International Women’s Day ROBBIE CAMPO
I am now an executive in a superannuation fund, Cbus. I am also a board member of two organisations; Victoria Legal Aid, and Women in Super, which advocates to improve gender equality for women in terms of their superannuation outcomes. Today I thought I would talk about: ● My six years at St Al’s, and what were the important things that I learned while I was here ● A little bit about my journey since 1986 when I completed year 12 here
On International Women’s Day, we were delighted to be able to welcome St Aloysius College Alumnae, Robbie Campo back to the stage! Robbie delivered an inspiring, motivating, and humorous speech to all students, a condensed version of which we share below. “International Women’s Day is celebrated right around the world; and provides an opportunity for everyone to think about how the world is progressing in affording equality to all women and girls. This year’s theme for IWD was Women in Leadership: achieving equality in a post-COVID world. Coming here to talk to you today gave me the chance to reflect on how my six years at St Aloysius shaped my educational path, my career choices and my outlook on life, and provided me the skills and confidence to recognise and exploit many of life’s opportunities including leadership roles.
10 Always Aloysius – Winter Edition, 2021
● How my path forward did not go in a straight line from school, but that my education here certainly gave me the foundation to take on leadership roles which are interesting, creative, and allow me to improve the lives of others ● I am also going to talk about how we need to achieve better gender equality for girls and women in Australia, especially addressing the gender retirement gap. My parents chose St Aloysius because it was a school that combined a solid academic program with a strong focus on developing resilient, respectful, compassionate, and strong girls. There was a strong sense of community within the school, and a strong connection with the North Melbourne community through social justice programs that girls would be involved in at various stages of our secondary schooling. The student community was culturally diverse, with girls coming from far and wide but mainly from Northern and NorthWestern suburbs, and over the six years I
was here saw a steady influx of girls from refugee families. Back then, there were still several nuns involved as staff members, including the principal Sr Frances, although my favourite was an English literature teacher Sr Mae, who, through the course of any lesson would passionately flip between poetry and the Hawthorn football club. She transferred her love of literature to me (and I suspect all her students), but thankfully as a Collingwood supporter, the love of Hawthorn did not rub off! We could not have contemplated that St Al’s would ever become co-ed. We had to make do with seeing boys from our two brother schools, St Mary’s and St Joseph’s, on the tram to and from school, or during the ballroom dancing program we did in year 9. I particularly loved the drama program and involved myself in every extracurricular drama activity I could, including the Catholic Schools Drama Festival, the Rock Eisteddfod, performing each year in the St Al’s Day Festival and other performances the school held. My involvement in various drama activities did give me early opportunities to test my leadership skills, although I think that my classmates would probably tell you I was more of a bossy director than a natural leader. Towards the end of year 12, I was not sure whether I wanted to study acting or law, two very different life paths. I auditioned for acting school, and knew that if I did not get in, I could pick up law as my second
