as tutoring and Study Hall were not available for the majority of the year, other options, such as an online forum to assist the younger year levels were established so as to help anyone who may be struggling.

Likewise, for students undertaking the VCAL pathway, quarantine had a major impact on the way the school

year was carried out. Although some students were unable to attend work placement due to restrictions, others were able to achieve the Learning Outcomes by showcasing their work through videos. Several students exited Year 12 with a pass in order to start a full time apprenticeship, whilst other students started School Based Apprenticeships (SBATs), which will transition to full time with the end of the academic year. Furthermore, most TAFEs were able to move to an online format and provide students with tangible ways to work towards the completion of their courses. All in all, the VCAL students adapted well to online learning, keeping in consistent contact with the teaching staff.

Ronan Fernandez

Music and Performing Arts It is easy for many people to look back at 2020 and wonder “what if?”. This is true especially for the Music and Performing Arts department. With so many cancelations (Mazenod’s Got Talent, Wicked, Music Gala, Generations In Jazz, and more) it is hard to think of what we actually accomplished. However, the dedicated staff of the Founder’s Complex adapted, just like everyone else.

E-recitals gave music students a chance to perform pieces which would have otherwise gone unheard. We created a home-based rendition of the Mazenod Anthem.

We salvaged the Performing Arts Festival, consisting of homemade videos, which allowed students to showcase their various talents in the closest thing we have had to an ‘event’ this year. So, while we have missed the sound of applause, I hope we can look back at, not what we lost, but what we achieved together, despite the refusal of the virus to take a final bow.

Francesco Mandarino

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Senior Prefects

Report

Nodder Spirit and Sport Leading this portfolio in the midst of online learning and social distancing has undoubtedly been both challenging and limiting in its potential. For obvious reasons we were unfortunately unable to actualise any of our goals for sport at the College, which was disappointing considering we had big plans for the House Cup. We hope to be able to pass these plans on to next year’s leaders in the hopes that they can build on our vision and accomplish what we could not. Spirit and culture was just as much of an uphill battle as there were definitely times this year where it was difficult to feel like a part of the Mazenod community without being present at the College. It is frustrating to not have much to show for our efforts this year, however I am very grateful to all of the boys in my portfolio for putting their best foot forward in such a challenging year.

Terrence A’Hearn

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Peer Support and Wellbeing Keeping connected and adapting to online learning was the main focus of the Peer Support and Student Wellbeing Prefects for the year. This year, the Peer Support team decided to explore and minimise the effects of remote teaching on the mental health of the students. Working with Mrs. Bourne and the School Counselling team, we aimed to promote good mental health practices through the production of instructional videos, which we sent out to students, promoting things such as the importance of sleep. Within the Senior School, we focused on keeping the Year 12 cohort connected in their final year by organising activities such as online quizzes. The Year 11 Peer Support team have also done a great job in organising and working with the Year 7 students in their Peer Support program. We are proud of the way we adapted to all the challenges of 2020 and look forward to what will be accomplished by the next generation of student leaders.

David Botros

Staff

Report

Zooming, flipping, sanitising and flattening.

2020 was the year of developing new skills and lexicon.

Our attention focused on surviving, rather than thriving, on both a personal, family and a professional level.

The year began like most others. The ocean was calm.

Our new staff arrived full of enthusiasm, eager to become acquainted with their colleagues and students. Jamie Davin joined us from Aquinas College, Ringwood. Rimma Campos and Steve Emmett were recruited to the Visual Arts Faculty from Berwick College and Brighton Grammar, respectively. Chris Windley arrived from St Peter’s College, Cranbourne. Old boy Keegan Coulter followed the family tradition to commence his teaching career in Mathematics.

Former Mazenod Language Assistant Denis Passalent stepped into VCE Italian and Michelle Symss assumed the role of Development Manager.

Our Religious Education Faculty recruited Irish teachers John Tighe from Dublin and Noel McGarry from Salesian College, Chadstone. Anthony Bolling and Kevin Nguyen joined the Faith and Oblate Charism team to support youth ministry. They were joined by Fr Giancarlo Iollo OMI, who enhanced the international flavour of the de Mazenod family, with his arrival from Italy.

We were thrilled to welcome back Patrice Stevens, Rachel Horne and Louise Lin who all returned to teaching from maternity leave, along with Dan Kelly who traded the Study Hall for the classroom.

The first wave began to rise.

Physical Education teacher Michael Miller was employed by our Sports Department from Parade College, Bundoora. The department also enlisted Sports Assistants Sean Welsford, Lachlan Bray and Andrew Papalaskaris.

Similiarly, the Learning Diversity team welcomed former Mazenod replacement teacher Yvanna Dyson and three new Learning Support Officers, Dominique Castro, Brinda Mangaran and Denise Tan. In addition, Patricia Munday supported Kate Sanford in her new role of Food Technology teacher and Fleur Ellis replaced Nick Lewton in the Provence Centre. Rebecca Ferrarotto joined the College Counselling team and Peter Marinick stepped into the role of College Archivist.

Suddenly the Lifeguards ordered all swimmers from the ocean and the flags were removed.

Early morning coffees in the staffroom were replaced by temperature checks. Monitoring the medical needs of staff and students became more crucial than ever before.

The Health Centre recruited nurses Leanne Jelly and

Kate Mitchell. Contact tracing became a priority and the Administration team welcomed Jill Whalley and Liz Plumridge as the maintenance team established sanitiser stations.

Out the back, a larger, second wave was building.

Reinforcements were needed and we welcomed our replacement teachers – Ross Vernon, Lauren Oliver, Mel Asik, Nicole Wong, David Naidoo, Christina Klonis, Peter Saaksjarvi and Gemma Clement. Technology uptake went viral.

The second wave was more powerful than the first. All classes remained virtual and microphones were set to mute. Our tech savvy colleagues worked overtime to upskill staff. Attention shifted to balancing wellbeing with academic progress. For staff, this meant a Strength Spotting Challenge, a lip sync, or a Year Level drop-in before Homeroom.

Social Distancing was at odds with Socialising and maintaining a sense of connectedness became challenging.

The College Counsellors showed their support with Mental Fitness Workshops, the PE team arranged yoga classes and our Oblate Chaplains, through their constant presence, reminded us that we all belonged to the de Mazenod family. The Staff Wellbeing Committee shared their insights and the Staff Association patiently awaited the opportunity to enact their re-connection plans with social gatherings.

In the meantime, we celebrated new life. Theresa Syle and Andrew welcomed their second daughter Willa Victoria.

Matt Rowland and Catherine celebrated the arrival of their son Thomas Francis. Mike Pearson and Tenille became the proud parents of Rocky. Nick Young and Holly welcomed their Aussie daughter Ella Grace. Chris Lee and Angie were thrilled with the arrival of Maxwell Atticus. Matt Fyfield and Rebecca were blessed with the arrival of their second daughter Bethany. Marilou Gelderbloem and Jody became proud parents of Liam James.

Finally, we wish our departing staff members every success as they explore new opportunities. In particular, we thank our long serving teachers Mrs Paulette Weegberg, Mr Richard Faragher, Mrs Midori Cranston, and Mr Jason Mears for their respective 40, 39, 36 and 24 years of service to Education.

May the oceans provide smoother sailing ahead?

Jo Noone

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Staff

Farewells

Paulette Weegberg Mrs Paulette Weegberg commenced employment at the College in 1994 in the Food Technology area and has provided 27 years of dedicated service. She has been instrumental in ensuring that the men of Mazenod develop basic life skills in food preparation, methods of cookery and technologies used in the safe production of food.

Many Mazenod College students have fond memories in the kitchen, baking chocolate chip cookies, making festive gingerbread houses and learning to cook meals for their families. Food Technology has for many years been the most popular subject within the College with over 400 students undertaking classes in a given year!

Paulette is to be congratulated for her most professional, engaging and creative lessons. Over the years she has also inspired many students to continue with studies or businesses within the hospitality industry. Of note, is former Master Chef George Calombaris. Other chefs and business owners include The Last Piece and Sette Bello, both local restaurants run by former students of the College.

Of course, Food Technology has not been all about career paths within the hospitality industry, it has been about encouraging the young men of Mazenod to not be afraid of the kitchen and to embrace the special cultural dishes and traditions within their own families. For many students, food technology lessons at school were the first time that the young men had washed a dish. Paulette soon made it known that it would never be the last!

Over the past 27 years, Paulette has amazingly managed food allergies, life-threatening anaphylaxis and has adapted work stations within the food technology area to ensure that every student could participate in the practical classes, and not be excluded. During the period of remote learning, she creatively ran her own YouTube channel, ‘Cooking with Paulette’ so that the young men of Mazenod could still actively engage in practical lessons and more importantly, could develop meals for themselves and their families whilst at home.

Congratulations Paulette on your amazing years of service to Mazenod College and over 40 years of service in Catholic and State schools.

The entire Mazenod College community, both past and present, are richer for the gift of having you on staff! We pray that Almighty God blesses you, Mark and your children. We wish you good health and happiness in this next stage of your life. Your smile, good humour and the occasional special morning tea in the staffroom, will be sorely missed!

Vivian Seremetis

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Richard Faragher The year was 1994. Movie goers flocked to the cinema to watch Forrest Gump, Bon Jovi and Mariah Carey ruled the airwaves, Blue Heelers was a smash hit for the Seven Network, and Richard Faragher joined Mazenod College. 1994 will certainly go down in history as a very successful year!

As a teacher, Richard is the consummate professional. Despite often being tasked with students who were ‘mathematically challenged’, Richard has an amazing ability to connect with all students, accepting them as individuals, encouraging them to reach their potential and being able to deconstruct difficult concepts to a comprehensible level.

While there is no questioning Richard’s skills as a Maths and Science teacher, it was in the Outdoor Education environment where Richard came alive. Whether it be kayaking, mountain biking, surfing, hiking up a mountain or driving a mini bus, this is where Richard thrived as a teacher, providing a once in a lifetime experience for hundreds of students over many years.

He is a notoriously brilliant storyteller around the campfire, and loved nothing more than challenging the students to get out of their comfort zone, ‘bush bashing’ through rugged terrain.

On a personal note, Richard will be greatly missed by so many. With a lack of pretentiousness and the ability to make people laugh, he is the perfect office companion, supportive colleague and coffee buddy. He is extremely generous with his time, volunteering to assist colleagues with marking or to accompany his mates to Arbor for a quick coffee and dose of perspective. As the President of the Breakfast Club, a quiz master in the staffroom at lunchtime and a regular attendee on a Friday afternoon, Richard always guarantees lively conversation and plenty of laughs. We have watched Richard’s 1994 dress sense evolve from short shorts to a svelte figure with matching shirt and tie combinations in 2020, while those that have boxed with him can testify to the epic power of his right hook.

While we will miss the many social interactions, we know that you will keep in touch and hopefully be an honorary guest at Breakfast Club meetings. We hope that you will still make the time for us in your busy schedule of bike riding, hiking, volunteering for the Knox Environment Society, gardening, Magnetic Island trips and most importantly, grandparent duties.

Forrest Gump was right when he suggested that “life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get”, but in Richard we always know what we are going to get - honesty, integrity, engaging conversation and a plethora of Dad jokes.

Clare Caldwell

Jason Mears At the end of Term 3 this year, Mr Jason Mears informed us that he would be leaving and it was certainly a shock and very unexpected news. Jason took over from Kevin Morgan as our Brass Specialist in late 1996, almost 24 years to the day. Back in the day, we were a much smaller department hidden in the current Year 7 area, in two small classrooms.

Jason has been an integral part of the development of Instrumental Music at the College. He has conducted every kind of music group, including several successful musical production projects as Musical Director. As a musician and a teacher Jason has always been held in the highest regard, striving for absolute perfection from himself and his students alike. As a trumpeter, Jason performed with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and was an active participant in several iconic Victorian Brass Bands, holding Principal positions as a player and later as a conductor. Ask him about a particular person in a brass band and the chances are he knows them!

Jason has nurtured and developed many great musicians and his impact was such that some have gone on to their own careers in music. Andrew Power, Chris Lee and Ryan Koraknai to name a few old boys and he also taught Mr Melitsis and Mark Fitzpatrick, who currently holds a position in the State Orchestra of Victoria. Jason was not only an excellent teacher and musician, he was able to develop close relationships with his students, many of whom would become friends and colleagues long after their school days had finished. At its core was a respect for his musical prowess, expertise and his open and friendly nature.

As many of you will know, over the last 15 years or so Jason has battled with his health, culminating with a liver transplant about 8 years ago. He came perilously close to dying. After a successful transplant and a long recovery, Jason eventually returned to work. Jason embraced this life changing moment in the most incredibly positive way, leading him into cycling and running, including in more recent years a few marathons.

His attitude to his new lease of life has made him quite the poster boy for transplant departments in Victoria. He is often asked to present his inspirational story to fellow transplant patients and if you look closely he can even be seen on the recent Footlocker advertisement. His positivity has certainly been inspirational to all of us and he has never let his health interfere with his work commitments.

In more recent years Jason has been energised by his connections with Good Shepherd Catholic Primary School, enjoyed working with the students. He has been personally responsible for the development of their amazing music program, one that is now impacting positively at Mazenod.

A large number of our most advanced students began their musical journey with Jason at Good Shepherd.

Mr Mears will be remembered as one of the iconic long serving members of the Mazenod music staff, responsible for its continued expansion, diversity and development. Best wishes for the future, you will be sorely missed.

Doug Leutchford Midori Cranston After a teaching career spanning 36 years and four schools, Mrs Midori Cranston has decided to retire to pursue her passion for travel and language.

Born of Japanese parents, Midori completed her primary school education in Milan, Italy. As a fluent speaker of Japanese and Italian, Midori’s zest for life and connection with young people attracted her to education. Renowned for her self-deprecating sense of humour, Midori has always preferred teaching boys, because they make her laugh the most.

Midori cared for her students and loved to see them thrive and is an outstanding teacher. Her commitment to her professional development was evident in her roles of VCAA Deputy Chief Assessor of Japanese and Assessor of Italian.

During her seven years at Mazenod, she entered her students in poetry competitions, wrote and directed their Italian play, supported them in the Mock United Nations competition and accompanied them on five Language Study Tours to Italy and Japan. She was instrumental in building a relationship between Mazenod and Sacred Heart Girls’ College and always took the credit whenever one of her students met their Year 12 formal partner through the shared activities between our schools.

However, Midori loved the classroom most of all. She engaged her students in an environment built on trust, humour and a thirst for learning. Her positive psychology techniques like rewarding good behaviour with ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ cards, made her much loved. She was generous with her pre-service teachers and language assistants, because she enjoyed sharing her passion with those wanting to learn.

Midori is ‘one of a kind’. She will be remembered for her energy, humour and hopeless sense of direction. We wish her an adventure-filled retirement with her husband, Ron. As soon as the borders open, she will be on the next plane to London for her long awaited reunion with her daughter, Catherine.

Arigatou mille Verde! Nessuno.

Joanne Noone

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Staff

Farewells

Ramesh Gammune Ramesh joined Mazenod College in 2015, after completing his teaching rounds the year before. Three years on, Ramesh took a small break to go teach at De La Salle, however hastily returned in 2019 till present to be a valued member of both the Visual Arts and Design Technology team. He has an amazing wealth of knowledge in regards to technical drawing and inspiring our young men to be forward thinkers. Ramesh’s passion for all areas of design have seen his students grow to be independent thinkers and strive to challenge themselves with their conceptual ideas.

Another passion of Ramesh’s has been his involvement with the cycling club alongside Joanne Noone, Jen Vissenjoux, Joshua Muling and led by Richard Faragher, even adding his custom painted Ducati Motorbike. However, as of late, he has chosen not to cycle anymore “I run now, less people try to run you over with cars when you’re a runner! I do still have a few bicycles though!” Ramesh loves cooking and is very proud of his sourdough bread creations which he loves sharing with his wife Adrienne.

We were very sorry to see Ramesh leave at the end of Term 3, however we know he will do amazing things at his new school Wesley College. We wish him the very best in his adventures and you might even see him one day flying a Qantas plane on your next holiday.

Rimma Campos Sandra Begazo Sandra joined Mazenod in 2019 for a short time as a long service leave replacement teacher and immediately became an important member of the Chemistry team. She has an amazing wealth of knowledge and experience in both Chemistry and Mathematics, but more importantly she is a lovely person to spend time with. We were all overjoyed when Sandra came back this year as a permanent Mazenod staff member.

She is always willing to share her knowledge and resources, along with a chat and a cuppa in the office or staffroom.

Sandra loves to talk, as all teachers do, and is always available for a debrief after a hard class or just a friendly catch up. I have never seen Sandra without a smile on her face. In the morning, she breezes in, smiling, finds time for a laugh during the day and then still leaves with a smile on her face even after a hard day of work.

We will all be sorry to see Sandra leave at the end of the year, but hope that she misses us as much as we will miss her and then decides to return to the Mazenod family where she will always be welcome.

Dayna Hale

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Michael Bevis Michael was, and in some ways still is, an integral part of the Learning Diversity team and Mazenod College, assisting students with special needs and advanced disabilities.

His journey started in the mighty summer of 2012, bigger than the London Olympics, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, and Facebook’s listing on the stock market or even the dulcet tones of Psy smashing out Gangnam Style. His involvement around the school helping students with physiotherapy, first aid or computer issues (some involving adult staff) were always done with care, a sense of pride and finesse.

Michael was always ready with a hello to all that he passed around the school and happy to construct a solution to the problems at hand. His knowledge definitely surpassed his position, although his humility gave way to others whom he thought were probably needier. Sadly, he has now left us to fulfil his growth and knowledge, working within his expertise in the disability sector. Michael is helping families work through the difficult process of finding their abilities and what part they can play in society, a best-fit style of solution.

Thanks Mike, you will be missed.

Dennis Leong Kevin-Pierre Nguyen Kevin-Pierre Nguyen, a student, colleague and friend. His contribution at Mazenod has been amazing. A vibrant, enthusiastic student who had vision and dedication, constantly organising events and making ideas a reality. Nothing has changed! Kevin has been involved in coaching Volleyball teams, visiting the homeless and working at Rosies, all whilst studying for a degree in Business and Accounting.

Joining Mazenod as an Oblate Youth Minister, Kevin was instrumental in organising the Prefect portfolios and coordinating fundraising for the missions. We wish Kevin all the very best in his new role at the CEM as an Analyst for funding and thank him for his outstanding contributions and commitment to the College.

Pier Bourne Lachlan Stuart Lachlan commenced at Mazenod in July 2018 as a member of the APM employment program to work in the Library and as a member of the Maintenance Team. With qualifications in History studies, Lachlan was drawn to the Archives, using his research and IT skills as Archives Assistant. He will be missed as a friend and valued member of the Library team.

Camilla Elliott

Staff

Photos

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Mazenod Staff Photo 2020

2020

STAFF

DP SCHOOL PHOTOS

Back Row: Mr Andrew Steer, Mr Amin Hesaroueiyeh, Mr Matthew Johnson, Mr Timothy Beard, Mr Leigh Harris, Mr Brendan Rolfe, Mr Stuart Rhind, Mr Gregory Pargeter, James Convery, Mr Robert Mann, Mr Liam Coulter, Mr Gary Fox, Mr Keegan Coulter, Mr Shaun Akkermans, Mr Lachlan Gray, Mr Nicholas Redfern, Mr Jed Harrington, Mr Georgios Stoforidis Eighth Row: Mr Richard Faragher, Mr Anthony Bolling, Mr Joseph Moore, Mr Peter Marinick, Mr Mladen Spasic, Mr Ian Steel, Mr Jamie Davin, Mr Michael Morrissey, Ms Dayna Hale, Mr Christopher Lee, Mr Ramesh Gammune, Mr Nicholas Marturano, Mr George Melitsis, Mr Michael Macneill, Mr David May, Mr Robert Trafficante Seventh Row: Mr David Neville, Mr Matthew Rowland, Mr Nicholas Young, Mr Chris Ferizis, Mr Peter Riley, Mr Shiraz Hussain, Mr Anthony Novak, Mr Dominic Santos, Mr Thomas Panckridge, Mr Douglas Leutchford, Mr James Tranter, Mr Alan McAlister, Mr Joshua Rajasingam, Mr Sean Welsford, Mr Kyle Hoad, Mr Dennis Leong, Mr David Munro Sixth Row: Mr Adrian Connolly, Mr Joshua Muling, Mr Edward Clement, Ms Elizabeth Duyvestyn, Ms Jacinta Girolami, Ms Clare Caldwell, Ms Patrice Stevens, Ms Deanne Mcdonald, Ms Divya Mrock, Ms Tanya Nowlan, Ms Kaye Williamson, Ms Carolyn Clement, Ms Anastasia Skourides, Mr Denis Passalent, Mr Michael Miller, Mr Kevin-Pierre Nguyen, Mr John Tighe Fifth Row: Mr Yoshihiro Fuji, Mr Daniel Kelly, Mr John McCabe, Mr Benjamin Phibbs, Ms Stacey Nottage, Ms Joanna Phillips, Mr Robert Zaar, Mr David Ness, Ms Helen Sauer, Mr Ben Benke, Ms Rosemary Welsford, Mr Paul Harrup, Ms Christina Schumann, Mr Noel McGarry, Mr Zisis Papalexiou, Mr Michael Beavis, Ms Cherrin Morrissey Fourth Row: Ms Rebecca Ferrarotto, Ms Jacinta Fox, Ms Edna Flanagan, Ms Marlya MacNeill, Ms Felicity Kamevaar, Mr Merry De La Zilwa, Mr Lachlan Stuart, Mrs Camilla Elliott, Mrs Christine Morgan, Mrs Mary Hernandez, Ms Alice Jung, Mr Juan Montoya, Mr John Wright, Ms Yavanna Dyson, Ms Karen Hindle, Ms Athena Beshir, Ms Christine Boyle, Ms Xin Chen Third Row: Mr Ashley Voigt, Mrs Sandra Begazo, Mr Cristiano Grosso, Ms Merline Carmelus, Mrs Vivian Seremetis, Mrs Michelle Symss, Mr Steve Emmett, Mrs Rachel Horne, Ms Sylvia Winfield, Ms Jessica Neville, Ms Rimma Campos, Mr Maurice Lee, Ms Linda Tjioe, Ms Roselind Mullapudi, Mr Vince Morabito, Mr Jaswant Summon, Mrs Joanne Caird, Ms Jen Gauci Second Row: Ms Jennifer Vissenjoux, Ms Ayesha Comerford, Mr Patrick Lambert, Ms June Stewart, Ms Brigitta MacDonald, Ms Kara Quan, Ms Cindy Davies, Ms Susan Hurley, Mrs Aylene Robinson, Mrs Julie Burgess, Mr Richard Freeland, Ms Stefania Sepe, Mrs Marilou Gelderbloem, Ms Maree Martin, Ms Susan Matthews, Ms Lynne Hawksworth, Mrs Frances Sharrock, Ms Paulette Weegberg Seated Row: Ms Natina Giacco, Mrs Joanne Noone, Mrs Anne Johnson, Mr Peter Finnigan, Mr Noel Jenkinson, Mr Anthony Rolfe, Fr Christian Fini OMI, Mr Anthony Coghlan, Fr Kevin Davine OMI, Fr Giancarlo Iollo OMI, Mr Timothy Ford, Mr Mark Rolfe, Mrs Pier Bourne, Mr Adrian De Fanti, Ms Cindy Mao

Back Row: Mr Andrew Steer, Mr Amin Hesaroueiyeh, Mr Matthew Johnson, Mr Timothy Beard, Mr Leigh Harris, Mr Brendan Rolfe, Mr Stuart Rhind, Mr Gregory Pargeter, James Convery, Mr Robert Mann, Mr Liam Coulter, Mr Gary Fox, Mr Keegan Coulter, Mr Shaun Akkermans, Mr Lachlan Gray, Mr Nicholas Redfern, Mr Jed Harrington, Mr Georgios Stoforidis.

Eighth Row: Mr Richard Faragher, Mr Anthony Bolling, Mr Joseph Moore, Mr Peter Marinick, Mr Mladen Spasic, Mr Ian Steel, Mr Jamie Davin, Mr Michael Morrissey, Ms Dayna Hale, Mr Christopher Lee, Mr Ramesh Gammune, Mr Nicholas Marturano, Mr George Melitsis, Mr Michael Macneill, Mr David May, Mr Robert Trafficante.

Seventh Row: Mr David Neville, Mr Matthew Rowland, Mr Nicholas Young, Mr Chris Ferizis, Mr Peter Riley, Mr Shiraz Hussain, Mr Anthony Novak, Mr Dominic Santos, Mr Thomas Panckridge, Mr Douglas Leutchford, Mr James Tranter, Mr Alan McAlister, Mr Joshua Rajasingam, Mr Sean Welsford, Mr Kyle Hoad, Mr Dennis Leong, Mr David Munro.

Sixth Row: Mr Adrian Connolly, Mr Joshua Muling, Mr Edward Clement, Ms Elizabeth Duyvestyn, Ms Jacinta Girolami, Ms Clare Caldwell, Ms Patrice Stevens, Ms Deanne Mcdonald, Ms Divya Mrock, Ms Tanya Nowlan, Ms Kaye Williamson, Ms Carolyn Clement, Ms Anastasia Skourides, Mr Denis Passalent, Mr Michael Miller, Mr Kevin-Pierre Nguyen, Mr John Tighe.

Fifth Row: Mr Yoshihiro Fuji, Mr Daniel Kelly, Mr John McCabe, Mr Benjamin Phibbs, Ms Stacey Nottage, Ms Joanna Phillips, Mr Robert Zaar, Mr David Ness, Ms Helen Sauer, Mr Ben Benke, Ms Rosemary Welsford, Mr Paul Harrup, Ms Christina Schumann, Mr Noel McGarry, Mr Zisis Papalexiou, Mr Michael Beavis, Ms Cherrin Morrissey.

Fourth Row: Ms Rebecca Ferrarotto, Ms Jacinta Fox, Ms Edna Flanagan, Ms Marlya MacNeill, Ms Felicity Kamevaar, Mr Merry De La Zilwa, Mr Lachlan Stuart, Mrs Camilla Elliott, Mrs Christine Morgan, Mrs Mary Hernandez, Ms Alice Jung, Mr Juan Montoya, Mr John Wright, Ms Yavanna Dyson, Ms Karen Hindle, Ms Athena Beshir, Ms Christine Boyle, Ms Xin Chen.

Third Row: Mr Ashley Voigt, Mrs Sandra Begazo, Mr Cristiano Grosso, Ms Merline Carmelus, Mrs Vivian Seremetis, Mrs Michelle Symss, Mr Steve Emmett, Mrs Rachel Horne, Ms Sylvia Winfield, Ms Jessica Neville, Ms Rimma Campos, Mr Maurice Lee, Ms Linda Tjioe, Ms Roselind Mullapudi, Mr Vince Morabito, Mr Jaswant Summon, Mrs Joanne Caird, Ms Jen Gauci.

Second Row: Ms Jennifer Vissenjoux, Ms Ayesha Comerford, Mr Patrick Lambert, Ms June Stewart, Ms Brigitta MacDonald, Ms Kara Quan, Ms Cindy Davies, Ms Susan Hurley, Mrs Aylene Robinson, Mrs Julie Burgess, Mr Richard Freeland, Ms Stefania Sepe, Mrs Marilou Gelderbloem, Ms Maree Martin, Ms Susan Matthews, Ms Lynne Hawksworth, Mrs Frances Sharrock, Ms Paulette Weegberg Seated Row: Ms Natina Giacco, Mrs Joanne Noone, Mrs Anne Johnson, Mr Peter Finnigan, Mr Noel Jenkinson, Mr Anthony Rolfe, Fr Christian Fini OMI, Mr Anthony Coghlan, Fr Kevin Davine OMI, Fr Giancarlo Iollo OMI, Mr Timothy Ford, Mr Mark Rolfe, Mrs Pier Bourne, Mr Adrian De Fanti, Ms Cindy Mao.

College

Board

It is hard to believe that as I step down as Chairman of the Mazenod College Board that I am in my 30th year on the Board and 29th as Chairman.

The College has grown in that time from 800 students to 1440. We have constructed new buildings and spent in excess of $40,000,000 in that time. We have greatly advanced and improved the educational opportunities for our students. I have really enjoyed working with and becoming personal friends with so many wonderful staff and in particular the Oblate priests. It has been a great gift to share in their dreams for the faith and education of thousands of boys. I have never met a better group of priests than the Oblates of Mary Immaculate.

I would like to pay tribute to the five Rectors I have worked with over the 30 years. Fr Kevin Davine, Fr Pat Moroney, Fr John Sherman, Fr Michael Twigg and Fr Christian Fini.

I would also like to thank Mr Tony Coghlan, the first lay principal of Mazenod. Tony has made a significant contribution and is well respected by the students.

The staff at Mazenod are totally focused on providing a first class education, but they also care about our boys as people and their wellbeing. The College has, and continues to, provide outstanding education for the boys who are fortunate to attend Mazenod. The values passed down by parents and teachers is something to behold.

There is a wonderful caring camaraderie amongst our Old Boys throughout the generations.

Being Chairman has not been an easy ride. There have been many challenges with providing the right infrastructure and balancing and managing finances. If the buildings were necessary we built them. It must always be remembered that they have to be paid for. This is done through a mix of College fees and Federal and State Government grants.

My wife Anne and I look forward to Mazenod continuing to be a large part of our lives, as it was for our sons Roger, John and Michael. My daughter Virginia now has her son at Mazenod, so the family tradition and connection continues.

We are embarking on a new board which will be very business orientated. They will focus on developing the College and the faith filled educational opportunities even further. I thank all who have served on the Mazenod College Board for their time, loyalty and commitment to the wellbeing of the College. I wish the new Board every success and will always be there to advise and assist if required.

May Mary Immaculate continue to bless and keep safe our College, staff, parents and students.

Peter Le Grand JP Chairman

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Mothers’

Association

What a year 2020 has turned out to be. Who could have imagined at the beginning of the school year, that this was how things would have ended up?

We started the year with our Annual General Meeting, held in February and it was well attended. Several positions were retained by existing committee members. I continued as President for my final year at the school, as did Tracy A’Hearn as Vice President and Tanja Vincent as Secretary. Sara Kleins took on the role of Treasurer, with Emma Raymond as a back-up Secretary.

After looking at some feedback we had received regarding events held last year we decided to trial a Committee Representative role for each year level. The idea behind this was to be an intermediary for encouraging attendance at Mothers’ Association and school events. Our hope is to encourage attendance from individuals and families who have not attended events previously, by giving them a contact person for their year level.

With this in mind, we set out with gusto to organise our first main event on the calendar - the Mother’s Day Dinner. The Committee had decided to attend the same venue this year, with a few minor adjustments, but unfortunately we had to postpone. Next year’s dinner will be better than ever.

We managed to have one more in-person meeting in March before the lock down restrictions began and we held a Zoom meeting in April. The rest of our contact this year has been via email. It has been quite a different way to manage things, but the Committee has been amazing.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the amazing Mums who supported our ‘Share the Dignity’ handbag drive, held in conjunction with the Christmas Party last year. It really warmed my heart to see what a generous and giving community we have at Mazenod. I made several trips to Bunnings with over 60 handbags filled with care items for women in need and I am sure the women who received them felt the love with which they had been provided.

A huge thanks to the 2020 Committee for their support throughout the year. Although things have looked a little different this year, there was always help and support where needed.

I firmly encourage anyone thinking of getting involved at Mazenod to come and join the Mazenod Mothers Association.

I certainly feel part of an amazing community, have made some wonderful friends and had a few laughs along the way.

I will be sorry to leave my position as President as my son Jacob finishes at Mazenod this year, but I know I will always be welcome as a “Nodder” Mum. Kayleen McLean Mazenod Mothers’ Association President 2020

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Fathers’

Association

The objective of the Mazenod Fathers Association (MFA) is to work in conjunction with the school to build on a community spirit through social activities. With social distancing and group gathering restrictions coming into force from March, the Fathers Association needed to postpone a number of planned social activities.

Since April, Australians have adopted online methods of group gatherings to replace physical gatherings. With the support from the school, the annual Father’s Day Mass and Father–Son Discussion was moved to the Google Meet platform. With over 30 families and several staff participating, our thanks goes to Tim Ford and the staff for contributing their time and effort to continue this important tradition. During the evening we discussed the relevance of the Character Strength Program the school has adopted. We also thank Fr Sherman for his very powerful blessing at the conclusion on the evening.

Continuing with online communications, the MFA, through the weekly newsletter, is listing social support and mental health services for those in need. We have also started a Dad’s Joke section to bring some light hearted humour to our readers. The MFA meetings have moved to the Zoom platform and include the regular presence of Tony Coghlan, Principal and Michelle Symms, Development Manager.

As I write this in September 2020, I remain optimistic that we will be able to run our end of year BBQ for the community.

There are also tentative plans to run another Google Meet community catch up before the exam period.

The MFA is composed of fathers from the school interested in College operations and in the spirit of the Catholic faith, to bring the community together. I thank the current members of the MFA for allocating their time to contribute to the association and in participating in various activities. We welcome all new Dads and male caregivers to participate, even in small ways, without regular commitment. We can be reached via email for any concerns or questions: fathers.mazenod@gmail.com Gavin Hopper Mazenod Fathers’ Association President 2020

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Mazenod Old Collegians’

Association

At the start of 2020, who would ever have imagined that our Mazenod Old Collegians’ Association (MOCA) would be communicating with our Old Boys via Zoom this year!

During this year of an unprecedented global epidemic, Zoom has enabled MOCA to engage with our Old Boys in a practical way, whereby, through this virtual world, we can still see, hear and speak with each other. Certainly, Zoom has provided MOCA with a new lens, a new vista for our meetings. After all, prior to this year, I had believed that zoom was synonymous with adjusting the focus on a camera or on a video camera, or even as part of a car manufacturer’s advertising campaign!

Despite our lack of face-to-face meetings, events and social catch-ups this year, the ability to communicate with our Old Boys has still been possible. In fact, the old fashioned and humble “landline” and the modern mobile phone have been extremely efficacious in facilitating this process.

Certainly, amongst the greatest joys, which I experience as the Mazenod College Staff Liaison for the Mazenod Old Collegians’ Association (MOCA), are the wonderful opportunities which I receive as I am invited to share in the lives of our Mazenod Old Boys. I believe that our Old Boys are integral to our College; they are part of the Mazenod College community for life.

I especially welcome the graduating class of 2020, as our newest members of MOCA. We look forward to keeping in touch with all of you over the years, and in catching up with you at your first year reunion next year. Just a reminder that you are all very welcome to be involved in all our MOCA meetings, events and gatherings. Amongst these are our Masses, and all our MOCA Sporting Clubs: the Mazenod Panthers’ Football Team; the Mazenod Old Collegians’ Football Club (AFL), the Mazenod Football Club (Soccer), the Mazenod Old Collegians’ Cricket Club and the Mazenod Volleyball Club.

We encourage our Old Boys and their families to telephone us; write to us, or just visit us. We wish to remind our Old Boys that we are able to provide friendship; assistance, or even just be there to share a laugh and reminiscence about old times, as we tour the College together.

One of the greatest privileges and blessings, which I derive from working with our Old Boys, is that I am able to share in some of the most significant experiences in their lives. These include being present with them, and journeying with them through their studies, career choices, the births of their children, Baptisms, Weddings and even in times of family illnesses, tragedies, deaths and funerals.

On behalf of our MOCA Committee, allow me to express our immense gratitude about being enriched, and indeed, blessed by the opportunities we have to share in the lives of our Old Boys.

Tina Giacco

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Archives Mazenod College has had an interesting history since it accepted the first 79 students in February 1967 whilst it was based at St Joseph’s Primary School, Springvale and the College Archives are the custodians of that history. Indeed, some of Mazenod’s historic milestones include employing its first female teacher and having Cardinal Cooray bless and open the College in 1968. Mazenod was the first boys’ school in Victoria to have carpet throughout the building and won its first EIS Swimming Premiership in 1979. The first computer was installed in 1980, the first musical was staged in 1981 and the first student mission to Indonesia occurred in 1982. The Silver Jubilee Mass was held at St Patrick’s Cathedral in 1991 and more recently the 50th Anniversary in 2017.

The College Archives also has an information management component which oversees the retention and storage of all permanent records (hardcopy and electronic) created by Mazenod College in the course of its operation.

Although 2020 has been an eventful and challenging year, the College Archives proved its agility and responsiveness by successfully adapting to the changed circumstances. The fact that many of our records are stored electronically or on an external hard drive meant we were fully prepared for the inevitable COVID-19 lockdowns.

One of the objectives of the College Archive is to promote the history of Mazenod College and this has been accomplished by updating archival displays, posting regularly on social media, providing stories for the College Newsletter as well as collaborating with key stakeholders.

A major achievement this year was the digitisation of the entire collection of the annual school magazine and the Mazenodian from the year 1969 to 2019. This large project was completed by our Assistant Archivist, Lachlan Stuart.

Moving forward, we plan to digitise the entire collection of Mazenod Newsletters which have been published since 1973.

Peter Marinick

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NASA

Space Centre In December 2019, I had the privilege of accompanying 9 of our senior students to an exciting expedition to NASA, Houston, USA. This added further exposure and experience to the learning journeys of our students. The two-week long program was filled with adventurous discovery, development and of course, lots of hands on learning. In addition to lectures by scientists and astronauts, the students were exposed to numerous STEM focussed activities and concepts.

It was a unique amalgamation of STEM, NASA history, problem solving, critical thinking, teamwork and fun!

Divya Mrock

Early December 2019 saw 8 Nodders, as well as students from Avila and Salesian, travel to the land of the free refills, the USA. More specifically Houston, Texas, the biggest city in the biggest state that has the biggest trucks, the biggest medical centre and most importantly the biggest rockets.

Students spent a week at the NASA Space Centre University conducting experiments and challenges that gave us an idea of the scientific development and research that went into constructing NASA technology. These included flying model rockets to research aerodynamics and designing and constructing protective material worn by astronauts meant to withstand the extreme conditions of space. Most interestingly was going scuba diving to simulate neutral buoyancy and seeing whether one could eat a chicken fried steak twice the size of their own head, an unofficial experiment but one of equal importance to the rest.

In between these activities, we toured the official NASA facilities in the Johnson Space Centre used by the professionals.

We were shown the actual, working Mission Control centre where we were able to see a simulation mission being practiced and talk with employees about their involvement at NASA. This included the Neutral Buoyancy Lab which is essentially a massive pool that contains a 1:1 model of the International Space Station used by astronauts to simulate Extravehicular Activities (EVA) in microgravity. We also visited the Chris C. Kraft Mission Control Centre that will be used during the upcoming Artemis Program which will see the return of humans to the Moon for the first time since 1972 and have the first female astronauts to walk on the Moon.

The trip provided so many new opportunities for learning and self-improvement, such as building social and teamwork skills. During the trip, we were divided into different teams and provided with different activities, such as building a rocket that could fly, building a heat and cryogenic shield as well as designing and creating a makeshift astronaut glove. By working in teams of four to five, we were able to develop our teamwork skills by collaborating and working together to compete against other teams. Another exciting activity we did was a simulated Space mission, with students as mission controllers and astronauts. Each group of three was assigned a specific role to fulfil in the mission, which put lots of responsibility on us to problem solve and communicate effectively under pressure, while also being a fun way to understand space missions better and get involved.

For the second week most of our activities were cultural experiences, such as visiting the Museum of Natural Science in Houston, Texas. My favourite part of the second week was when we went to an NBA Basketball game one night, which was an incredible experience. We also visited the University of Houston and some historical houses belonging to some early settlers of Texas. Overall the trip was an incredible experience and I am glad I embarked upon it, it has inspired us all in our interests of space exploration.

Overall, the trip to NASA was an extraordinary experience so (Space-)Jam-packed with great moments that we could not possibly list them all here, However, a definite personal highlight was meeting two actual astronauts: Colonel Brian Duffy and Nicole Stott. They gave us a greater insight into humanity’s continued voyage into the final frontier, Per Aspera ad Astra.

Harry Minack, Ashley Trinh and Dylan Baptist

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23

Debating

and PublicSpeaking

While we may not engage in debating or public speaking daily, the activity provides an opportunity for students to develop essential skills. Indeed, the ability to synthesise arguments, diffuse rapidly escalating situations and establish and expand critical thinking skills are inherent to the sport.

These skills are vital and will prove to be more impactful in the future, allowing students to establish their reasoning and advocacy ability to tackle the problems of our increasingly globalised world.

It is fair to say that 2020 has been an interesting year at the College, and for debating and public speaking, it has been a year of firsts. Contending with the unreliability of technology, all debates and public speaking competitions were held via video conferencing software this year such as Google Meet and Zoom, however, such barriers have in no way diminished the integral place of debating and public speaking in the Mazenod College community.

Under the stewardship of Ms Caird, 2020 has been a year of outstanding successes from across all year levels. Three of our teams (Years 10 -12) have made it through to the Debating Association of Victoria State Finals; two teams qualified for the Octo Finals and the Year 10 team made it through to the Quarter Finals. We also congratulate Mateo Acosta Fernandez for winning a coveted Swannie Award, which recognises the best speakers in the region in 2020.

This places all three teams in the top 1% of teams competing in the state. Mazenod has also won both the ACC Intermediate Debating and Public Speaking Competitions. We must also acknowledge the success of the Year 7 team of 2019, who won the Junior ACC Public Speaking Competition. The Junior Competition is held in November of each year, thus results are reflected in the following year’s report.

In June, Mateo Acosta-Fernadez and I participated in the Plain English Speaking Competition. Being the only school to have two participants advance to the State semi

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finals was a memorable experience. With the topic, ‘Why Video Games are Art’ Mateo’s humorous and energetic speech earned him a spot in the State finals, the first time a Mazenod student has progressed to this stage.

As I begin to wind down my tenure as the Debating and Public Speaking Captain of 2020 I want to thank all of my fellow debaters and the staff that have so generously volunteered their lunchtimes and Thursday evenings to watch us debate only the most scintillating of topics.

A special thanks to Mr Harrington, Mr Convery, Mr Spasic, Mrs Sharrock, Mr Tranter and Ms Giacco for her postdebate mints and heart-warming encouragement.

I also must acknowledge the commitment of Ms Caird who has shepherded us all on our debating journeys. It is with great admiration and respect that I thank her for her tireless dedication to debating and public speaking at Mazenod College and for teaching us all that success is its own reward.

Over 40 students participated in the program from Years 7 to 12 in 2020, which is the largest number of students participating in the College’s history and the future for Debating and Public Speaking at Mazenod is looking like a bright one.

I want to wish the best of luck for all the debating teams for next year and encourage new members to seize the opportunity while you can.

Noah Andrews Public Speaking and Debating Captain 2020

Faith

and Mission

Social Justice This year we have all done our best to be ‘the burning flames’ of St Eugene’s challenge rather than ‘smouldering wicks’. We have had to look closer to home to SEE, THINK and ACT on the challenges of service. Whilst our outreach programs have been extremely limited we have sought to consider our community and families in these unusual times and be creative in the ways that we can address issues of injustice.

The Vinnies College Conference started the year with positive action and organised a fundraiser in Term 1 for the Bushfire Relief Appeal. When the scene changed they pivoted to other forms of action and facilitated a letter writing program to send messages of support to residents at Monash Gardens and Cabrini Residential Aged Care coping with the impact of a global pandemic. The highlight of the Vinnies year of service were the two Trivia Nights held to raise funds and awareness for the Oblate Missions. These amazing events brought together over sixty teams of Mazenod families and friends for a night of fun and challenges via online platforms. In addition to fostering community spirit the event raised $3000 to support the work of the Oblate Missions.

Through our commitment to increasing our awareness of social justice issues we strive to leave nothing undared to establish the Kingdom of God. We look forward to rebuilding next year and reinvigorating our program of events as we accept our responsibility to safeguard and promote the common good of society.

Jacinta Girolami

Retreats and Staff Formation “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails” (Proverbs 19:21) It is difficult, at times, to see God’s caring love in today’s world and to trust in Him, but it is a happy person who knows this reality. Much was planned in the area of Retreats and spiritual experiences, always aiming at deepening student relationships with Jesus. Among the positives was an early Year 12 Reflection Day of the Stations of the Cross.

Small groups, moving around the school, pondering the suffering of Jesus on His way to the cross and linking it to the youth’s own experiences.

A significant block to a relationship with Jesus is pornography and Year 9 students were totally engaged in David Kobler’s presentation on the science and strategies of avoiding this key issue today. Students felt a part of a wider Catholic Youth Community for an online version, piloted by Anthony Bolling, of the Catholic Youth Games, with nine youth groups participating in activities. Anthony also created a senior Friday afternoon youth group (Ember) where faith was shared and reinforced and exstudents and current Senior students were given a chance to encounter Jesus in an evening of Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.

Zoom allowed Year 12 students to experience the stories of refugees and the journey of a young Christian rapper.

My joy of serving Jesus and youth has been enhanced by the hard working Kevin Nguyen and Anthony Bolling and the support and prompting of Oblate Fathers John, Kevin and Giancarlo.

Joe Moore

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Prayer

and Liturgy

This year, who could have ever imagined that our experiences of Prayer and Liturgy at Mazenod College would have changed so profoundly because of the global pandemic of the coronavirus?

At least for a while this year, things began as normal. At the start of Lent, we celebrated Ash Wednesday with our Liturgy Prefects who were commissioned to go to their respective classrooms, conduct an Ash Wednesday liturgy, and distribute the blessed ashes to each student.

Several days later, we celebrated our Inaugural Mass, which heralds the commencement of our academic year.

During this year’s pilgrimage to St Patrick’s Cathedral, the entire Mazenod community: staff, students and parents, were united, as we were joined together in our Mother Church in the Archdiocese of Melbourne. During this Mass, we invoked Almighty God’s blessings upon our school year and our entire College community.

Fast forward to March, when we received the news that we would be unable to attend the daily celebration of the Eucharist in our Chapel, or in any other Catholic Church in Melbourne. Mercifully, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate came to our rescue. Under the dynamic leadership of our Rector and Provincial, Fr Christian Fini, and all of our wonderful Oblates, we were all able to participate in both the weekday celebrations of our Eucharist online from our College Chapel, as well as the Sunday Eucharist from St Mary’s Seminary, Camberwell.

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Therefore, our major liturgical celebrations this year of our Founder, St Eugene de Mazenod’s Feast Day, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and even our Masses in honour of Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, were all conducted online. The numbers of people who viewed these Masses were astounding. It was overwhelming to receive so many messages affirming the importance of these Masses in the lives of our students and their families.

We would like to thank our students for their generosity in agreeing to record the readings, Prayers of the Faithful and music for these Masses. Their kindness meant that our entire College community was able to be involved in our Masses.

As we yearn for our ability to receive the Eucharist “Sacramentally” and not just as a “Spiritual Communion”, we remind ourselves that whether we are physically together, or whether we are an online community, we all form the body of Christ on Earth.

We wish to thank our Oblate Fathers for the gift of their Priestly Ministry to us all. We thank our Oblates, staff, students and the entire College community for sharing with us in our desire to worship, and give praise and thanks to our loving God. Praised be Jesus Christ and Mary Immaculate.

May St Eugene de Mazenod intercede for us all.

Josh Rajasingam and Tina Giacco

Religious

Education

2020 has been an important year for the Faith and Mission Team with each team member trying new things in a year that demanded it. Year 12 RE Days this year have been presented via Zoom as well as the Staff Retreat. The Oblate Youth Ministry Team, with Anthony Bolling and Kevin Nguyen, helped to coordinate virtual trivia nights and Google Meet class retreats. In Social Justice, the Vinnies School Conference coordinated a letter writing project for residents in isolated aged care and hospitals. Major liturgies and Masses this year have been presented live on YouTube.

Each area of the team has found new ways to ‘Leave nothing undared for the Kingdom of God’. I would like to thank the members of the Faith and Charism Office, Tina Giacco, Jacinta Girolami, Joe Moore, and Joshua Rajasingam, along with the Oblate Youth Ministry Team of Anthony and Kevin, for their support and initiative this year. They helped to grow the Catholic ministries at Mazenod College and to bring our staff and students closer to the person of Jesus Christ.

Each year in the Religious Education faculty, there are a number of highlights from each year level that particularly impress me. In the Year 7 curriculum, there is an important focus on the life of St Eugene de Mazenod, which is the basis for our shared community charism. Students use this as the basis of their creative presentation of his life, with examples such as diary entries and creative letters. The Year 8 unit ‘The Early Church’ focuses on the growth of the Church in the first few years after the ascension of Jesus Christ and this year students were creative in their presentation of what they had learnt through a video screencast presentation about St Paul and his missionary journey. The Year 9 students learn about the way in which the Church responds to injustice through Catholic Social Teaching, culminating in their work where they research and create a project proposal to help combat injustice in the world. In Year 10, students study a unit on the beliefs of the Catholic Tradition, focusing on the belief in the Trinity and the Incarnation of Jesus Christ as the foundational beliefs of our faith. Year 11 Religion and Society continues to be a highlight of the Religious Education curriculum and their deep study on issues such as ethics in the modern world and challenges the Church has faced in its history is productive and insightful. Finally, I would like to thank all the supporters of the Religious Education program at the school, teachers, staff, students, and parents, in helping to build a positive and life-affirming experience for all students at Mazenod College. God bless.

Kyle Hoad

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Commerce The Commerce faculty consists of subjects from Year 9 to Year 12 and aims to provide students with a diverse and balanced view of the business world to assist them in making informed business decisions in the workplace and in their future studies. All of the teachers in the faculty have extensive real world experience and this is a valuable resource for all students studying any of the Commerce subjects on offer at Mazenod College.

To say 2020 was the most interesting year in all of our teaching careers would be an understatement. The need to juggle cancelled excursions and amend teaching practices to ensure a “remote friendly” curriculum often meant teachers in all departments were continually thinking on their feet. That the curriculum team of Alan McAlister, Nick Redfern, Matt Rowland, Carolyn Clement and Chris Ferizis were able to deliver engaging, remote friendly programs is testament to their dedication towards the Mazenod boys and their significant teaching talents. A big thank you for all of your efforts.

During Term 1, our Legal Studies students were fortunate to gain some real life experience visiting the Supreme Court and the County Court. The highlight of the excursions were sessions with Supreme Court Judge, Andrew Tinney and County Court Chief Justice Peter Kidd. I am sure this is an experience all of our Legal Studies students will long treasure.

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Unfortunately the end of Term 1 saw an end to our physical excursion programme. Using a little creativity, our Commerce teachers were able to deliver a curriculum with a “real life” feel to complement commerce studies theory. We studied the transformation of Four Pillars Gin from one of Australia’s leading boutique gin distilleries to a manufacturer of hand sanitizer to keep all of their employees in work, explored McDonalds Corporate Social Responsibility programme and their support of healthcare workers with free coffee, and we completed an in depth analysis of “Hotel Quarantine” and the overall failure of the contact tracing programme. These were all great case studies for the analysis of leadership, accountability, social responsibility and the difficulties of quality control for our senior business students.

While our programmes this year have been significantly disrupted, I would like to thank all parents for your support of home schooling this year. The programme would not have been the success that it was without your unwavering support.

Finally, our biggest thank you goes to our Commerce students. Your continued support and enthusiasm despite constant moving goal posts is testament to your resilience and talent. I am sure that the hardships of this year will steel you for what lies ahead in your academic studies and careers, and help you to achieve your dreams.

Chris Windley

Design

Technology

I would like to start by thanking all the Design and Technology staff and students for showing poise and resilience through these unprecedented times.

Over the course of the year, Design and Technology students have been completing a range of design activities using CAD (Computer Aided Design) software. As they have been unable to participate in practical activities in the workshop, students were given the opportunity to make the most of the resources available to them at home. During Term 3, Year 8 students participated in paper plane building activities. Students designed, created and tested a range of different models and uploaded test flights to their YouTube channel. Year 9 Design and Technology students delved into topics surrounding Environmental Sustainability such as landfill, energy use and recycling.

Furthermore, they have been creating model houses from recycled materials and submitting their weekly progress via an online portfolio. Remote learning gave students the opportunity to master CAD skills well beyond their years using On Shape software, a free, technically intricate software package that is vector-based. In short, software at an industry level.

Year 8, 9 and 10 Food Technology students cooked up a storm at home during the remote learning block! Much to the delight of families, students baked and decorated chocolate cakes, whipped up lamb curry with rice and perfected chicken and corn soup. The students finished the term by cooking their choice of tagliatelle bolognese or caramel mud cakes. With detailed recipes and videos to guide them, the meals the students produced have been a resounding success and for many students, cooking has become a newfound passion.

2020 showed successful completion of three new welding bays in the Metal Workshop. The bays consist of new Metal Inert Gas, Tungsten Inert Gas and Manual Metal Welding that students can now use to master their fabrication welding skills. This adds a new stream of engineering at Mazenod and adds to an already successful machining program. Welding skills are in great demand in industry and VET Engineering students now enjoy the benefits of developing these new skills on offer.

I would like to show my appreciation to all the students, for the time and effort they put into their subjects. I would also like to thank Mrs Paulette Weegberg, who announced her retirement after 26 years of service to the College, and a big thank you to all the Design and Technology staff for their hard work this year.

Lachlan Gray

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Digital

Technology

Through the chaos and hardships brought by the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, students and teachers found themselves transitioning from face-to-face to online learning, typifying the increased reliance and usage of digital technology within society. Many students found themselves favouring this unusual environment as it allowed for more sleep and more freedom. The IT Department must be commended for their excellent foresight and support, ensuring a smooth transition through this strange and unprecedented time.

Reflecting the dynamic and progressive nature of the industry, Mazenod’s Digital Technologies faculty has seen many changes and development over the years. Each year level had a range of digital technology-related subjects that students could undertake, such as Year 9 Robotics, Year 10 Games Programming or Year 12 VCE IT Software Development, which found particular success last year, achieving the most number of students scoring a study score of 40+ in the state, a tremendous effort by the students and Mr Steel.

In particular, the Year 7 Digital Technologies Program brought new insights for students, providing exposure

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to fragments of the various aspects of digital work that Mazenod would offer in future years. This included experiencing the challenges of programming and coding Microbits, following various courses online that taught the basic building blocks of digital technologies for the years to come. Moreover, elements outside of the computer were explored, such as area networks and discussing IT terminology. All this brought knowledge and experience which could help students decide if they would undertake IT subjects in the future years. In Year 9, students had the option to undertake more subjects related to digital technologies, aimed at providing them with the foundations and skills which would be further developed in later years. Subsequently, senior school pathways also offered a variety of subjects which emphasised different skill sets, providing something for everyone. Students could choose from the digital design of Creative Digital Media, structure, behaviour, and interactions of computational systems through Informatics, or they could explore the design, development and implementation of a software solution through Software Development.

Students interested in computers and IT are encouraged to pursue these subjects offered by the Digital Technologies faculty in the future.

Huey Ng and Sean Ng Premier’s Award Winner Software Development 2019.

English Any language student could tell you that the idiosyncrecies of the English language are undeniably some of the most complicated and difficult things to learn and understand.

Fortunately, the Mazenod College English faculty and curriculum transform that which is daunting for some, into a simple journey to understanding and enjoyment for all.

The journey begins for every student during the very first days of Year 7. Amidst the organised chaos of finding Homerooms, organising locker combinations, and ensuring a seat next to your best friend from primary school, the importance of academic subjects initially takes the back foot, overshadowed by the excitement, and concerns, of high school life. However, in the wake of the first day jitters, the English faculty of the College waste absolutely no time, jumping into the invaluable structures of essay writing, public speaking and the life changing importance of reading.

Understandably, the English faculty at Mazenod hold nothing back during the first year of teaching, introducing the students to possibly the most epic, plague ridden, Ancient Greek, historical fiction novel known to mankind.

Complete with a juvenile protagonist who is sent away from his home, sold into slavery, abandoned and beaten, only to find himself involved in the pursuit of physical greatness, Olympic masterdom and grandiose celebrations atop the social ladder in Athens. Pankration brings excitement and the completely addictive nature of a good novel into the lives of our youngest students.

Now, we would love to follow that outlandishly awesome synopsis with a year by year breakdown of our English experiences but truthfully, upon reflection we found ourselves asking, “Wait, did I actually read that?” So, on that note, bear with us as we endeavour to explain each year level beyond Year 7 into a sentence that encapsulates the “vibe” of that particular year. Year 8 involved a coming of age story of both an Italo-Australian, and some kid with weird dreams. Year 9 was all about the beep, bop because robots have feelings too, plus we learnt that the Lord of the Fries food chain is a play on words from some book.

Whether in Year 10 Enhancement or Mainstream English, it delivered the classics: Shakespeare, The Godfather, Mockingbird. In Year 11 we learnt that we might actually have to read the books? And by Year 12 it confirmed that we definitely needed to read the books.

Jordan Tranter _ From what started with sitting in a lecture hall full of students watching Rear Window, has become one of empty lecture theatres, and students watching teachers on their laptops. A far cry from what anyone thought our year would look like. For myself, my English Literature experience has involved delving into North and South, Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, and currently when penning this reflection, The Anchoress. Despite the year’s challenges, I am genuinely thankful and grateful for the support I have received. It is my personal belief, that both teachers and students alike have done an amazing job

adapting to the biggest change to schooling in the last 100 years, in the shortest possible space of time.

This year has been easy for no one, finding myself disturbed by the silence that ensues after ending an online call, missing the chorus of laughter at the conclusion of a usual face to face class. Yet contrastingly, I found myself looking forward to every class we had, whether it be to learn or just to see some familiar faces. Hence, I would like to thank the entire school body for the mammoth task of collaboration that has occurred in order to manage some normal teaching. It is a year I will not forget, for both its highs and lows, but most of all the growth we have all experienced within.

Carl Mariette _ Undoubtedly the commitment and dedication required for all students this year were heightened, for each of the VCE students, myself included.

Thankfully though my English and Literature classes became a haven, a place where I was encouraged to challenge my teacher on the themes and values of the texts, to explore the endless variation of interpretations and meanings that I could find behind the words. Most importantly, it taught me to think for myself, make my own decisions, and draw my own conclusions, rather than simply listening and repeating information. Thus, delving into the likes of feminist literature, brutal true stories of murder and criminaltiy, and into the psychoanalysis of my novels’ characters. Both mainstream English and the Literature program gave me insight into the world around me, through the appreciation and acknowledgement of fiction, poetry, film and theatre, all as a means to understanding the language and the world. These are lessons that I will undoubtedly appreciate for my entire life.

In tying it all together, it would be safe to say our overall English experience has been a positive one. Each year had its own trials and tribulations. Each year had its own lessons. Ultimately, as we complete our roundabout journey from a book about a world gripped by a deadly pandemic, to analysing texts during one, we can look back with fond memories, and a sincere thank you to the English staff of Mazenod College and the class of 2020.

Jordan Tranter and Carl Mariette

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Enhancement Having to adapt to a new way of learning for much of the year from home has provided its fair share of challenges in 2020 for our Enhancement students. While home schooling cannot replace the interactive learning and social environment a classroom provides, our Mazenod Enhancement students nonetheless have made the best of a challenging situation. Indeed, if framing this year in a positive light, I believe our students have largely become more independent learners. Furthermore, their overall engagement in their lessons and self-motivation has been pleasing to see.

The cancellation of the popular Year 7 da Vinci Competition back in March was one of the first indicators that 2020 was going to be different. Not being able to compete in a student team against twenty other schools, packed into a hall, was disappointing for all. However, all was not lost, as Year 7 Enhancement students were still able to complete some of the academic challenges in an online format.

Fortunately the annual anthology of creative writing by students from Catholic schools across Victorian was not impacted by mask wearing or curfews. Indeed, this year’s theme of ‘respect’ was used by Enhancement students in their poems and short stories to explore their thoughts and feelings while living in a COVID world. Without doubt, the 2020 anthology will be an important insight for future readers into the thoughts and feelings of students living through these difficult times.

Around the school, or rather, suburbs, students in Year 8 Enhancement History debated whether ‘Richard the Lionheart’ was a hero and also learnt about non-violent protests associated with historical figures such as Mahatma Gandhi.

While Year 9 Enhancement students argued the merits or otherwise of living in the genetically manipulated world depicted in the film Gattaca.

Finally, as this is my last year of coordinating Enhancement I would like to thank the whole Mazenod teaching community and students for their support and efforts over the last ten years. No doubt we are all looking forward to next year and a safe and productive 2021.

James Tranter

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Health

and Physical Education

In June 2020, John Kennedy Sr was recognised by the Australian Football Hall of Fame as a legend of the industry, only the 29th individual to be titled with this honour. Despite John’s passing a few weeks later, his legacy remains clear _ no matter the situation, we are judged by our actions, not our words. With the challenge of learning remotely within a practical subject, students studying Health and Physical Education are to be commended on their actions throughout the year. Equally, I would like to extend my thanks to all staff within the faculty for their contributions.

New and creative methods of delivering curriculum were passionately carried out in order to effectively motivate and educate students.

With incidental physical activity such as walking to your next class, kicking a ball at lunchtime or sprinting down Monash Drive to catch the bus a distant memory, it was extremely important for students to dedicate time for physical activity. Professor Lea Waters is supporting Mazenod College to action visible wellbeing within the community. To quote Lea, “we must train our muscles to become physically fit, similarly, we must train our brains to be mentally fit”. The Health and Physical Education program aims to address all aspects of fitness through a variety of theoretical and practical avenues. Despite major excursions and events being replaced with online activities, students are to be congratulated on their participation.

Junior classes focussed on the importance of making healthy lifestyle choices. They, along with some Senior classes, tracked their own physical activity, sleep and sedentary behaviour. Collecting personal movement data enabled students to reflect on the positive impact physical activity can have on their wellbeing. Across all year levels, students participated in various live Zoom sessions with qualified instructors. This included F45, a high intensity 45 minute workout that develops the major muscles and joints of the body, not to mention the effect it has on increasing your heart rate! There were also classes with

Sarah Piotrowski, which focused on strength, flexibility and controlled breathing. Students often commented about the improved focus and energy they felt post workout and reflected on the importance of setting aside time to develop their mental fitness.

In difficult situations, we must do our best to find the positives. VCE Physical Education classes led the charge in this field, strengthening their key knowledge and skills from the study design via new modes.

The annual enhancement day at Monash University was replaced with interactive YouTube videos from their sensational teachers. Participation in training methods previously conducted at school were completed at various DIY home gyms, backyards, ovals and footpaths.

The past year has been a timely reminder to value our own health and wellbeing. Physical activity is an important aspect of our life that we cannot afford to neglect.

Remember, any activity is better than none, just thinking about incorporating more physical activity into your life is a great start. However, do not forget to action the thought, to quote the late John Kennedy Sr, “don’t think, do!”

Josh Muling

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Humanities The last twelve months have been extraordinary in many ways. It was a surprise, though a welcome one, to be interviewed as the Humanities Coordinator by The Age in December.

As you might have subsequently read, the newspaper identified the College’s 2019 Humanities VCE results as being foremost in the state. It was heartening to learn that, based on the number of scores above 40, thereby placing students in the top 9% of the state in their subject, The Age statistically evinced that Mazenod’s History Revolutions, Global Politics and Geography VCE scores were, collectively, the most impressive in the state. Indeed, it is now clear that Mazenod College was the only school to appear in the top 10 for published 40 plus scores in Victoria for all three Humanities disciplines! It was a wonderful accolade for the College, an academic apotheosis built on the rich legacy of excellence established by Mr Joe Moore, which highlighted the efforts of the talented colleagues in the faculty, coupled with the sterling efforts of our talented students. Such feats were underscored by the fact that the 2019 Dux, Sam Warner, took three Humanities courses as part of his senior school pathway culminating in his quite outstanding ATAR ranking.

Year 12 VCE Geography: Fieldtrip Report and Reflections on Remote Learning Despite the disrupted year, the Year 12 Geography class was lucky enough to sneak in a field trip to the site of Boronia Secondary College at the start of the year, to investigate the environmental impacts of housing development in the area. With assistance from some clippage and the dulcet tones of Mr Faragher, we toured the site, observing and recording our surroundings, and identifying significant remnant vegetation such as the silvertop stringybark and infamous symbiotic Cherry Ballart. Meanwhile, another brave group of men ventured into the streets of Boronia, interviewing local residents about their views on the proposed housing development. We then had the privilege of visiting the Knox Environmental Society, where we explored how we can maintain and support indigenous species of the Knox community. The information collected on the day was used to inform the first SAC of the year, the Old Boronia Heights Secondary College field report.

Back in the classroom, under the guise of both a virtual and tangible Mr De Fanti, the Geography class continued its studies, investigating and analysing the impacts of land cover change, such as desertification, deforestation and ice melt. More recently, lockdown 2.0 has seen the Geography class establish a vast array of knowledge surrounding the challenge of people movement, building up our expertise for our final exam, with its ever looming presence growing closer.

We were delighted to welcome three History teachers to the faculty in Mr James Convery, Mr John Tighe and Mr Noel McGarry, and the Year 9 Enhancement History elective was introduced to afford more students the opportunity to potentially access the highly successful accelerated VCE History program championed by The Age. The faculty also recently purchased the raw materials for an Augmented Reality Sandbox – we look forward to showcasing the fruits of Mr De Fanti’s innovative labour in next year’s Mazenodian.

Simply put, Geography has been an enjoyable year. Even more notably, it has been an informative one. No matter how we all perform at the end of the year, we can safely say we have learned applicable lessons about the world, which will stay with us in the years to come.

Nick Young

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Jordan Tranter

Learning 2020 saw the Learning Diversity team undergoing a restructure with the departure of two key members. Judi Gregory resigned at the end of 2019 after 16 years in her role as a Learning Support Officer. Judi’s contributions to the work of the team in ensuring that students with disability were provided with a level playing field have had a significant impact on the lives of many of our students.

The College community extends their gratitude to Judi and wishes her well in all her future endeavours.

In Term 2, 2020 Michael Beavis – Learning Support officer, tendered his resignation. Michael has worked at Mazenod for over 7 years and his expertise in the area of disability support has further enhanced our standing as an inclusive school. Additionally, Michael has provided focused support to students in the technology area. We wish Michael every blessing for his future.

With departures, there are arrivals and in 2020, the team welcomed three part time Learning Support officers. A very warm welcome to Dominique Crasto, Brinda Manogaran and Denise Tan. While joining the team during a pandemic created its own challenges, Dominique, Brinda and Denise have certainly risen to the challenge! We also welcomed Yavanna Dyson to our teaching team. She brings a wealth of knowledge in the area of Science and is working with teachers to develop adjustments and modifications to programs.

Diversity

all. In March of this year, I undertook the position of Learning Support Officer at Mazenod College. This was a time of uncertainty, the pandemic was the talk of the town and everyone was preparing for what remote learning would look like. The Learning Diversity Team made me feel welcome and prepared for what was to come, however, I must admit that I was nervous that I would not be able to cope with learning the new role in a digital climate. It was encouraging to see the Mazenod community band together to take on the challenges of remote learning. We all soon became accustomed to the new normal of remote learning; being able to wake up slightly later, wearing tracksuits to class, and finding ways to stay connected online. As the year progressed, I was able to get to know the Learning Diversity Team, making connections with students and learning how to deal with the struggles and frustrations of poor internet connection.

2020 has been nothing short of an amazing, exciting and difficult year. It has taught me to always be prepared for the unexpected, to be resilient and that there is always support available. I cannot wait to see what 2021 has to offer!

Dominique Crasto

As the Mazenod College community headed into the 2020 academic year, who could have predicted the changes and challenges that would be faced by people across the world, with the COVID-19 pandemic. The enormously dedicated Learning Diversity team, who work tirelessly to support students, again showed their resilience by facing and managing the challenges that presented. As the manager of this wonderful team, I would like to publicly acknowledge the amazing work that has continued despite the difficulties and challenges of remote learning.

The young men of Mazenod have certainly had exemplary care during this period of time So, to Shaun Akkermans, Athena Beshir, Christine Boyle, Dominique Crasto, Yavanna Dyson, Edna Flanagan, Dennis Leong, Brinda Manogaran, Sharon O’Shannassy, Denise Tan and Rosie Welsford, thank you for doing an amazing job in a difficult year.

Anne Johnson Lockdown Reflection 2020 has been an extraordinary year, one that will be written and re-written about in history books. This pandemic has brought about profound and unexpected challenges as well as innovative and exciting learning prospects for us

Film Club This year has proved to be quite difficult for many extracurricular activities at Mazenod, but in order to keep in touch with everybody in the Film Club, Mr Akkermans and I decided to switch to a remote experience during lockdown. By hosting presentations during Wednesday lunchtimes, a decent amount of regular members attended as lockdown continued. To provide further opportunities for social interaction, the idea to create a ‘Film Club Movie Night’ was established. With strong interest, a group of movie buffs gathered remotely to enjoy a movie every Friday night from 7pm onwards. From Steven Spielberg’s video game flick “Ready Player One” to the hit musical “Hamilton” to the original 1989 “Batman”, these movie nights turned out to be an astounding success with at least ten people coming each week! From there on, we all recommended a movie we wanted everybody to watch the following week and as time has gone on, we have run these nights for over 20 consecutive weeks. We hope to continue these nights even when we return to normal circumstances as they turned out to be the highlight of everyone’s week!

Kieran Rahilly and Shaun Akkermans

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Languages The 2020 staff members of the Language Faculty, all diversified their lessons to remote learning strategies and the Mazenod language learning community fought to thrive in 2020.

Students participated together in activities in Google Meets and developed some independence and self-direction in their language study this year. Students and staff alike learnt quickly many different online strategies and we are proud to say both are better at incorporating technology into their teaching and learning repertoires.

‘I really love studying Japanese as it is not really hard if you put all your effort into it and you learn another language besides from English which is pretty cool. You do not just study about Japanese language, you study about Japan too.

For example we did an activity which I had to make paper cranes as paper cranes are a symbol of peace in Japan and I learnt the story of Sadako and the thousand paper cranes.’

Thomas Nguyen Coghlan (Japanese)

Below are the thoughts of the Language students of 2020

This year we have sung Chinese songs. I like singing Xue Hua Piao Piao. Besides singing we also did Chinese painting. I love studying Chinese and invite you to study Chinese as well. ” Gabriel Chen 9 Cagney (Chinese)

Although we are using a computer to go to class, Chinese has still been lively and interesting. One day, our class ate lunch together whilst comparing Chinese and Australian culture. Besides this, we also played a chopstick game. It was all very fun and everyone felt very happy. ” Nathanial Louey 10 Mannix (Chinese)

This year in Chinese class we made a short video in a group, utilising the Chinese skills we had acquired throughout the year. I thought it was challenging but super fun. It taught me how I could use the skills I’ve learned in practical scenarios.

Martin Kleins 7 Coghlan (Chinese)

My name is Justin Tran, I am a Year 9 from 9 Lombard, studying Japanese from Bonica sensei’s class. Throughout the year in her class, we studied a variety of topics that drastically made an improvement in our language capabilities. Topics that were studied this year included: understanding how to tell time, household items, school, weather and seasons, shopping and others topics as well. In the lessons, various projects were required, some consisted of making a paper crane, making a weather report or making scripts for our videos. Personally the project that I enjoyed the most and had a symbolic impact was the paper crane. Overall, the year in Japanese class was very enjoyable and beneficial and I believe Japanese is a very elegant language along with its sublime culture.

Justin Tran 9 Lombard (Japanese) Buongiorno, mi chiamo Joshua. Ho studiato molte cose in Italiano quest’anno. Ho studiato la grammatica, le conversazioni, i giochi di ruole, la moda, i abitazioni e la cultura. Anche il film è stato bello perché ho sento la cultura italiana.

Good morning, my name is Joshua. I studied a lot in Italian this year. I studied grammar, conversation, role plays, fashion, housing and culture. Also the film was good as I appreciated the Italian culture.

Joshua Wilton 9 James

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This year students took classes from home. During online learning, we spoke to teachers and completed work like usual. However, interacting with the rest of the class through a computer was a strange experience to me. At first, I felt detached from my peers as a result of online learning so I contacted many of them through social media. During Japanese class, we watched a film titled “Ramen Shop”.

The movie follows Masato, who searches for his Uncle to learn to cook. After watching the movie, I was starving.

Sometime in the future, I would definitely watch it again.

Other than watching “Ramen Shop”, in Japanese class we also learnt many new grammar patterns and vocabulary.

With online learning, studying this new information was difficult. However with perseverance, I am able to keep up with new content. Ultimately, this year was a new experience for me however it was not as bad as I thought it would be.

Kevin Tran10 Simonds (Japanese) Durante la didattica a distanza, abbiamo studiato la vicenda di Raffaello Sanzio, in occasione dei 500 anni dalla sua morte. È stato un artista italiano esemplare del Rinascimento, specialmente a Roma, alla corte del papa.

In classe abbiamo fatto un tour delle Quattro Stanze di Raffaello, nei Musei Vaticani. In particolare abbiamo studiato l’affresco della Scuola di Atene. Nel 2018, in occasione della gita di Mazenod College, abbiamo anche visto con i nostri occhi queste stanze rinascimentali. Che spettacolo! Dal vivo, erano ancora più belle.

During remote learning, we explored the story of Raffaello Sanzio, on the occasion of the 500 years from his death. He is an example of an Italian Renaissance artist, especially in Rome while working for the pope. In class, we did a tour of the Quattro Stanze by Raffaello, in the Vatican Museums.

In particular, we studied the fresco named “The School of Athens”. In 2018, on the Mazenod Study Tour, we also saw these Renaissance rooms with our own eyes. What spectacular art! In person, it was even more beautiful!

Ben Marsicano 12 Foynes, Marc Pascuzzi 12 Gavin, and Jarrod Franchi 12 Cagney (Italian)

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Library

and Digital Learning

The 2020 school year started as any other year with the excitement of welcoming everyone back after the Christmas break. A new cohort of Year 7 students were welcomed to the Library and plans were underway for another year of Mazenod learning.

Little did we realise that the visit of author Steven Herrick would be such a unique event for the year. Herrick illustrated how the flow of words, influenced by the recount of a story becomes lively story-telling. Other literature events have had to be re-imagined as we managed the COVID-19 pandemic with students participating in the virtual Melbourne Writers Festival.

A system of sanitising Library resources was introduced to mitigate the spread of infection when the pandemic was announced. Chess playing was restricted along with Lego and board games. The Book Club and Student Tech Team continued for as long as possible and when we transitioned to learning from home, students were encouraged to stay in touch with reading with our digital library. Digital learning resources have been building gradually over the years and thankfully we have kept abreast of those developments.

Many students have continued to be active readers borrowing 352 books from our Sora Digital Library during a 30 day period in Term 3, spending an average reading time of 35 minutes per day. Our ebook collection also links with the local public library. We encourage student membership of the public library to extend their reading options.

Library resources are integrated into MazCom ensuring students have access to database, news and research resources. Combined with existing digital platforms makes learning and teaching support accessible regardless of whether learning is taking place at school or from home.

Digital Teaching & Learning Staying abreast of developments in learning and teaching involves a commitment to professional learning by teachers and school administrators.

The apparent seamless transition to learning and teaching from home was made possible by the commitment of Mazenod staff in all departments.

In 2019, a rigorous program of professional learning was implemented with the introduction of the MazCom learning management system, together with a stable framework of Hapara Teacher Dashboard, GSuite for Education and solid network infrastructure. The landscape was organised, it was accessible and teachers worked tirelessly during Term 1 to launch bravely into a new world of digital learning in Term 2.

Every member of our school community has contributed to the mammoth undertaking. We have learnt to teach differently. Teachers have embraced new challenges with remarkable results. The Mazenod community can be truly proud of how we managed the 2020 school year. I have personally experienced great joy in sharing the excitement of teachers who have ventured into new digital teaching experiences. 2020 has been an astounding year of change in teaching and learning. Some individuals have managed better than others but the rich learning of Mazenod College has continued. We are prepared now for whatever 2021 will bring.

Camilla Elliott

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Mathematics Mathematics as an expression of the human mind reflects the active will, the contemplative reason, and the desire for aesthetic perfection. Its basic elements are logic and intuition, analysis and construction, generality and individuality.

Richard Courant, Co-author of ‘What is Mathematics?’.

The subject of Mathematics in Australia is often viewed as a set of numbers and equations that are fraught with confusion and anxiety, rarely being seen as having any impact or relevance outside of the classroom. But this is an unfair assessment. The word ‘mathematics’ has its root in the Greek word ‘mathema’ meaning ‘that which is learnt’. It is a far broader interpretation of the word, that more accurately describes just how all-pervasive mathematics truly is, and I think that this is a much fairer summation of what the subject Mathematics is about. The ideas explored in Mathematics are about establishing for our students those thought structures required for the clear categorisation and logical sequencing of ideas. These skills may then be used for the purpose of constructing appropriate arguments in order to support any contention within any field of study. These are the thinking and analysis skills that are necessary for our students to meet with success when studying any of the languages or sciences. But more than that, the careful study of mathematics provides the individual with the tools that they require to explore life, understand and interact with the world around them and assist them on their way to discovering their part in God’s plan.

It is a privilege and an honour to lead the Mathematics department, and we are continually astounded by the dedication of our teachers. This year, through the challenges of the pandemic, we have witnessed the Mathematics staff demonstrate enormous positivity in recalibrating how they teach to accommodate and adapt to the new and unfamiliar environment of online learning.

Even when learning is occurring remotely, whether they are working with students who require extra support with their understanding, giving up their recess or lunch

break to help students clarify their understanding, or volunteering their time on weekends to assist our Year 12 students in refining their skills as the final examinations approach, they continue to give selflessly of themselves. It would not be proper to proceed further without acknowledging our Maths staff and thanking them for their incredible and giving input.

The Australian Mathematics Competition is the longest standing external competition that Mazenod enters, with the College seeing close to 40 years of continuous participation. It is the biggest curriculum competition in Australia and has many participants from over 40 different countries. Unfortunately this year, our participation was curtailed, breaking Mazenod’s strong tradition of participation.

However, our students are looking forward to re-joining the academic fray next year!

Finally, it is important to remember that our true ministry at Mazenod is Catholic values. So as we celebrate another successful year at the College and look forward to future successes we must also keep the following in mind: The true spirit of delight, the exaltation, the sense of being more than Man, which is the touchstone of the highest excellence, is to be found in mathematics as surely as poetry. Bertrand Russell Michael MacNeill and Divya Mrock

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Music 2020 has been a year to search for silver linings. Our Mazenod musicians have adapted with enthusiasm and drive.

A new cohort of Year 7 musicians began the year by learning about the instruments of the orchestra, and by engaging with our new ‘Kodaly Method’ approach to classroom music. The ‘Kodaly Method’ emphasises musical literacy through singing and movement. Pleasingly, our young men embraced this approach, quickly learning many folk songs, and then belting them out with an enthusiasm that would put the Barmy Army to shame.

Before lock down, we were also able to run a workshop for our Drama and Music students with star of the stage and screen, Mr. Louis Lucente.

Louie has travelled the world with ‘Wicked’, as well as starring in the Steven Spielberg produced ‘The Pacific.’ Over two hours, he shared his experiences in entertainment with our students, discussing the many highs and lows of being a professional performer. Louis’ open and friendly demeanour led to some very honest and memorable conversations. Our vocal students also had their solo performances critiqued by Louie, learning new skills and approaches from his expert feedback. It was a wonderful afternoon for all.

Our VCE Music students have been working on their recitals with concert pianist, Dr. Elyane Lassuade. Elyane has performed as a soloist with many orchestras, both in Australia and internationally. Her vibrant and passionate approach toward musical performance helped inspire our students to think philosophically about music, and the way that it can touch the soul.

During lock down, our Instrumental lessons continued online via Google Meets. Both instrumental staff and students worked very hard to ensure that lessons remained productive and performance standards were maintained.

Indeed, I was pleasantly surprised with the success of the transition from in-person to online lessons. Student attendance was consistently high and all teachers reported enthusiastic and thoughtful engagement. In short, nothing was lost in delivering meaningful instrumental tuition.

Our end of year recital series has taken place largely online, with students submitting performances, and then having those performances streamed out to an audience via YouTube. This is not performing as we are used to it, however, we have all learned skills that will no doubt become increasingly relevant, as more and more performers turn to online platforms to present their art to the world. The standard of performances across all year levels was very pleasing. I thank our wonderful musicians for maintaining their commitment to development throughout the lockdown period.

Finally, thank you to our exceptional music staff and administrative team for their tireless work under varying circumstances. The combined efforts of our students and staff ensured that the essential joy in performing remains.

George Melitsis and Douglas Leutchford

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Outdoor We were very fortunate to have been able to complete all planned Outdoor Education activities in Term 1 for Year 7 to 10 students. The activities provided new and challenging experiences which catered for all abilities and ages.

Year 7 students completed a three day orientation camp at Rawson. This challenged them with new experiences and developed a tight bond within the cohort. Year 8 students participated in day trips including snorkelling and swimming with seals at Portsea, as well as indoor rock climbing. For the Year 9 cohort, an overnight surf camp was held at the start of the year, where students were taught open water safety and basic surfing skills.

Year 10 also managed to complete their four-day program before lockdown commenced. This comprised of a twoday adventure camp, off-site driver education training, and a personal development day within the College. The adventure activities gave the students a chance to perfect some of the skills learnt from previous camps or try their hand at new ones. Students could choose from surfing and stand up paddle boarding, kayaking around the waters of Phillip Island or the Yarra, caving in Warburton or mountain bike riding along the Bass Coast Rail Trail.

Dee McDonald and Mike Pearson

Education

‘The orientation camp was a great experience for all of Year 7. We got to participate in fun activities such as rock climbing, swimming, canoeing, a night mine tour and much more.

The camp food was so delicious, especially the desserts! We had some fun nights like a trivia night and a movie night. One funny moment was when Mr Riley was the undefeated champ at table tennis. All in all, the camp was a fantastic experience and I would love to go again if I had the chance.’

Brandon Battaglia - Year 7 ‘In March we went down to Portsea on the Mornington Peninsula and went snorkelling in and around Pope’s Eye before swimming with seals. We even saw a stingray in the water.’

Xavier Petti - Year 8

‘In Term 1, the Year 9 cohort went on a two day camp experience to surf. Our group went to Phillip Island and had to set up our tents within a designated area. After this was done, the group headed out to the beach, where we were guided by the surf instructors on how to ride the waves. We surfed for the rest of the day and again on the following day. It was a unique and fun experience that allowed us to experience the thrill of surfing.’

Anthony Khuu - Year 9 ‘For the Year 10 multi activity camp, over the course of two days, we went underground climbing and exploring through tight caves, river sledding on inflatable sleds, often dodging rocks and moving through mini rapids and took a relaxing kayak down the Yarra River. It was a very adventurous but fun experience that I would recommend.’

Jack Baptist - Year 10

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Performing

Arts

This has definitely been a challenging year for all of the faculties in the College. The Mazenod Drama department has taken on this challenge of online learning by getting our students to devise and produce creative video pieces to replace the live performances of past years. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr Becker, Mrs Hindle and Miss Comerford for their hard work in building the Drama department through their skills and enthusiasm in their virtual classrooms.

Once again the Drama department had the honour of VCAA Top Class, with two of our 2019 graduates receiving invitations to audition for the Season of Excellence. Lucas Affieri and Adam Balm both achieved an A+ for their Drama solos, which places them in the top level of State results for the solo examination. I would like to congratulate the boys for this fantastic accomplishment.

An important element of VCE Drama is attendance at professional productions. We were lucky to attend the performance of Billy Elliott the Musical at the Regent Theatre before the lock down took place. This experience gave the boys a wonderful taste of musical theatre in a professional environment.

Unfortunately the annual school musical, performed in collaboration with Avila College, was one of the many Performing Arts events that was not able to take place this year. However, if augurs well, this important event in our College calendar will be back next year, bigger and better than before!

The annual Performing Arts Festival has become a highlight in the school year and this year’s effort certainly did not disappoint in maintaining a high standard. Due to restrictions we were not able to present a live show, but through the extraordinary efforts of our Performing Arts prefects a recorded version of this event was created and presented online during Term 4. For this event the staff are the helpers, as the Senior Performing Arts students take the reins of leadership from the first conceptual meeting to the final bow of performance.

It has been a very busy year for the Drama department and with ever-growing numbers of boys choosing to undertake the Drama electives, it is clear to see that the Performing Arts culture in the school is indeed alive and well. It will be exciting to see how the journey will continue next year.

Felicity Kamevaar

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Science The year 2020 has been like no other. Credit to the diversity of our science staff, parents and students for educational processes implemented to make it a successful and fulfilling educational year.The Science faculty experienced many initiatives and developments, as well as much consolidation and refinement. We are continuously responding to technological development and structural change while maintaining our fundamental commitment to the highest standards of teaching. It is the scientific developments in the last decade that has enabled us to conduct remote learning through the internet. Who would have thought that education would be conducted through optical transducers? It is the marvel of scientific evolution and research that has held the educational system together across the world.

Ms Jennifer Vissenjoux and Mr George Stoforidis I have never failed to enjoy my time studying science at Mazenod, from my first lessons regarding the anatomy of atoms in Year 7 to studying circuitry and Newton’s laws in Year 11. I have especially connected with Physics as the ability to visualise and simulate the problems in your mind help to make what you are learning about feel real and tangible. The practical work done really compliments the subject, as the theory on paper is very close to the experiments you try and they really help to solidify your understanding of the particular concept and then apply it in assessments. The truly wonderful part of Science at Mazenod is the exposure you get to not only the core Sciences but also more obscure studies like Forensic Science through electives. This allowed me to more clearly envision my future in education, both when selecting Senior subjects but also what to study in university.

Christian Moore - Year 11 Science classes are never really boring. From your first science course in Year 7 you have the chance to learn and work hands-on and to see the world in a completely new way. In the Junior years students can learn about the science of everyday objects, mechanics, and animals, as well as the basis for conducting scientific experiments, While the older year levels have a reputation for being serious and bookish, the practicals get even more interesting, involving DNA, electricity, and the mixing of chemicals, and the book work is presented in an engaging, even entertaining way.

Anthony Vassiliadis - Year 11

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VCAL &VET ‘Leave nothing undared for the Kingdom of God’ and never more than now has the statement meant so much to our VCAL and VET students. With everything that we know flipped on its head and having to learn new skills quickly and somehow complete our respective courses, all students can in the future sit back with their grandchildren and say ‘well, back in my day we had to……’

Students had to overnight, develop strong and advanced PC skills, learn how to interact online, learn how to talk into a camera and not watch the screen, mute microphones, log into various portals and environments, self-regulate time and resources, produce outcomes, create and maintain portfolios of evidence, balance school, TAFE and work-placement and start to worry about what jobs will exist in 2021 and the list goes on.

Many of you will have been affected by what is happening on a global scale and some students have witnessed firsthand the uncertainty of their future pathways. Rest assured that Mazenod has endeavored to provide a stable, consistent, manageable learning platform for VCAL and VET students. No one has been left behind or forgotten in VCAL or VET. In some respects, students have discovered different vocational pathways and opportunities not previously considered. Some students have appreciated a more one on one approach to learning that remote online access has offered.

A common question I was asked by many parents, some staff and a majority of students is ‘how will we complete a practical class online and finish the year?’ Easy! By maintaining a consistent timetable similar to school and importantly, thinking outside the square, all of our subjects were able to be converted to remote learning and assessment. Most TAFE courses continued in some form and some students were able to continue working by converting their work placement to part time employment. Many students continued in existing part time employment and these hours were able to be used as credits towards a successful completion. Heavy practical classes had time to conduct theory lessons and assignments, normally crammed in somewhere across the year. Students enjoyed in depth discussions on materials, tooling, machinery, equipment and processes, normally brushed over in a rush to complete a very busy program.

In VET, students intending to sit the VCAA exam for Furnishing, Engineering, Sport and Recreation and Creative Digital Media have had an unprecedented amount of time to prepare for their end of year exam. Students have enjoyed in depth analysis of their respective study areas, arming them with knowledge through lengthy discussions and preparation that will hold them in good stead for the end of year exams. Good luck to all Year 12 students leaving us this year. It was a different way to learn but all students adapted well.

Finally to all the VCAL and VET staff. You all excelled this year and put in a momentous amount of time, work and effort for the students. Without your high level of commitment and drive, VCAL and VET would have stumbled along. From a very humble and grateful coordinator, thank you. In closing, I would like to take the opportunity to especially thank a member of staff, an unsung hero, who hates the limelight and has invested more than 10 years of his career in teaching and coordinating VCAL, Mr Matthew Johnson. Although not leaving the College, he is hanging up his VCAL hat. His drive and passion for VCAL is second to none and as a passionately driven person, he only has the best of intentions for his VCAL students. Matt is well known around the state and many a time at a meeting a stranger would approach me to pass on their regards to him. His network is invaluable. I consider Matt my VCAL mentor and for someone who taught me in CAPE, prior to VCAL way back in the mid 1980s! It is encouraging to see that he is still passionate about applied learning, well done and thank you Matt.

Leigh Harris

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Visual What an interesting year 2020 has been. The Visual Arts Department was very fortunate to have Nicholas Burgos (Year 12 Studio Arts, 2019) accepted into the Top Arts exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria, as well as being accepted into Swinburne University to complete a Bachelor of Architecture. Gilberto Fraga (Year 11 Studio Arts, 2019) was also awarded a cheque of $150 for his work ‘My Anime World’ in the Creative Arts Exhibition which is on display at the CAE James Goold House. Due to COVID-19 many of the external art events that the College participates in were postponed and rescheduled. As a result, many of the members of the Visual Arts Team have created online Virtual Galleries to exhibit student work and share their successes with the staff, parents and members of the community. Our students have had many opportunities to visit online gallery space as well as attend the Top Design Exhibition virtual excursion, MUMA incursion and Destiny Deacon virtual excursion.

Arts

At the start of the year we were very lucky to welcome two new members to the Visual Arts Team – Mr Steve Emmett and Ms Rimma Campos. Mr Emmett has arrived with 15 years of experience teaching at Brighton Grammar and Ms Campos with 8 years of experience at Berwick College. Ms Campos has also taken the role of Faculty Head for Visual Arts. We hope Mr McCabe had a well-rested time off during Semester 2 and was able to tick off some renovations around his beautiful home. We would also like to wish Mr Ramesh Gammune all the very best with his endeavours as he has taken a job offer at Wesley College beginning Term 4. He has been a tremendous asset in the Visual Arts Faculty for the last few years and we wish him the very best in his new venture.

We would also like to welcome Ms Nicole Wong who started in Semester 2 teaching the Year 7 Visual Arts and Year 8 Art classes. Ms Wong is a graduate student with Industry experience at Lego in Singapore. She has been thrown in the deep end with online learning as well as teaching new courses. We acknowledge her efforts and applaud all her achievements with the students during these difficult times.

Students across Studio Art and VCD have been able to further develop their manual drawings skills and digital competencies. Much of the work has been modified to accommodate the resource of remote learning and not having access to each material that would traditionally be available in a classroom. We are all very proud of the boys and thank them for their patience and support during this testing year. Hopefully many parents have had an opportunity to experience a virtual tour of their son’s work.

Rimma Campos

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Year

Seven

7

Abisha Abhayaratne

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Mr David May Year 7 Coordinator Year 7 at Mazenod College provides new opportunities, experiences, fun, excitement, friendships and challenges we learn to overcome. It has been a strange year for everyone, starting with the devastating bushfires and the obvious impact of COVID-19. Yet these are still opportunities, and we had to develop some really important skills that we did not have before. We learnt how resilient we really are and how to shape our thoughts in a positive manner, not only allowing Remote Learning to be successful, but how to look back at this time with a sense of pride, achieving success even with obstacles in our path.

Our faith is central to life at Mazenod, with the Oblate Fathers helping to provide this foundation and support for everyone in our community. We had the opportunity to connect with our faith on a daily basis. Year 7 Mass was held every Monday morning in the Chapel and whole school Masses were celebrated on feast days and other special occasions. We could not have a better guiding principle to follow; ‘Leave nothing undared for the kingdom of God’.

The Mazenod staff, especially our Homeroom teachers, helped settle each and every one of us, not only at the start of our secondary school journey, but throughout the year. The Year 11 Peer Support leaders were a great asset to assist our coping skills and provide greater enjoyment of remote learning due to their contribution with ‘Creations’ ideas that we were able to post online. It was great fun. It also aligned with many issues that were developed in our Personal and Social Learning classes, along with our Community Service program. Our faith, in conjunction with the notion of using our character strengths with practical applications of empathy, gratitude and mindfulness, built our platform for success this year.

Day one of the school year was a mix of nervous energy with excitement moving from the familiar environment to a different one with older students, homework and new routines. Secondary school is a big jump and there are many changes and challenges, like having set lockers with tricky locker codes to remember and learning how to do up our tie. Yes, there was homework, but it was manageable and the Senior students were really helpful. The Year 7 experience was a whole new atmosphere that we enjoyed exploring.

In the first month of the school year we got to experience one of the fun and exciting activities, camp. Camp was a highlight of the year for so many of the cohort. It was a bit scary before we left, but the reality was that it provided a chance to bond with unfamiliar faces and enjoy a new experience at the start of the year. Camp was also a way of trying new things and getting to know others in our Homeroom, including our teachers. It did challenge our perspective at times and we achieved success in things we had not done before. It was a great opportunity to explore and have fun!

There were also opportunities beyond the classroom like sport, music, chess, the arts, clubs to join and public speaking to mention a few. Looking back at Term 1, I can see all the possible activities that I could take on in the future.

Secondary school is only what we make of it and there was plenty of help and support to guide us through this challenging and fun journey. Mazenod is definitely the place to be when moulding our future into greatness. There are so many roads to choose from and it is up to us to choose our direction moving forward.

Being a student at Mazenod College is such a privilege and an amazing experience. It was a fantastic and rewarding opportunity in 2020, where we succeeded when we strove for excellence. Our best effort and a positive attitude was all that was expected. This year forced us to realise how independent we can be with an ability to overcome obstacles. A year that will forever be a part of our unique College experience.

Joshua Ciamarra

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50

51

7 CAGNEY

7 COGHLAN

52

7 FOYNES

7 GAVIN

53

7 JAMES

7 LOMBARD

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7 MANNIX

7 RYAN

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7 SIMONDS

Liem Truong Nethaka Dissanayaka

Luka Andjelic

Kevin Martin Joshua Weyermayr

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Armen Gilhooly

Alexander Kinski

Benjamin Skofic

Noah Barbis

James Stisnijovski

Franki Kromidellis

Leonardo Macaro

Luca Stamatelos

Alexander Kinski

Patrick Klonis

Thomas Chahla

Tyrese Bourne

Adrian Becker

Jonathan Ho

57

Aariya Thanabalasingham

Dominic Avdihodzic

Andrew Witchell

58

Jack Feeley

Aaron D’Souza

Thomas Nguyen

Ryan Oh

Chris Boey

Jules Perang

Joshua Ciamarra

Kendrick Young

Nicholas Pierides

Keshaune De Silva

Sam Boyle

Hudson Heath

Fares Raydan

Tyrhys De Zylva

Joaquin Tandoc

William Wirawan

Hayden Pham

Mohan Wadia

Oscar Matthews

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Year

Eight

8 Ryan Perera

Roberto Di Giovine

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Mr Matthew Rowland Year 8 Coordinator 2020 has been a hard year for all the students across Victoria and the world. Some of the key events of Term 1 include rock climbing, snorkelling and the Athletics Carnival. All Year 8 students enjoyed our rock climbing excursion by forgetting schoolwork for a while and just having some fun while trying their best to reach the top of the climbing walls. We also dived into the snorkelling experience head first and tried to spot as many sea animals as possible. The Year 8 students, along with the rest of the College, enjoyed the Athletics Carnival with each event being neck and neck between scores. Everybody participated with enthusiasm but at the end Gerard ended up taking the Cup home with MacKillop almost snatching the win from the reigning champions.

Ashwin Saravanapavaan and Kai Russell The unexpected rise in COVID-19 cases in Victoria, prior to what was meant to be the beginning of Term 2, meant that face-to-face contact reverted to what we hoped would be the first and last remote learning period. Revolutionary internet advancements such as Google Meet, and our very own MazCom, further improved the level of education we were able to achieve during Remote Learning. While the continuous rise of COVID-19 cases raged on for the majority of Term 2, Grandparents Day reverted to an online format and was converted into a week of thanks or remembrance to our wonderful grandparents. The last two weeks of school saw virus cases flatten and the reopening of school, emerging from what we hoped was the one and only remote learning period of the year.

Miguel Prado and with Krishna Swarooprao In Term 3, we returned back to what many would consider as square one, however every time we took a step back, we were able to move forward with more knowledge and maturity. In our case, we had begun Term 3 back into the remote learning system in order to have contained the recent spike of the spread of COVID-19. Unlike our first remote learning experience, there were a few subtle changes that required adaption. For instance, we were now required to attend a Google Meet at the beginning of each class in order to mark attendance and have a brief introduction as to our tasks for the lesson. While many of us found this inconvenient or difficult, especially in the morning for Homeroom, we slowly adapted to these new guidelines that ensured our engagement with our learning.

The subject selection process had also commenced, with all of us having looked at the information that we had been provided with in making choices for our classes next year. We were granted the freedom to choose what we enjoy, are good at or something that we wanted to learn. This taught us all to be independent and to be wise and careful with our choices. These skills will enable us to mature and become young men at Mazenod College. Whilst it had been a difficult ride for many, the remote learning and subject selection process had taught us all many things; whether it is about ourselves and the way we act, or about others and how we should respect them. We most certainly look forward to the future, whether it be face-to-face learning or remote learning, only time will be able to tell.

Eric Vien and Nathan Gomatos

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8 CAGNEY

8 COGHLAN

64

8 FOYNES

8 GAVIN

65

8 JAMES

8 LOMBARD

66

8 MANNIX

8 RYAN

67

8 SIMONDS

Henry McCracken-Matthews

Nathan Ma

Eddie Saini

Ayden Locaso

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Liam Grima

Alec de Robillard

Avinda Wickramaratne

Shamika Eriyawala

Joshua Ngieng

Andrew Warren Samuel

Angus Cassidy

Antony Thabesan

Bradly Bettiol

David Greensmith

Dylan Bonar

Eric Vien

Jordan Nguyen

Miguel Prado

Edmund Chea

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Adam Di Domenico

Jordan Nguyen

Roberto Di Giovine

Aditya Krishna Moorthy

Eldrich Kiswardi

Shawn Simon

Anderson Gong

70

Dylan Bonar

Marcus Fernandes

James Borg

Miles Hart

Avinda Wickramaratne

Antonio Di Giovine

Thomas Chavez

Sebastian Ong

Roberto Di Giovine

Raymond Thong

Nicholas Mascetta

Miles Hart

Max Addison

Jeremy Chen

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Year

Nine

9 Collins Austine

Andre Almodiel

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Ms Anastasia Skourides Year 9 Coordinator Year 9 in 2020, despite the virus, has still been an integral and interesting year of our lives as a cohort. With remote learning, camps and activities set up by the College, the year as whole has been very engaging, memorable and challenging.

Year 9 Maznews The Year 9 SRC students planned monthly videos that summarised what was being done throughout the cohort. With James Kwan at the lead and several other members of the year level assisting and starring, the video provides a laugh while also highlighting the achievements of the year.

Public Speaking On Thursday June 11, the Year 9 team of debaters completed their first debate and won. The team, consisting of Terron King, Jayden Loi and Nicholas Caciolo, went up against Thornbury. Interestingly, this was the team’s first online debate.

The team has now completed a number of debates at home. Similarly, during COVID-19 the Year 9 public speakers were able to win the premiership with a solid performance, the team consisting of Terron King, Nicholas Caciolo, Jayden Loi and Joshua Wilton.

ACC and Sport Over the course of the year, the Year 9 cohort has participated in multiple sports both during and out of remote learning despite the setbacks of COVID-19. In spite of no ACC sports continuing, students still participated in House Sport and used the time to unwind from the screen. However, earlier in the year during Term 1 students were still able to compete in the annual Athletics Carnival which is an integral part of the Mazenod competition. It was great to see Year 9 students each put in their full effort and achieve their respective results. Finally, during COVID-19, there was a House competition to see which house could run the most kilometres along with the best runner in the year level, keeping students engaged and fit.

Personal Development Programs This year, the Year 9 cohort participated in a drug awareness program run by Mr Rolfe. These sessions took place during our Sports period. A few classes each week would go to the Lecture Theatre and participate in a discussion about drugs and what type of effects they had. During the sessions, Mr Rolfe taught us the dangers of drugs such as heroin and cocaine and what type of negative effects it can have on our body. He also demonstrated how not only drugs but also how wine and alcohol can have a huge impact on our lives, by sharing some stories of previous students who were affected by this. These stories really opened our eyes towards the dangers out there and taught us to become aware of what we are doing and to always be cautious by thinking before we acted. Overall, it was a great experience to learn the different types of drugs and alcohol; the knowledge gained would be very helpful to keep us safe in the real world.

Career Development Program Although completed remotely, the Career Development program of 2020, provided a successful and rewarding experience for the cohort. Commencing over two weeks during Tuesday Sport periods and through a series of videos, the Careers Coordinator Ms Seremetis, introduced us to the primary tools for job applications such as constructing and writing a resume and understanding work safety. Complemented with our subject selections, the program initiated a way to consider possible pathways to follow through to the Senior School and lead into our future careers. Big thanks to Ms Seremetis and the Faculty Heads for providing informative videos to aid us in the Subject selection process.

Gabriel Chen, Alex Owng, Ethan Tiet, Joshua Wilton and Christian Campagnolo.

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9 CAGNEY

9 COGHLAN

76

9 FOYNES

9 GAVIN

77

9 JAMES

9 LOMBARD

78

9 MANNIX

9 RYAN

79

9 SIMONDS

Alexander Tsipos

80

Andre Almodiel

Binh-An Nguyen

Brayden David

Cameron Foale

Charles van Rest

Xavier Blangiardo

Francesco Raiti

Tige Bergman

81

Max Sarris

Filip Boudreau

Damian Ghobrial

Dean Marcon

Derain Cramer

Gianluca Gismondi

Matthew Italiano

82

Andre Almodiel

Dominic Kaka

Joseph Dinh

Jayden Loi

Max Efthimiadis

Quion Dias

James Kwan

Matthew Lopez

Liam Cuce

Stanley Vu

83

Year

Ten

10 Antony Limeira-Beaton

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Mr Rob Mann Year 10 Coordinator For our students Year 10 is always a particularly transformative year. Fr John Sherman OMI speaks fondly about it being a year in which the man emerges from the boy. This year, in 2020, the case could be made that it has been even more transformative than usual.

Year 10 is a time of self-actualisation. We hope that each student can gain a better understanding of their strengths and passions so they can make informed choices about their learning and career pathways into the future. Year 10 students make the important choice about whether to pursue VCAL or VCE in Year 11.

Our students were prepared for this decision through a number of initiatives. Firstly in Term 1, they completed the Morrisby Survey led by Vivian Seremetis. This survey helps students identify strength areas to inform the selection of future subjects and careers. Each student met with Vivian Seremetis or Mark Weegberg to discuss their survey results.

Next the students met with a Subject Selection Counsellor and discussed their academic performance and explored future course options. This culminated in the students selecting a pathway they will embark on in Year 11 in 2021.

The set of circumstances that have been presented to our Year 10 students because of the COVID-19 pandemic has enabled many growth opportunities. Notwithstanding a brief three week period in June, our Year 10 students completed remote learning from March to November. During this time our students rose to the challenge accepting the circumstances with optimism and determination. This new mode of learning presented opportunities for students to create their own learning environments, approach their learning more independently and develop a swathe of new technical skills. This exposure to new possibilities will surely serve our students well as they embark on future endeavours.

Our students have also been forced to find new ways to interact with their peers, with virtual connection embraced to fill the void made by physical distancing. Students throughout Year 10 shared photographs depicting their experience of lockdown. Such images were powerful messages of hope and perspective amidst an uncertain time. Students also engaged in producing memes, placing a satirical spin on the changing landscape of school in 2020. These images serve as a powerful reminder of how our Year 10 students made sense of such an unprecedented year.

A special thanks must go to Mr Ian Steel, our Year 10 Homeroom teachers and all other staff who have done a tremendous job supporting Year 10 students in terms of their academic growth and their wellbeing.

Even though a global pandemic meant that much of the year’s learning occurred off-campus, our Year 10 students still found ways to achieve and develop themselves. As hardship is fertile ground to grow resilience, I am very confident that our Year 10 students are now better equipped to meet future challenges because of their experiences in 2020. This year has truly been transformative.

Rob Mann

85

86

87

10 CAGNEY

10 COGHLAN

88

10 FOYNES

10 GAVIN

89

10 JAMES

10 LOMBARD

90

10 MANNIX

10 RYAN

91

10 SIMONDS

Cairns Lowe

92

James Russo

Tristan D’Souza

Raymond Luu

Troy Bartuccio

Rahul Suresh

Ryan Doan

Ryan Gunawan

Michael Livingston

93

Dante Schizzerotto

Adrian D’Mello

94

Danny Montalto

Antony Limeira Beaton

Calvin Coburn

Eddie Azar

Adrian D’Mello

Antony Limeira Beaton

Callan Johnston

Dante Schizzerotto

Jason Nguyen

Grehem De Zilwa

95

Year

Eleven

11

Karl Corilla

96

Mr Ben Phibbs Year 11 Coordinator Our journey began in the CBD for the Careers and Industry Conference, as we roamed the streets in our Collegeprovided bucket hats, learning more about potential career pathways and bonding as a cohort. The Year 11 students adapted well to the sudden change to remote learning and continued to compete in extracurricular activities such as chess and debating. We have talked to people we would not usually talk to, expanded our horizons by taking up new hobbies, and come to appreciate the humour that arises from communicating with teachers and classmates through a computer screen. We were lucky enough to briefly return to school for classes at the beginning of Term 3, enjoying the hand sanitising, elbow touches and temperature checks that came with SACs, SACs and more SACs. It would be negligent to downplay the struggles of online learning. A disrupted schedule of switching between home and school was just that: a struggle. However, we acknowledge the unseen benefit – that we have proved to ourselves and to others that no matter what the conditions are next year, our final year, we should all have faith in ourselves to succeed.

Anthony Vassiliadis and Anthony Yong The world of VCE, increased responsibilities and striped blazers usually brings with it a completely new set of difficulties.

2020 gave us the experience of a lifetime and with this experience comes different troubles for different people. For some, it may have been social isolation, for others, online learning and for some having to listen to their sisters practice their instruments while you are in a class! Hindsight is 20/20, no pun intended, so we will be able to look back and nit-pick every little thing we could have done differently. However, there is no use in regretting what has happened, and even this year it managed to have its highlights. They were highlights as big as the Mazenod Careers and Industry Conference, a fun week in the city that feels like it was forever ago, when it was only at the start of the year. VCE is only halfway complete, but we have just fought a big battle and come out standing. Year 12 promises new opportunities and chances to enjoy ourselves, but Year 11 also had its moments of greatness and as a year level, we should remember how much of an achievement it is to be here. Here is to a good 2021 for us all.

Mateo Acosta Fernandez Even with the disruptions to the year, there have been some outstanding achievements from the Year 11 students. Mateo Acosta Fernandez won through to the finals of the VCAA PESA, public speaking competition finals. Anthony Vassiliadis was presented with the 2019 Mazenod College Community Service Award. James Russell and Ryan Dean offered an amazing experience running Isomania for students to stay connected and engaged during remote learning.

The Peer Support Leaders kept the Year 7 students engaged with Isolation Creations that included activities such as cooking, trick shot and an introduction to a number of student pets. Darko Trkulja, Danny Le, Liam Raymond, James Chen, Kelvin Pham-Huu, Raymond Dang, Timothy Ng Chit Wing, Sean Vargas, Vincent Ung, Benjamin Gurevich and Elias Ng did a fabulous job representing Mazenod in the ACC Chess Tournament. We also congratulated the student leadership team for 2021 on their appointment: Anthony Yong (College Captain), Joshua Hicks, Anthony Vassiliadis, James Russell (Vice Captains), Ryan Dean and Mateo Acosta Fernandez (Head Prefects) and Gajindu Rajapakshe and Anthony Tan-Son (Prefect team members). We look forward to the appointment of the rest of the student Prefects late in 2020. I would like to thank the Year 11 students for their efforts and endeavours in what has been a unique, challenging and exigent year.

To the Year 11 teaching staff, many thanks for your extraordinary efforts to go above and beyond expectations to provide assistance, support and every opportunity for the students to succeed and thrive across the course of the year.

A special thank you to Year 11 Homeroom Teachers: Steve Emmett and John Wright (11Cagney), Denis Passalent (11 Coghlan), Kyle Hoad (11 Foynes), James Tranter (11 Gavin) Clare Caldwell (11 James), Matt Johnson (11 Lombard), Jo Phillips and Marlya MacNeill (11 Mannix), James Convery (11 Ryan) and Michael MacNeill (11 Simonds). Each has provided extra encouragement and care for the students, which was often necessary during the year. Thanks to Jo Caird for your assistance and guidance as Year 11 Assistant Coordinator. Ms Caird has an amazing level of care and compassion for the students and has been willing to offer help and support to all those who come her way.

Finally, I would like to pay tribute to Kaye Williamson, who is moving on from the Year 11 Coordinating position after many years in the role. Ms Williamson has been a fantastic Coordinator to countless students and left an immeasurable imprint on them as they start their VCE journey.

Ben Phibbs

97

98

99

11 CAGNEY

11 COGHLAN

100

11 FOYNES

11 GAVIN

101

11 JAMES

11 LOMBARD

102

11 MANNIX

11 RYAN

103

11 SIMONDS

Ben Tout

Dylan Singe

104

Deric George Jose

Niko Tambakakis

Dylan Kilgower

Dimitri Giannakoudakis

Alex Zaskowski

Dimitri Giannakoudakis

Dylan Kilgower

Joshua Bouloukis

Sean Vargas

Elias Ng

Francis Tan

Juan Gie

Rohan Ramamurthy

Stefan Labutte

Thierry Dubois

Sean Vargas

Steven Tran

Cooper Fisher

Barath Suresh

105

Christian Italiano

Christian Nguyen

Gabriel Blackman-Legrand

Riley La Fontaine

Patricio Lastra

Karl Corilla

Sean Vargas

Matthew Jameson

Alex Frederic

106

Deric George Jose

Zachary Delahunty

Aaron Ham

Matthew Jameson

Nicholas Abell

Kristian Savino

Christian Italiano

Ben Tout

Johnny Nguyen

Dylan Kilgower

Justin Ho

Gabriel Blackman-Legrand

Quang Lam

Joshua Bouloukis

107

Year

Twelve

12

Kyle Truong

108

Mr Alan McAlister Year 12 Coordinator As a man in my mid 60s I am familiar with many poignant losses during life, however, one does not usually associate these experiences with young men in their final year of secondary school. Due to the global pandemic our students, like many others in Victoria, have lost the opportunity to enjoy the Year 12 Formal, Mission Action Day, Speech Night, school assemblies, reflection days, excursions, ACC events, the school musical, morning Mass and numerous other community interactions throughout the year. In spite of these lost experiences, the culture and camaraderie is still intact and the Mazenod man will survive. I was impressed with the way students continued to engage in their classes online and all the evidence is that the majority of students have been effective learners in this unique educational environment.

We had a few memorable moments during the year and the Year 12 introduction at Camp Rumbug was a highlight of the year for me. I love seeing young men embracing nature, testing themselves physically, enjoying one another’s company and working collaboratively to solve problems.

As this is my last year as Year 12 Coordinator, I can confidently say that I enjoyed this group of young men as much as any other in the past 10 years. Although my contact has been less face to face with the students, it has nonetheless been a wonderful journey witnessing their personal growth and maturity over the course of this demanding year.

I hope every Year 12 student of 2020 enjoys a full, joyful and productive life. Independence with integrity is my wish for you all.

Alan McAlister Wowsers! What an awesome year! Who would have thought a virus was going to be the thing that would suck all the fun out of Year 12 and not Mazenod? We probably have bigger problems facing us, however, than being fixated over not being allowed to wear costumes to Athletics Day. Going into this year we never thought we would be saying “I’m sick of wearing casuals,” with a beard, moping around at home, but that is exactly what has happened. We also did not think that being 18 for the first time in our lives would constitute being at home most weekends of the year, but here we are.

Clearly it has been an odd year, but now that we have had our sook, time to look back at some of the things that have made this year, and our overall time at Mazenod, for the most part, great.

Whether it was watching the Australian Open final on the big screen during camp or having a slice of pizza and a can during that one RE Day, we definitely tried to make the most of the short run we had at a “normal” last year, fostering an early indomitable and unifying Nodder spirit. Though this might not fully make up for missing out on key school events like Mission Action Day and the formal, most of us can agree that we will not miss another three-hour-long Speech Night.

In terms of an overall Mazenod journey, sharing it with a legendary cohort of boys has made it an experience we will cherish in the years to come. That is not to say that everyone always got along and our classes were sunshine and rainbows, but if one had to describe the Year 12 class of 2020 in a phrase, “larger than life” would be poignant. We are ultimately a very capable group of students, each with our own skill-sets, gladly not all academic, but rather a wide range. For instance, in Year 10, the genius decision of one brave student to use the brand new power-points in our lockers not as a place to charge one’s laptop, but to toast one’s sandwich. This story encapsulates the essence of this year’s level of boys. We think outside the square. We test the rules. We are unorthodox. But undoubtedly we can make you smile. In a world where society wants us to be cardboard copy cut-outs who go about our lives in a politically correct fashion, the youthful exuberance of these boys is refreshing. Honestly, we believe that this larrikin spirit, guided by the lessons Mazenod has instilled in each and every one of us, is capable of making a difference. Good luck fellas in your future endeavours. Make the class of 2020 proud.

Jordan Tranter and Harry Minack

109

110

111

12 CAGNEY

12 COGHLAN

112

12 FOYNES

12 GAVIN

113

12 JAMES

12 LOMBARD

114

12 MANNIX

12 RYAN

115

12 SIMONDS

Jarrod Conte

116

Ricky Boccari

Luke Heiden

Tomas Hickey

Ricky Boccari

Adrian Di Ciero

Mikkel Goldenberg Andrew Kovac

Thomas Raymond

Adrian Di Ciero

David Tan

117

118

Aniket Moharana

David Tan

Gilberto Fraga

Micah Browne

David Tan

Huy Pham

Gilberto Fraga

Aniket Moharana

Aniket Moharana

David Tan

Huy Pham

Gilberto Fraga

Kyle Truong

119

120

Year 12

2020

YEAR 12

Back Row: Paraskeva Semertzidis, Lachlan Stewart, Lucas Vincent, Daniel O’Driscoll, Luke Peters, Hayden Boyce, Ned Charlton, Nathan Shane, James Craig, Zachary Maiden, Joseph Locandro, Jack Cincotta-Caspersz, Bryce Curtis, Joshua Seeger, Samir Talj, Luka Kirov, Dylan Mastos, Benjamin Marsicano, Luke Blangiardo, Ethan Sherlock, Sean Kilgower, Thomas Simos Eleventh Row: Micah Browne, Patrick Arthur, Benjamin McCloud, Vuk Vukovic, Simon Deriu, Kurt Tellis, Dylan Ranatunga, Kehan Ranasinghe, Lachlan McNamara, Adrian Cappello, Nicholas Hillman, Hayden Cain, Raoul Mascarenhas, Alex Sofronidis, Sean O’Connor, Chris Neemia, Adrian Di Ciero, Liam Acosta-Harvey, Anirudh Gururaj, Kurt Tchia Tenth Row: Andre Soff, Shukry Tutu, Kevin Truong, Stanley Sy, Jason Dalamagas, Harry Minack, Francesco Mandarino, Nicholas Parker, Theodore Raja, Noah Edwards, Thomas Haddad, Sebastian Formoso, Andrew Kovac, Marcus Cardamone, Domenic Folino, Cristian Gissara, Matthew Deriu, Marc Pascuzzi, Jarrod Conte, Brayden Johnston, Adithya Gururaj Ninth Row: Scott Antidormi, Quinn Tennent, Samuel Buttigieg, Jaeden Mutthumani, Sean Yandle, Liem Tran, Matthew Paczkowski, Matthew Maiolo, Joshua Hall, Carl Mariette, Thomas Raymond, Jacob McLean, Jordan Tranter, Francis Seal, Xavier Hains, James Cowan, Jaryd Martenstyn, Liam Heverin, Timothy Russo, Matthew Girolami, Koby Upton Eighth Row: Francis Zaar, Huy Pham, Daniel Mancini, Adam Saward, Michael Olak, Joshua Gomatos, Trent Symss, Thomas Sullivan, Jordan McDonnell, Joel Mascioli, Caleb Jones, Telis Ioannou, Seth Samarasekera, Mikkel Goldenberg, Marc Pereira, Dale Perera, Riveen Perera, Matthew Hettiarachchi, Cameron Miranda Seventh Row: Minh Truong, Campbell Woods, Tomas Hickey, Iglesias Fernandes, Royal Farias, Denzel Sithibourn, Rishi Nagpal, Shevon Fernando, Alan Dang, Matthew Lewis, Kevin Cardoza, Ross Thomas, James Gatto, Michael Battista, Noah Andrews, Thomas Dimitrakopoulos, Noah Di Teodoro, Daniel A’Hearn Sixth Row: Luca Palermo, Thomas Yong, Dylan Baptist, Gavin Liyanage, Adrian Faria, Luke Heiden, Brandon Lipenski, Noah Alwyn, Gilberto Fraga, Benjamin Heller, Jesse Grigg, Mitchell Firth, Edwin Gao, Jordan Lyons, Krispin Martin, Ashley Trinh, Jeen Sean Ng, Joseph Burke Fifth Row: Matthew Albrecht, Mitchell McCarthy, Aniket Moharana, Mihindukulasuri Fernando, Brian Sylvester, Eric Li, Anthony Pham, Jason Weerasinghe, John Nguyen, Jonathan D’Rozario, Cedric Virginie, Will Collins, Christian Ma, Anthony Kladouris, Daniel Fasano, Nicholas Siow, Caelan Chicas, Andrew Saliba, Jerome Labutte Fourth Row: Mr Dominic Santos, Philip Pham, Noah Pitsas, Karan Bais, Thierry Bosquet-Meyepa, Jean Bignoux, Benjamin Dirckze, Ricky Boccari, Kosta Phokion, Harry Grech, Piear Baselyous, Daniel McCusker, Oscar Mahon, Anthony Nguyen, Jason Nguyen, David Tan, Maneth Nagodavithana, Mr Jamie Davin Third Row: Mr Mark Rolfe, Ms Cherrin Morrissey, Tristan Lai, Bishnu Purushothamakaimal, Jardel Nheu, Thien Pham, Jaedyn Truong, Seán D’souza, Lachlan Dang, Raymond Lam, Louis Nguyen, Lance De Vera, Michael Ferracane, Jayden Truong, Loc Thai, Andrew Fajardo, Kim Le, Joshua McGrath, Mr Adrian De Fanti, Mr Nicholas Redfern Second Row: Ms Natina Giacco, Amalesh Mamachan, Francis Flores, Ricky Taweel, Richard Tran, Hoa Vu, Dylan Ly, Vinh Nguyen, Vincent Pham, Daniel Phan, Quoc Ngo, Jarrod Franchi, Jarrod Pirotta, Christian Kohler, Luvinda Jayawardena, Clyde Alferez, Kelvin Dam, Ms Jacinta Girolami Seated Row: Steven Hadiwidjaja, Andrew Do, Nathan Hall, Roque Rosario, Ronan Fernandez, Amos Duckett, Mr Paul Harrup, Mr Timothy Ford, Mr Anthony Coghlan, Fr Kevin Davine OMI, Mrs Pier Bourne, Mr Alan McAlister, Dylan Peiris, Terrence A’hearn, David Botros, Noah Crasto, Drue Lopez DP SCHOOL PHOTOS Absent: Anthony Johnson, Joel O’Loghlan

2020

Year 12 - 2020 Liam Acosta-Harvey

Scott Antidormi

Daniel A’Hearn

Terrence A’Hearn

Matthew Albrecht

Clyde Alferez

Noah Alwyn

“You’re such an inspiration for the ways that I will never ever choose to be.”

“JRE #1255 3:24:43”

“I did it for jed mcshed!”

“Everything’s a yearbook quote when you think about it.”

“no hesitation”

Piear Baselyous

Patrick Arthur

“Get ready, loosen those vocals up tubs, here it comes...”

Luke Blangiardo

Ricky Boccari “Is mayonnaise an instrument?” - Patrick Star

Samuel Buttigieg

Hayden Cain

Karan Bais

Dylan Baptist

“Remember, London was and always will be Blue.”

“We didn’t realise we were making memories, we just knew we were having fun.”

Thierry Bosquet-Meyepa

David Botros

Adrian Cappello

“It’s hard”

Jack Cincotta-Caspersz

Will Collins

Bryce Curtis

Jason Dalamagas

Marcus Cardamone

Hayden Boyce

Kevin Cardoza

Noah Andrews

Michael Battista

Jean Bignoux

“I came here a kid and left as an even bigger one”

“kotoamatsukami”

Micah Browne

Joseph Burke

As Tim Allen would say “Nothing is funny unless it’s offensive”

“Oh, we got both kinds. We got Country AND Western!”

Ned Charlton

Caelan Chicas

Noah Crasto

“Noi re” - Luka Kirov

Jarrod Conte

Julian Costanzo

“I’m done”

James Cowan

James Craig

“rangas lives matter”

“Just do VCAL”

Kelvin Dam

Alan Dang

Lachlan Dang

Lance de Vera

“its always what are you doing step bro, not how are you step bro...”

“School is like riding a bike, but way harder.”

“sus btopping”

“Get a skill.”

Matthew Deriu

121

Year 12 - 2020 Simon Deriu

Adrian Di Ciero

Sean D’souza

Amos Duckett

“Integrity is doing the right thing when no one is watching.”

“What next?”

Iglesias Fernandes

Ronan Fernandez

“Live life on the edge.”

“Reality continues to ruin my life” Calvin and Hobbes

Domenic Folino

Sebastian Formoso

Cristian Gissara

Mikkel Goldenberg

“It’s been six years and carlton still haven’t made a final.”

“live and direct”

Thomas Haddad

Steven Hadiwidjaja

“Cheers Jeff” - Martin Tyler

122

Noah Di Teodoro

Noah Edwards

Mihindukulasuri Fernando

Gilberto Fraga

Joshua Gomatos

Xavier Hains “Do VCAL!”

Thomas Dimitrakopoulos

Benjamin Dirckze

Andrew Do

Andrew Fajardo

Adrian Faria

Royal Farias

“I’m not like any other Asian”

“Don’t lose hope. When the sun goes down, the stars come out. Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon.”

“Do not pray for easy lives, pray to be stronger men” John F. Kennedy

Shevon Fernando

Michael Ferracane

Mitchell Firth

“Even with an ID I can’t get alcohol.”

Jarrod Franchi

Edwin Gao

“I’m like an off brand Nike, I just kinda wanna do it ya know?”

“Couldn’t think of anything clever to write.”

Harry Grech

Joshua Hall

Jonathan D’Rozario

Stein Gates; Episode 15, 16:40

Daniel Fasano

Francis Flores “Be humble, sit down”

James Gatto

Matthew Girolami

Jesse Grigg

Adithya Gururaj

Anirudh Gururaj

“Can I get a refund?”

“Imagine not being a twin.”

Nathan Hall

Luke Heiden “I have nothing to say but we made it!”

Benjamin Heller

Year 12 - 2020 Matthew Hettiarachchi

Liam Heverin

Tomas Hickey

Nicholas Hillman

Telis Ioannou

Luvinda Jayawardena

“Mr De Fanti, Simos threw the apple.”

“Passed with flying colors.”

“Completed it mate!”

“Time has Defeated Us.”

Futurama: Season 6, Episode 6, Minute 0:05

“Shawty a lil baddie”

Brayden Johnston

Caleb Jones

Bishnu Kaimal

Sean Kilgower

Luka Kirov

Anthony Kladouris

“It is what it is.”

Andrew Kovac

Brandon Lipenski

Oscar Mahon

Benjamin Marsicano

Christian Kohler “I spent 50,000+ hours of my life for a piece of paper and a handshake.”

Jerome Labutte

Tristan Lai

Raymond Lam

“Noi Jezza’s mix @ soundcloud.”

“Imagine experiencing a global pandemic before your first kiss.”

“Hey, you. You’re finally awake. You were trying to cross the border, right?”

Gavin Liyanage

Joseph Locandro

Drue Lopez

Zachary Maiden

Anthony Johnson

Kim Le

Matthew Lewis

Eric Li

“Blood, Sweat and Respect. The first two you give, the last one you earn” - Dwayne Johnson

Dylan Ly

Jordan Lyons

“I can’t lie that I’m leaving now can I?”

‘’Get On The Cruisers.’’

Christian Ma

Matthew Maiolo

Amalesh Mamachan

Daniel Mancini

Francesco Mandarino

Carl Mariette

“Can everyone stop asking how year 12 is going during a Global Pandemic”

“C’g u molpcpil. Qy’ly u xscha vlyyx. 20”

“Stuck between I don’t know and I don’t care.”

“Stop worrying where you’re going. Move on.”

- Stephen Sondheim

“Watch out for murderers.“

Dylan Mastos

Mitchell McCarthy

Benjamin McLoud

Krispin Martin

Raoul Mascarenhas

Joel Mascioli

‘’Real men drive Golfs.”

“FLOOR GANG OUH!”

“If you’re good at something, never do it for free” - The Joker

South Park Season 3: Episode:12 Minute:12:47

123

Year 12 - 2020 Daniel McCusker

Jordan McDonnell

Joshua McGrath

Jacob McLean

Lachlan McNamara

“My face when.”

Aniket Moharana

Andy Ngo

Jaeden Mutthumani

Anthony Nguyen

Maneth Nagodavithana “I won’t get a 90, I won’t have fame, but at least I have god in my last name”

Jason Nguyen

Hmmm “Hindsight is always twenty-twenty” Billy Wilden “It all began with bread” Figes

Jardel Nheu

Sean O’Connor

Daniel O’Driscoll

“I am Miguel.”

Harry Minack

Cameron Miranda

“We’ll meet again, don’t know where, don’t know when.”

“If there is one thing that the year of 2020 taught me, it’s that the impossible is achievable”

Jaryd Martenstyn

Rishi Nagpal

Chris Neemia

Jeen Sean Ng

“I am gonna make like Miley, because I can’t stop and I won’t stop.”

“4,745 days of my life I won’t ever get back.”

“I’d be looking backwards if I had nothing 2 look forward 2..” - By UNKNOWN74x75

“Sometimes you’ve gotta just lick the stamp and send it.” Daniel Ricciardo

John Nguyen

Louis Nguyen

Vinh Nguyen

Eric Nguyen-Truong

“yeah bro its got a burger, 3 wicked wings,gravy, chips and a can for $11.45”

“Don’t be a fool, keep up with school!”

“The result is irrelevant because the effort was there.” - Félix Lengyel

“Efficiency”

Michael Olak

Matthew Paczkowski

“Excuse my bluntness,that’s just how I roll”

Luca Palermo

Nicholas Parker

“Sometimes win sometimes loss. Sometimes maybe good sometimes maybe [not good].” - Gennaro Gattuso

“I’m just here so I don’t get fined.”

Marc Pascuzzi

Dylan Peiris

Marc Pereira

Dale Perera

Riveen Perera

Luke Peters

Anthony Pham

“6 Years for a Piece of Paper and Number.

Seems Fair”

“Once a Nodder, always a Nodder!”

“Never gonna give you up...”

“Never gonna let you down...”

“Never gonna run around and desert you”

“No, I don’t play basketball.”

“Goneski.”

Huy Pham

Philip Pham

Thien Pham

Vincent Pham

Daniel Phan

Kosta Phokion

Jarrod Pirotta

“we are essington.”

“I jaswant to graduate.”

124

“As of 11:59pm Tomorrow........”

Year 12 - 2020 Noah Pitsas

Theodore Raja

“And I am Tulio.”

Andrew Saliba

Ethan Sherlock

Thomas Sullivan

Kehan Ranasinghe

Duylan Ranatunga

Raymond Thomas

Roque Rosario

“You could dump me in the middle of the ocean, I’m still comin’ out dry.”

“Mai-San Skida!”

“Look at Terry A’Hearn.”

“Is Roke here?”

Joshua Seeger

Paraskeva Semertzidis

Seth Samarasekera

Adam Saward

Francis Seal

“I remember back in the day, you used to see people with a bag full of flutes, nobody really does dat anymore. I’m a real birdo, I love birds.”

“Are you going to that saucon convention?”

Me and my homies live by one rule 1. There are no rules 1a. Don’t run with scissors

Thomas Simos

Nicholas Siow “That’s what all the people say; you’re riding high in April, shot down in May.”

Denzel Sithibourn

Stanley Sy

Brian Sylvester

Trent Symss

“I didn’t change, I just found myself.”

Kurt Tchia

Kurt Tellis

Quinn Tennent

“I’m not superstitious, but I am a little stitious.”

- Michael Scott

Jordan Tranter

Ashley Trinh

“228 weeks, 24 haircuts, 44 donuts, 21 adorations, and of course, 0 dress ups.”

“Hey Ricky, just Juan”

Jaedyn Truong

Timothy Russo

Nathan Shane

“Sometimes all you got is pride.”

Andre Soff “A friend of an opp is an opp” Martin Luther King, Jr.

Alex Sofronidis

Lachie Stewart

Samir Talj

David Tan

Ricky Taweel

“I survived COVID during 2020.”

“Too weird to live, and too rare to die.”

“ Hey Ash - How many mexicans does it take to change a lightbulb?”

Richard Tran

James Thai

Ross Thomas

Liem Tran

“2020 is like Melbourne weather.

I don’t actually know what’s going on.”

Panathinaikos Gate 13

“Every 60 seconds that pass, a minute is wasted.”

Jayden Truong

Kevin Truong

Kyle Truong

“Thank you Mazenod for teaching me friendship, understanding, community, kindness, youth, optimism and unity.

“Good enough for me.”

“What’s Red and Bucket Shaped? A Red Bucket!” - Emily B

Shukry Tutu

125

Year 12 - 2020 Koby Upton

Aden Wylie

Lucas Vincent

Cedric Virginie

“Sorry Watchmojo but I do not agree with your decisions.”

“The most productive i’ve been this year was when i was completing my seas application.”

Sean Yandle

Thomas Yong

Vuk Vukovic

Hoa Vu

“Jeremy spoke in class today.”

“Yes, my Dad is teacher”

Mr Alan McAlister Year 12 Coordinator

Mr Adrian De Fanti Homeroom Teacher 12 Simonds

Mr Nicholas Redfern Homeroom Teacher 12 Mannix

126

Campbell Woods

“Is it too late to do VCAL?”

Francis Zaar

“When angels fall, they also rise” Linda Martin

Mr Jamie Davin Homeroom Teacher 12 Ryan

Jason Weerasinghe

Mr Paul Harrup Assistant Year 12 Coordinator

Ms Natina Giacco Homeroom Teacher 12 Lombard

Mr Mark Rolfe Homeroom Teacher 12 James

Mrs Jacinta Girolami Homeroom Teacher 12 Gavin

Mr Dominic Santos Homeroom Teacher 12 Coghlan

Ms Cherrin Morrissey Homeroom Teacher 12 Foynes

Mr Chris Windley Homeroom Teacher 12 Cagney

House Athletics House Athletics Carnival During Term 1, the Mazenod House Athletics Carnival was held at the Knox Athletics Track. There was plenty of anticipation leading up to the day in regards to whether Gerard could continue their recent dominance, who would take out of the title of the Fastest Nodder in the Mazenod Gift and which records would be broken on the day.

The day was filled with plenty of colour, house spirit and enthusiasm amongst the participants. There were many outstanding performances of the day and all students should be congratulated on their attitude and participation on the day.

Competition was fierce and it was tight between all the Houses for the majority of the day. In the end it was close, but points from participation saw Gerard take the title for the sixth consecutive year. Next year Gerard will aim to break the record for most successive House Athletics Carnival Championships.

Overall results were as follows: 1st - Gerard 2623.5 2nd - MacKillop 2416 3rd - Albini 2357.5 4th - Anthony 2326.5 5th - Charlebois 1984.5 6th - Grandin 1767 7th - Cebula 1725 8th - Chisholm 1717 The second instalment of the Mazenod Gift, which included each of the year level winners of the 100m event, was a close affair with Year 9 student Ryan Bettiol taking home the honours.

The Mazenod Sports department would like to thank both students and staff for their efforts on the day, which lead to the running of a successful carnival.

Mr. Ben Phibbs It was the Knox Athletics Track playing host for yet another edition of the Mazenod Inter House Athletics Carnival. With the sun shining down on the track, the participation and competitiveness between the students was at an all time high. With all students participating in at least one event for their House whether it was a 100 metre race or a discus throw, it was great to see everyone involved. Gerard House was victorious for yet another year, making it the sixth championship in a row. The fastest man in the school was crowned in the now annual Mazenod Stall Gift, taken out by Ryan Bettiol from Year 9. The Year Level champions included Year 7 Ethan Hernandez, Year 8 Nicolas Mascetta, Year 9 Aidan Catania, Year 10 Nathanial Louey, Year 11 Benjamin Collins and lastly Year 12 Daniel McCusker. Overall it was a fantastic day, a big thank you to all the staff that helped out on the day and ran the events. In light of the Senior students celebrating their last House Athletics day, much thanks goes to them for their commitment and dedication over the six years of service to Mazenod Athletics.

Trent Symss

Cross Country A pandemic was no barrier to the 2020 House Cross Country competition. Rather than running a circuit around the Mazenod Tan track, students clocked up the kilometers running around their local area.

Every time students ran between August 10 and September 18, they tracked and logged their run, with every kilometer gaining a point for their House. Congratulations to the Year 7 winner Harley Aow, the Year 8 winner Kai Russell and the Year 9 winner Joshua Lorback. At the Senior end of the College, the Year 10 champion was Nathanial Louey, Anthony Fernando took the win at Year 11 and Clyde Alferez won the hotly contested Year 12 competition.

Grandin backed up their victory in the Athletics with another win in the overall House Cross Country competition.

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ACC & State Chess Mazenod Chess Captains 2020: College Chess Captain

ACC Captain (9-10)

ACC Captain (7-8)

Dylan Baptist

Duleesha Gunaratne

Jackie Li

Middle Years ChessKids Captain (7-9) Christopher Hermawan

Mazenod Chess Champions 2020: Open (7-12) Jackie Li

Intermediate (7-10) Aston Pham

Junior (7-8) Anderson Gong

Mazenod House Champions 2020: Years 7-8 Cebula

Years 9-10 Albini

Years 11-12 Anthony

College Champion Cebula

Mazenod Chess Annual Trophy Winners 2020: ACC & States MVP Duleesha Gunaratne

Open Rising Star Kevin Tran

Junior Rising Star Chris Boey

9-10 Division 1 1&2&4

7-8 Division 1 1&3&4

ACC Results: Open Division 1 1&3&5&6

Year 7 Do, Khoi Boey, Chris Klonis, Patrick Susanto, Bradley Khosravi-Yazdi, Saum Nguyen, Hy Viet Goh, Joshua Thanabalasingham, Aariya Wirawan, William Liyanage, Jishan Fagan, Hugh Fischbacher, Alexander Verma, Ronit Youhorn, Tristan Ho, Jonathan Li, Clement Brijesh, Thejas Gokulnath, Anish Manavalan, Mathai Wadia, Mohan Thomas, Duan Nitharshan, Ajeeve Hendalage, Thushan Luu, Simon Kotha, Shanthanu

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Year 8 Li, Jackie (Yuan Jie) Gong, Anderson Peiris, Ryan Hajduk, Peter Poppeliers, Luke Chan, Cyrus Perera, Ryan Morin, Noah Lopez, Bradley Bernardo, Marcus Newman, Lachlan Shalders, Lachlan Devaney, Jaden Roy

Year 11

Year 9 Hermawan, Christopher Trkulja, Deni Mendes, Zane Boey, Cameron Mai, Quoc (Andy) Perera, Nikhil Caciolo, Nicholas Fischbacher, Herbert Dalle-Nogare, Lucas Kwan, James Le, Bradley

Year 12

Baptist, Dylan Ng, Elias Pham, Philip Gurevich, Benjamin Pham, Huy Trkulja, Darko Le, Danny Raymond, Liam Chen, James Pham -Huu, Quoc Bao (Kelvin) Dang, Raymond Ng Chit Wing, Timothy Vargas, Sean Ung, Vincent Smirnis-Parra, Nathan Carvahlo, Caelan Hwang, Yun (Brian)

Year 10 Gunaratne, Duleesha Pham, Aston Tran, Kevin Kim, Michael Hong, Sean Jomy, Sheon Poh, Sebastian Vu, Alan Nguyen, Jason Baptist, Jack Dang, Ryan Clado, Kurt

ACC & State Chess State Results: Open State Titles 1st

Open National Titles TBC - December

Middle Years State Titles 3rd

7-9 National Titles TBC - December Back L to R: Mr Jenkinson, Jackie Li, Danny le, Darko Trkulja, Liam Raymond, Benjamin Gurevich, Christopher Hermawan, Chris Boey, Khoi Do, Duleesha Gunaratne, Mr Coghlan Front L to R: Ryan Peiris, Sheon Jomy, Michael Kim, Anderson Gong, Elias Ng, Philip Pham, Deni Trkulja, Dylan Baptist (Capt), James Chen, Sean Hong, Kevin Tran Absent: Sebastian Poh, Aston Pham

Open State Chess Team

Open State

Player

Score

Jackie Li - Year 8

8.5

Team Name

Score

Ranking

Duleesha Gunaratne - Year 10

8.5

Mazenod College De La Salle College

31.5 25.5

Gold Silver

Kevin Tran - Year 10

7.5

Elias Ng - Year 11

7

St Michael’s Grammar

24.5

Bronze

Christopher Hermawan - Year 9

7

Player

Score

Middle Year State

Anderson Gong - Year 8

6.5

Team Name

Score

Ranking

Christopher Hermawan - Year 9

6.5

Balwyn North Primary

26.5

Gold

Jackie Li - Year 8

6

St Michael’s Grammer

25.5

Silver

Chris Boey - Year 7

6

Mazenod College

25

Bronze

Bradley Susanto - Year 7

6

The Mazenod Chess team was highly successful this year and fortunately still able to compete and hold a number of tournaments, including some played remotely from home. The Mazenod Open tournament was won by Jackie Li in Year 8 in a competition against students from all year levels, while Alston Pham and Anderson Gong won the Intermediate and Junior divisions respectively. Cebula won the overall House tournament as well as the Junior division, with Anthony and Albini triumphing in the Senior and Intermediate divisions. Special congratulations to Kevin Tran for winning the Open Rising Star and Chris Boey for the Junior Rising Star trophy. The ACC and State Championships MVP went to Duleesha Gunaratne.

The ACC competitions were a success this year, as the Mazenod teams persevered and adapted to different tournament structures, with some competitions played from home and online due to quarantine. The Junior teams, led by Junior Captain, Jackie Li, played very well, coming 1st, 3rd and 4th overall. Similarly, the Intermediate Captain, Duleesha Gunaratne, led the Intermediate teams to victory, as they placed 1st, 2nd and 4th in their ACC tournaments. In the ACC Open tournaments, the teams led by College Chess Captain Dylan Baptist were also very strong, as they placed 1st, 3rd, 5th and 6th. The Years 7–9 team led by Christopher Hermawan placed very well in the Chesskids Middle Years State Championships, as they came 3rd in the tournament. Likewise, the Open team played amazingly this year, coming first in the State Open Championship for the first time ever. All teams look forward to competing in the National Championships in December and hope for continued Mazenod Chess success in 2021.

Dylan Baptist, Chess Captain

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Oblate and ACC Cricket Oblate Cricket In 2019, Mazenod College Victoria got the opportunity to host the Oblate Cricket Carnival. We fielded a young team, filled with potential and talent. It was a great opportunity to get to know boys from Year 9 to 11 and it was awesome to see the boys gel, and amongst existing friendships, many new friendships across the team were formed.

With our very young team, filled with hope and eagerness, we took on Villanova. An early breakthrough from Tim Russo with the ball kicked started our carnival. Villanova batted really well from there, even with Andrew Trifilo’s superb bowling. Villanova continued to bowl well, even against a fighting Ben Noonan and handed us our first loss of the carnival. A learning experience first up.

Against Iona on day two on the Johnson Oval, our bowling improved but came up against another strong batting lineup. Ably led by Tim Russo and Ishan Goonetilleke with the ball, we fought well. The top-order collapse to begin our chase was not the ideal start, a bit of fight from Fabian Di Domenico and Tim Russo with the bat gave us hope, but it was not enough against another strong bowling attack.

With the Oblate Cup awarded to Iona at the end of the second day, we faced Mazenod WA on the last day. Batting first against another really strong bowling attack we struggled to put up a score. While defending a low score, Ishan Goonetilleke and Julian Smith bowled in really good areas, making it tough for Mazenod WA, but they chased down our total.

Whilst we did not have much on-field success, we formed friendships with students from Mazenod and our Oblate brother schools. We thank everyone involved for an awesome opportunity. Special mention goes to the families from Mazenod College Victoria who opened up their homes to the touring students, we cannot thank you enough. We also would like to thank our coaches Mr Connolly, Mr Clement and Mr Muling for their passion and commitment to the team and driving us to be the best we could be. To the younger boys, cherish and learn from the experience this year. It should see the future of Mazenod Cricket in great hands!

Thomas Raymond

ACC Cricket The ACC Senior Cricket season was a great experience, with a season that was sadly cut short. The team showed great mateship and sportsmanship throughout the season, as well as playing some really good cricket.

Led by Matt Maiolo and Jordan McDonnell with the bat, both players had a really impressive season, setting up many great starts throughout the season. The heavy hitting of Ethan Sherlock was a sight to see, ensuring we finished the innings with confidence week in and week out. With the ball, we relied upon Ishan Goonetilleke, bowling fast and leading the bowling attack. Proving that the side will only continue to improve next year, Daniel O’Driscoll and Lachlan Stewart were awesome role players with the ball, rarely ever missing their spot!

The team had a great season, making it all the way through to the grand final, only to have the grand final cancelled because of COVID-19, leading to the awarding of a dual premiership, not the way we wanted the season to end, but a great result nonetheless!

I would like to thank Mr Muling and Mr Connolly on behalf of all the boys, for the opportunity to represent the school this year, and for the five years previous.

Thomas Raymond

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ACC Lawn Bowls The imminent rise of the Mazenod lawn bowls team can be best summed up by Drake in 2012, “If you ain’t been a part of it, at least you got to witness”.

Jordan versus the Jazz in 1996, Kawhi against Philly in 2019. When you think of clutch sporting moments in history, many come to mind. But one stands out above the rest: Yong, Girolami, Hettiarachchi, Vukovic and Fernandez. The dream team that rose to victory at the 4th National ACC Lawn Bowls Championship in 2020. When the lawn bowls team first came together, it looked like repeating Mazenod’s heroics of 2019 would be far fetched. ACC titles? State runners up? We would be lucky if we could bowl the ball the right way. But under the Mr Shifu-esque tutelage of Mr Lee, our team was looking better than ever when the big day came to pass.

As we rolled into MCC Bowls in Hawthorn, it became clear that winning would be no easy feat. We were up against the best of the best, and we would have to dig deep if we were to succeed in our goal of becoming world champions. However, it was in this moment that our team brought out the very best of what it means to be a Mazenodian. We, as a team, had always strived to leave nothing undared and on the day, that is exactly what we did.

The group stages were of no problem to our team. All five of us were at the top of our game, bowling with focus and precision.

The depth of quality in our squad meant that rotations were able to be managed, a luxury that many other teams did not have.

Once the finals came around the opposition became much more difficult. Despite this, our team rose to the next level and in a tightly fought duel that went down to the very last round, we came out as winners.

With the conclusion of the tournament, state scouts had headhunted 3 of our 5 players (which will remain unnamed due to security concerns) to join the Australian Juniors Lawn Bowls Team however, we gratefully declined.

I think, when we look back now, it cannot be denied how valuable Mr Lee was to our success. He supplied us with the best equipment, shared his wealth of experience with us and guided us on the day, truly bringing the best out of each and every one of us. It was perfectly said during the trophy acceptance speech when Mr Lee was described as not just a coach and bus driver, but a “father figure”. I think it is fair to say he is a role model anyone can look up to, and I would highly recommend doing so.

Some teams are forgotten soon after their peak, whilst others linger in the memory for slightly longer, nothing more than a passing wisp in this rush we call ‘life’. But I have a feeling the heroics of this team will never be forgotten, a legacy to last for the years to come.

Thomas Yong

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ACC Swimming On February 27, Mazenod swimmers represented the College at the ACC Swimming Carnival at MSAC. All 26 of them should feel proud of the way they performed with many personal best times on the night. Unfortunately it was not our night, with our team finishing fourth in the Division 2 competition. Although this may appear disappointing on face value, a number of students swam in a higher age group, giving everyone in the squad the opportunity to swim as we invest in future years. We finished only 8 points from second position and we believe the experience of this year will help our young swimmers in years to come. We congratulate Salesian on winning the Division 2 Cup and St Bede’s as the Division 1 champions.

On the night we had 7 first place finishes, 14 second placings and 6 third placings. I would like to congratulate the following students on winning their individual races. Lance De Vera for winning both the 50 metre butterfly and backstroke, Ryan Oh with double victories in the 50 metre freestyle and butterfly, Conrad Van Ravenstein for wins in the 50 metre butterfly and breaststroke and finally Aaron Nguyen for his victory in the 50 metre backstroke.

Special thanks goes to Kevin Nguyen for his role in coaching the team 3 times a week, with a 7am start. Also, what often goes unmentioned is the contribution that each and every parent made to the swimming program in regards to their commitment to getting their sons out of bed and into the pool. Thanks also to Mr Montoya, Mr Connolly and Mr Pearson for their assistance and organisation and to all the staff who supported on the night Finally, to my fellow senior swimmers, it has been a pleasure swimming with you. Special acknowledgement goes to Lance De Vera and myself as we have represented Mazenod for the last six years. Our appreciation goes to all other students in our swim team, we cannot thank you enough for your commitment.

Ned Charlton

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ACC Tennis During a year in which all forms of sport have been heavily impacted it was great for our squad to experience some normality in the form of a complete ACC tennis season. Additionally, whilst a semi final exit may appear dissapointing on the surface, upon reflection the squad can hold their heads high for a season mostly well played against solid opposition.

ACC Tennis has always provided a fantastic opportunity to represent the College, and just like the years prior, this group showed great commitment. It was fantastic to see the squad enjoying playing the game, whilst maintaining a competitive attitude toward every opponent. Performances such as the narrow two game victory against Parade (72-70) in a match that finished tied on sets (6-6) reflected our attitude perfectly. Through maintaining this run our squad was able to finish with four wins and no losses to our name heading into our semi final. However, whilst results are fantastic, it is arguably even better to see dedication from players looking to represent the College, their teammates and themselves with pride.

From both a personal perspective along with the rest of the Year 12 players in the group we would like to thank Mr May for his awesome commitment and dedication toward the squad over the years. From Year 7 all the way to Year 12 the organisation of squads along with continuous bus driving duties has not gone unappreciated by the group.

Ultimately, whilst we Year 12 tennis players may leave Mazenod having never been ACC champions, I am more than confident that next year’s squad consisting of the current Year 11 and 10 students will be more than capable of great performances.

Lachlan McNamara

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Remote Learning Reflections Year seven

From bushfires to the COVID-19 Pandemic, there has never been a year like this one. It has been truly unique. A mixture of surprise and excited anticipation characterised our reaction when we were told that, for the majority of Term 2 and 3, students would be studying via remote learning.

During this time, we all discovered something new about ourselves. Importantly, we learnt to read instructions carefully, be organised in advance and to make concise schedules as we become independent young learners.

Remote learning was different for everyone and each Year 7 managed it in their own unique way by establishing their own routines. However, some aspects were constant which helped to create a sense of normality in otherwise strange times! Our school day began at 8:40am and concluded by 3:10pm, full of different subjects every day. It was filled

Year eight

“When things do not go your way, remember that every challenge — every adversity — contains within it the seeds of opportunity and growth”- Roy T. Bennett. For most of this year, we as a cohort have figured out how to get through the challenges that COVID-19 presented to us, choosing instead, to see them as our own “seeds of opportunity and growth”.

Many changes were made for us so that we could continue to learn to the same standard prior to the virus, and the teachers did a fabulous job! They made themselves easy to contact, and available to students if they had questions about the tasks set, or needed more help. Students could easily talk to the teacher through the well set established Google Meets that the teachers created.

Of course, due to the nature of such a swift change to remote learning, things went wrong. A funny highlight for me was the teachers and students forgetting to turn on their microphones, and sometimes accidentally restarting the web page instead of turning the camera on. We laughed together as we figured out how to face the challenge at hand, all while admiring each other’s new, extra

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with learning and our teachers did the best they could to prepare interesting and engaging activities. During Homeroom, our teacher would make sure everyone was present and it was reassuring to see all our friends in class.

Home learning was clearly a once in a lifetime opportunity and some of the benefits were eating hot lunches and wearing our own casual clothes. This has been a bizarre introduction to high school and one that we will never forget.

Tyrese Bourne

long hairstyles!

For a short time, we were teased by the opportunity to experience learning in the actual classroom but sadly, after the brief two weeks, online learning took over our lives once more.

Although there were many challenges that COVID-19 introduced, it also changed the way we started to do things. We were supported to become more independent, develop a different mindset to approach challenges, and even though connections with friends were difficult, it helped us see how valuable and important our friendships were in our daily lives.

I think that if we were to go back in time and tell our past selves to cherish each moment in school, we would have laughed at such advice. However, as we approach the prospect of returning to school, I know I will be more grateful for the simple gift of sitting in a classroom with my friends.

Antonio Di Giovine

Year nine

I’m sure we can all agree that isolation has been a new experience for all of us. Yes, we are currently in round two of isolation for school, but for me, the first time I logged into the Google Meet for Religion in Period 1, I thought to myself; “This is going to be hard for everyone, the teachers and the students.” However, my teachers have done an excellent job in trying to make online learning as similar as being in the classroom. My teachers have made the online lessons enjoyable and fun while we do our work.

ACC every Tuesday afternoon and seeing my friends after classes, but I think online learning is good because you have all your textbooks and folders for each online period of the day; so you are organised for each subject.

Based on what I have heard from my friends and classmates, most students would say that being at school is better than being in front of a screen. We all have had days with slow internet and “broken” cameras and microphones, which are the basic issues with online learning. However, personally, I have enjoyed online learning. Yes, I do miss

Lucas Dalle Nogare

Year ten

2020 has undoubtedly been one of the most memorable ways to end our pre-VCE/VCAL schooling life.

Entering the Senior School, no one could have expected all the challenges, shortcomings, opportunities and experiences we would face. Despite this, our cohort, while physically further apart, has been brought together and become stronger because of it. All of us have persevered and have made the best of what is our most challenging year so far.

Before the pandemic reached its peak in Australia, we were still able to experience many things, such as a Driver’s Ed day as well as a range of camps. Even whilst in lockdown, we continued our Year 10 experience, such as creating an online Homeroom challenge, named suitably the ‘Corona Cup’, which held contests such as a ‘Mazenod Meme’ competition. We also took advantage of whatever sporting activities we could, having a cross country tournament which many of us took part in. There were also no complaints about the extra time we could spend sleeping in!

In short, I believe that everyone during this worldwide crisis is doing a fantastic job of trying to maintain a normal life with these restrictions. I just hope that all of this will end soon and that we can resume our normal lives.

Despite the later wake-up, online school has been a large departure from normal schooling. Everyday we’d log onto a plethora of Google Meets, and gain an insight into the home lives of both our classmates and teachers. During these Meets, we had to juggle learning, family interruptions, and deliveries from all of our online shopping.

While at times staring at a screen all day became a challenge, it meant that the weekends became all the more sweet. Many classes adapted well to the online format, incorporating a much wider variety of resources, such as Kahoot and Quizlet, in order to present the information we needed in the best format available in the circumstances.

It is unquestionable that this year has been unlike any other, and will certainly be one of, if not the, most memorable times of our life at Mazenod. While we look forward to the remaining years that we have left at the College, Year 10 has been filled with many highs and lows that we will never forget.

Ben Harris

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Remote Learning Reflections Year eleven

2020 shall be remembered in history as a brutal time.

I am sure everyone will agree to the fact that suffering was equally shared amongst the global population. With people dying in the masses, others decided they had every right to complain about staying home and staying 1.5 metres away from other humans.

My severe lack of social skills meant that staying away from other people was quietly enjoyable, however, online learning soon taught me that humans are social creatures for a reason. Trips to the supermarket were no longer a simple 5 minute drive rather, they became a journey.

The weather was noted to ensure a smooth travel, finest clothing became the norm so that the self checkout machine at Woolies would hopefully acknowledge your fashion sense and chocolate seemed to become a sizable expense on the back pocket. With nothing to do but eat and stare at a screen for hours, the puppy fat made its daunting return to taint my radiant summer body for the following months to come. Thanks to online learning, my flabby stomach was able to find refuge from the view of my peers and for the first 7 weeks of Term 2, and much of Term 3, all I had to focus on was work.

Online classes came with their many laughs and troubles as teachers tried their best to make work achievable and somewhat interesting, despite being stuck behind a screen. Many odd things began to occur that could only be described as supernatural. On the day of a test, my camera would unprecedentedly act up for the whole period. Ironically, my test scores inexplicably rose from a 70% to a 90%.

This bizarre episode of our lives proved to be full of fascinating experiences where many people realised how important certain things are. I realised that life is not simply a 5 minute trip. Life is a journey that needs to be shared with the people we care about. Look at the little things and be grateful because one day, these things will only be a distant memory.

Max Ricci Year 11 was our first year attempting the harrowing trials of VCE and VCAL. We were all ready for some fun days of three-hour exams, constantly questioning “what the heck is the GAT” and way too much procrastinating. However, the fantastically horrible virus-that-shall-not-be-named had other plans for our year. Instead, we ended up getting 0 hours of exams in Semester 1, constantly questioned “when the heck is the GAT” and still experienced way

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too much procrastinating. As a result of all of these happenings, we got thrust into the university experience a few years too early, trapping ourselves in our studies and rooms to experience online learning.

We began the online learning experience by not learning anything at all as we launched straight into the quarantine holidays and suddenly found ourselves with way too much free time. Having to stay indoors for two weeks with only studying to do means that we had to fill our free time in our own way. Personally, I found refuge in self-education, deciding to spend my free time focussed on watching educational youtube videos, such as “If Harvard University Was a Girl in 30 Seconds”. However, once the holidays were over, the real trials of electronic learning began in Term 2.

Online learning was a trial by fire of everyone’s work ethic, as it would be up to us to make sure we survived. The cold, hard textbooks were no substitute for the teachers in the physical classroom, pushing us to keep going. Now, everyone knows our teachers are professionals, here to help us learn in a refined and educational environment.

However, online learning has allowed all of us to see a new side to our teachers, as they inevitably have to pull away the iron curtain over their lives to educate us.

Whether it was discovering Mr Young’s membership in the bourgeoisie through his AirPods or Mr Mann’s dishwasher troubles, we all got to learn more about some of our teachers and saw a more human side to them. Now, that’s enough flattery for the teachers, what about the students?

Well, within some of my classes, some of us realised quickly that the only way to survive the apocalypse was, as Mad Max teaches us, to band up and create factions.

During certain classes, we chose to create small personal calls, banding together to keep ourselves sane during classes, working together and just generally talking to each other and having fun. It certainly helped make the isolated experience a lot less isolated, unifying us a little in this time of obvious division.

So, in terms of online learning itself, what did it do for us? Well, that can be summarised in one word: freedom.

The freedom to work at our own pace and doing tasks when we wanted them done. Unless I had a Meet during a class, instead of blindly sitting down and working, I had the opportunity to ask “do I really need to do this now”? A seemingly lazy mentality, however, they really allowed me to work in a way that was most efficient for me. If I needed a break, I took it, and if I felt like absolutely annihilating the work we had to do, it would be annihilated. As long

as the work was eventually done, we had the freedom to do it in a way that we usually would not be able to do.

However, there was one major downside to the experience, as already mentioned before: the absence of a full class and a teacher. Something that I did not realise until we returned to physical learning was how important the physical environment could be. Content from a textbook is a lot easier to remember when you review it as a class while a teacher explains it, instead of just pouring over it by yourself at home. In that regard, I will be relieved to return to normal learning.

Now, as we all return to normal, or as close to normal as we can get, we will always have this experience to reflect on as a unique part of our high school lives. The return to normalcy in itself brings its own challenges, namely the tsunami of SACs that we had all tried to pretend did not exist. We may not be doing Semester 1 exams, but with the amount of work that is still to be done, the education system is as good as ever at putting us through the wringer.

However, in the end, as much as we all miss being hard at work while hardly working, I think that we can all agree, to an extent, that it is good to be back.

Mateo Acosta Fernandez

Year twelve

Dulcet tones of an angelic gold harp echo across a rusted brown sunset glazed ocean. You walk along sunset sand, the music crescendoing in your ear, care free, with a salty summer breeze fresh on your face. Suddenly, an aggressive metallic noise blurts in the distance getting louder and louder, until you realise, wait, that is my alarm. Your 9 minutes of snooze is up, and you are now late to class.

Slowly rising out of bed, the major exercise of the day begins as you walk towards your computer to log in and join the Google Meet. Thank goodness for the little preview screen before you join because footy shorts without a shirt is not appropriate for class. Instead you opt for the closest hoodie, give it a smell check, not like it matters, and chuck it on.

“Oh sorry sir, my internet was being funny” works an absolute charm. Not because the teacher actually believes it, but they honestly can not be bothered disproving a half asleep student. Probably not paid enough either.

Then before you know it class is over, you have not done much work either but oh well, it is time for your next class.

Again you join the Google Meet. But wait, no one else is there. “I'll wait for the first few to join”. 2, now 3 minutes pass and you check the time on the clock to make sure you have not messed up the timetable. Still no one has joined. Who knew you could separate the boys from men just based upon who joins a video. These are the important lessons we learned from isolation. We even sometimes learnt relevant class content as well...

Ultimately, whether the experience was enjoyable... hard... or made you laugh... or made you cry... or even made you a better person, it was. An experience. I am sure there are lessons of self motivation, hard work and patience that were learned. But, perhaps most supreme of all, was we realised how much we all just bloody miss and need each other, the good and bad and the ugly.

Jordan Tranter

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Year 12 Awards Intermediate VCAL Student of the Year Nathan Buzza

Senior VCAL Student of the Year James Craig

College Board Prize Dylan Peiris

Caltex Award Anthony Yong

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Year 12 Awards Fostering the Future Award (MOCA) Dylan Peiris

Noonan Debating Awards Noah Andrews Year 12

Mateo Acosta-Fernandez Year 11

Benjamin Harris Year 10

Nicholas Caciolo Year 9

ADF Long Tan Leadership Teamwork Awards Kyle Truong Year 12

Nathanial Louey Year 10

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Music Awards Musician of the Year

Filip Fulco

Samuel Chen

Outstanding Performance - Senior

Matthew Lewis Brass

Douglas Moffat Woodwind

Dylan Ly Strings

Vignesh Khilari Percussion

Outstanding Performance - Junior

James Leslie Brass

Mathai Manavalan Woodwind

Brandon Paul Strings

Luca D’Angelo Strings

Jeen Huey Ng Percussion

Mohan Wadia Vocal

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Francesco Mandarino Vocal

Music Acknowledgements We would like to acknowledge and honour the following students who have been involved in the Instrumental Music Program for the last 6 years. Thank you for your commitment and dedication to the bands, orchestras and ensembles. We wish you all the best for the future.

Noah Andrews

Dylan Baptist

Alan Dang

Noah Di Teodoro

Andrew Do

Amos Duckett

Luke Heiden

Matthew Lewis

Gavin Liyanage

Dylan Ly

Francesco Mandarino

Harry Minack

Eric Nguyen-Truong

Maneth Nagodavithana

Philip Pham

Jeen Sean Ng

Nicholas Siow

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Autographs

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Autographs

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From the Editors The 2019 Mazenodian editorial opened with a reflection upon change, as we pondered the leadership restructure that had occurred in the College. How were we to know that far choppier waters than a change in Principalship were ahead of us in 2020? In the current times of facemasks, temperature checks, social distancing and curfews, 2019 seems like a utopian paradise. Margaret Atwood suggests in The Handmaid’s Tale, “we thought we had such problems.

How were we to know that we were happy?” And yet, while 2020 has certainly felt like a dystopian nightmare at times, with the benefit of hindsight, we have also learnt to show great endurance and to “be grateful for the ordinary days … hindsight makes them quite magical” (Leigh Sales) As a College, staff and students alike embraced the buzzwords of 2020 as these ‘unprecedented’ times, caused us to ‘pivot’ to new teaching methods. There were undoubtedly hardships for students with cancelled events, unruly hair, new technology and home learning routines to establish. It was equally difficult for staff as we adapted to remote learning, rewrote assessment schedules and had to remember to complete the roll before the infamous reminder email was sent.

Students longed for an ‘in person’ catch up with their friends and staff longed for a corridor debrief with their colleagues. The Year 12 students battled the loss of the cafeteria and their privilege of the microwave and sandwich toaster, while the staffroom was devoid of the usual lunchtime activities: a Bay 13 quiz, shared treats from Paddy Lambert or Paulette Weegberg, birthday morning teas went uncelebrated and the couch was bereft of the usual Baby Boomer versus Gen Y debate. However, we all embraced the short commute to our desks, rewrote the assessment timeline for the seventh time, replaced the tie or high heels with our best activewear and adhered to the advice of Nemo to “keep on swimming”, with a new appreciation and gratitude for the ordinary, yet magical days.

On behalf of the Editorial team, I extend our thanks to the many people who have assisted in the 2020 publication. Our appreciation goes to Tony Rolfe and Merry De La Zilwa, who are always in the right place at the right time to capture the perfect photo. Congratulations to Roque Rosario, who drove the initiative of collating the Year 12 quotes and to Dylan Peiris who collated the student leadership reports. Barath Suresh continued the tradition of students designing the front cover, of which we are appreciative and we give thanks to all the students who contributed to writing a majority of the Mazenodian reports. Our Art students have again produced beautiful pieces and we thank the Art Faculty for their assistance with collation, layout and design. Finally, it would be remiss of us not to acknowledge the departure of Keely Kelly at the conclusion of 2019. Keely was the driving force behind the artistic graphics and elegant, modern design of the Mazenodian for the last 7 years.

In difficult times, Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s words certainly ring true, “often in life, things that you regard as an impediment turn out to be great, good fortune.”

We hope that this publication is an accurate reflection of a difficult year, but one that has also brought valuable lessons and new appreciations. We eagerly farewell 2020, embrace the lessons learned and welcome the positivity that 2021 will bring.

Adrian De Fanti and Clare Caldwell Designed and produced by Lynne Hawksworth Printed by NEO

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