ALUMNI
Welcoming our Alumni
Geelong High School is developing its alumni program to help our former students keep in touch with our school.
Being part of an alumni community can be a rewarding and fulfilling experience.
Through our alumni community you can:
• Advise, help and inspire current Geelong High students
• Network with other ex-students working or studying in areas relevant to you
• Stay connected to the people you studied and socialised with
We’re developing the school’s alumni program in partnership with Ourschool, www.ourschool.net.au a not-for-profit pilot service that helps state secondary schools build their alumni communities.
Our alumni program will focus on these goals over a two year period:
• Establish and grow our alumni database
• Invite alumni back to school to provide career or study advice to students
• Invite alumni to offer work experience placements for students
• Help alumni establish or contribute to student scholarships
• Establish avenues for alumni to provide bequests or other philanthropic support
To join our alumni community and get involved please email us with your preferred contact details to: 7855-alumni@schools.vic.edu.au
Get connected and updated by following us on Facebook and join our Linked In group:
https://www.facebook.com/GeelongHighSchoolAlumni/
https://www.linkedin.com/group...
Alumni spotlight
Taylah Arnold, class of 2016.
Taylah offers insight into working in the health sector as an early career professional. Talking with Taylah you can hear her passion for health care and her personal growth. She's been gainfully employed since her grad year and loved working at the Epworth Hospital in the general medical and cancer ward however for life style reasons she's moved jobs. Taylah has recently commenced work at Monash IVF (Geelong) as an IVF nurse. Tune into the full interview and learn more about nursing and the value of a degree in health.
Samuel Formica, class of 2010.
When students think about a career in law, the first image that often comes to mind is a lawyer passionately arguing a case to a judge and jury. Think Legally Blonde or The Castle. But jobs in law are many and diverse – and it can be hard for students to get an accurate picture of the industry without access to real-life role models.
That’s where Ourschool’s alumni program Industry Insights series comes in. The recent livestream Q&A featured public high school grads from some of Ourschool’s partner schools who work in different areas of the law:
- Emma Berry, intellectual property & trade lawyer at Macpherson Kelley (Fountain Gate Secondary College alum)
- Samuel Formica, family lawyer at Cahill & Rowe Family Law (Geelong High School alum)
- Sanela Osmanovic, superannuation and financial services senior associate at KHQ Lawyers (North Geelong Secondary College alum)
- Zoran Petric, Barrister at the Victorian Bar (McKinnon Secondary College alum)
They spoke about their passions, school days, post-school pathways and what it’s really like to be a lawyer. Thank you to our speakers for generously giving their time to advise and encourage students across Ourschool’s 24 partner schools, Geelong High School.
Samuel’s journey is a relatable one. We thank Samuel for sharing his story and hope it’s inspiring to current Geelong High School students.
Dr. Melissa Formica, class of 2010.
Jessica Leaming, class of 2012.
Abbey Grinter, class of 2016.
Abbey Grinter visited our school on Monday 1st
March for the first time in many years. She was immediately greeted in the yard by Mr Gemmill as he was preparing for school camp and then Mr Davey as she walked into the new buildings. Seeing her face light up and her former teachers break into wide smiles as they realized she was back in school was a magic moment.
Abbey came to speak with 11VCAL students and share her experiences of school, life after school at university and at work. The year 11 students were listening intently while Abbey chatted about themes of the value of a growth mindset, using the step ladder approach to achieve goals, the importance of respect – respecting yourself firstly as well as all others, social communication skills and collaboration skills that are required to be a successful happy employee. She threaded her messages and stories together beautifully which made the audience eager to hear more.
Abbey is working full time at Barwon Water having completed a traineeship and has a forklift driver’s license, certificate III in water treatment and a certificate IV in health and safety. She is her work team OHS officer which means she looks out for her team members, who incidentally are much other blokes, and she calls the safety shots. Also, Abbey is returning to university (in her own time, self-funding) to complete her business degree as a strategy to progress up the corporate ladder and provide future opportunities for herself. She is bought a block of land and is planning to build her dream home. Significant achievements given she’s only four years out of school.
Abbey is a Geelong High success story and we are incredibly proud of her.
Thanks to Miss Gaskin and Mr Reusch for inviting Abbey into the VCAL inner sanctum.
Alice Betteridge, class of 2002. (part I)
Alice kindly took time out of her day to chat with Zoe about life after school. Alice lives and works in SA and is teaching at University of SA and University of Adelaide. Her journey over the border included other beautiful parts of the world Milawa and Portugal!
Alice Betteridge class of 2002 (part 2)
Alice chats about her memories of Geelong High and the impact teachers have had on her professional career. She's seen lots of change for women in STEM and is an advocate for women in STEM. And she shares her life mantra "life is a journey, not a destination". Thank you for your time Dr. Alice Betteridge-Livingstone.
Justin Allison, class of 1996.
Justin Allison visited our school on Thursday 22 April for the second time in two years. He returned to Geelong High because he is committed to help our current students learn about life after leaving school and the realities working in the design industry.
Two year 12 classes of Visual Communications and Design students were listening intently while Justin chatted about themes of the value of a work ethic, work resilience and endurance, developing and accessing your personal creativity, the design process and how to work while having a side hustle. He threaded her messages and stories together beautifully which made the students eager to hear more; but he didn’t exclude the hurdles, failed attempts or the moments where he needed to choose grown up choices (like earning money to feed his dog). Justin’s preparedness to share and talk about the times where he was vulnerable were powerful and relatable. He shared these inner sanctum snippets in a bid to prepare our young adults for life in the real world, outside of the classrooms and school gates.
Justin is working in two part time roles so that he has his family’s needs covered. He runs his own freelance graphic design studio called Back and 4th studio https://backand4th.com.au/ and works at Bunnings (which he loves!). This means he has his creative outlet and can service long term clients and in contrast, hit the Bunnings floor, working in the paint section getting a significant physical workout while utilising his well-honed client service skills and design eye for the weekend warriors.
Justin is a Geelong High success story and we are incredibly proud of him.
Thanks to Michael Simondson for inviting Justin into the art and design inner sanctum.
Picture: Hayden Walters (Alumni School Captain) Justin (wearing a Boonie t-shirt that is his own design. Bravo) and Michael Simondson.
Col Hutchinson, class of 1961.
Col Hutchinson visited our school on Tuesday 9th March for the first time in a long time and was immediately impressed by redevelopment of the art deco building and the school grounds. Our shared goal was to inspire and inform year 8 students about the value of numeracy for life at school and beyond.
The whole of yr8 cohort gathered in the atrium to listen and chat with Col on the topic of “Stats Chat - numbers at work.” Col is an expert on football statistics and history, and he works for at the AFL as the official statistician and historian. For Col it is a dream job that he has shared with many people over the past 40years. In fact, he is a dear family friend of Ms Talbot because Col and Ms Talbot’s father did stats for decades at the Cats games for decades.
Col dedicated his presentation to the value and importance of numeracy; how they can tell a story; how interesting and engaging statistics can be, and the audience were soaking up his wisdom and stories. He prepared many statistical reports for the students about current day players, Col also demonstrated his whip smart mind and recall is because staff were asking spontaneous questions about former GHS students who made it to the AFL and his answers were lightning fast and accurate.
Thanks to Mr D’Offay and all year 8 maths teachers for welcoming Col into term 1 stats curriculum inner sanctum. And another special thank you to Ms Talbot for the incredible passionfruit sponge cake Mr Davey and Col shared together.
Take the time to read his bio below and know that you can write into the AFL Footy Record and ask your footy questions!
Bio: Col Hutchinson
Geelong Football Club supporter since 1958 and a member since 1961, attended every home match from early in the 1958 season until the end of 2019, and was present at every Geelong match for Premiership points from Round 11, 1963 until the 2019 Preliminary Final.
In 1975, became an honorary match-day statistician, and three years later, became the GFC official historian. At the beginning of 1984 published, 'Cats' Tales', the first attempt to detail the club's League history.
In 1994 was honoured with GFC Life membership, and received the Reg Hickey Award, for outstanding service to Australian football, in 1999. In 2020, was co-recipient of the AFL Jack Titus Recognition of Service Award.
After a career as a primary school teacher, became the AFL Statistician and Historian in 1992, and since November 2005 has had a contractual role as AFL Statistics and History Consultant.
Is a Life Member of the Australian Football Heritage Group, whose charter is to preserve the history of each of the AFL clubs and the code at all levels.
Jonathan Schuster, class of 2005.
Jon visited school first day of term 3 which meant we all started the term with a big smile on our face! We had needed to reschedule the visit multiple times (due to covid restrictions) but it was only a matter of 15years before Jon returned to centre stage in Shenton. Hearing him chat about his memories of school and the realities of life as a comedy actor, set+prop designer and maker and working full time to pay the bills was an enlightening experience. He really hit the mark for the students who are fully involved in the school production of The Addams Family as they had been set+prop deigning and making. Jon offered sage advice "to be funny on stage and always be interested and a nice person off stage. And to connect to all theatre people - roadies, lighting, sound, costume, techies." Living by these words has helped Jon to be employed, happy and very interesting. A special thanks to Mr Mantelli for keeping in touch with Jon.
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