St Joseph's Nudgee College

February 16, 2010

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Mr Daryl Hanly with the College Captain (second from right) and Vice Captains at the Investiture

College Captain Declan Jones spent time during January in Ballarat with fellow leaders from EREA schools

Members of the St Joseph’s Nudgee College community gathered in the Christian Brothers Conference Hall last Friday for the Opening Eucharistic Celebration and Investiture of Senior Students.

Father John Kilinko conducted the Mass which began with an acknowledgement of the traditional custodians by students Blair Walmbeng and Thomas Boase and included commissioning and investiture of this year’s Senior students.

With the Olympic Winter Games beginning last weekend, Fr Kilinko used the official Olympic motto, “Citius, Altius, Fortius” which is Latin for “Swifter, Higher, Stronger”, to encourage the students to “always strive for something better”.

“The words of the official Olympic motto were borrowed by Baron de Courbatin from a French priest and his team of young school athletes,” Fr Kilinko said.

“Put simply they invite the listener to always strive for something better, never to be satisfied with, or to be forever identified with, performances in the past. They imply that change is possible, if you’re willing to try hard enough and often enough.”

Fr Kilinko also reminded the Senior students that they will be remembered for what they do this year especially and urged them to take “encouragement” from their theme of “Be and Become”.

“One of the realities of life is that you won’t always win at everything you attempt but, hopefully, you’ll have fun by trying and you’ll continually learn something about yourself and about life in general when you look back on your efforts in 2010 when the year comes to a close,” he said.

College Captain Declan Jones, a third generation Nudgee College student, spoke about “growing up in a very Nudgee College orientated family” and shared with the community the Seniors vision for their symbol and theme.

“The Senior symbol for 2010 is rope. This may sound quite simple and insignificant, but one must think of what rope can be used for,” Declan said.

“Rope strengthens bonds between objects, it is a tool used for climbing, pulling and tying. Each single piece of rope itself contains thousands of hair-like strands, which come together to form a whole unit. The Vice Captains and myself see each separate strand as being a member of the Nudgee College community, who come together to form the whole,” he said.

Declan also told how this year’s Senior motto, “Be and Become”, arose from a challenge College Principal Mr Daryl Hanly made to Hamlet’s famous quote; “To be or not to be?”.

“Be and Become is a call to stay true to yourself, to be yourself, uphold the principles and customs that apply to you. People are always evolving, changing and responding to different circumstances in their life. This motto reflects that notion and encourages the adoption of all these components,” he said.