Issue 66 May 2021
Welcome to the Autumn 2021 issue of the St Ann’s College newsletter
It has been a very busy quarter, as our new and returning students settle in to the year ahead. We’re continuing to invest in improvements to the College, including upgrades to the kitchen servery, the finishing touches to Melbourne House, the addition of plantation shutters to the library, and planning for the new gymnasium. We’ve held two events on behalf of the St Ann’s Foundation, and hosted a number of fascinating guest speakers, including The Premier of South Australia, Steven Marshall MP.
We have also launched two new Scholarship appeals – one in memory of College Club President Chelsea Masclet, and one to honour the contribution of former Principal, Dr Rosemary Brooks. Many of our students and Collegians have also achieved great things, in sport and academic pursuits, which we share below.
Denise von Wald
Honouring the life of Chelsea Masclet
Following the very sad news that College Club President Chelsea Masclet passed away just before Christmas, the College community has launched a number of initiatives to honour her exceptional life.
Firstly, the Collegians Association has launched a new scholarship appeal, currently open for donations. This new scholarship will be in Chelsea’s name and will support a student at St Ann’s each year. To honour her achievements, the Scholarship will be bestowed on a student who demonstrates many of the qualities Chelsea displayed. The chosen recipient will be an academic high achiever, who represents St Ann’s in sport and participates enthusiastically in the social life of the College.
The Collegians Association, along with many current members of the College have set up a Go Fund Me page to raise funds for the scholarship.
All donations are welcome and can be pledged here.
The College Club is also introducing a new award in Chelsea’s honour which will be presented at the annual awards ceremony later in the year. It will be a sporting award that will be given to a sportsperson who reflects Chelsea’s courage, commitment, sheer love of sport and for playing for College.
At the SAAUCC footy grand final on 16 May, friends of Chelsea’s and members of the other University College Clubs of SA came together before the final girls’ game against Flinders to have a moment’s silence and share their memories. In honour of both her sporting contributions and all that she brought to College life, SAAUCC also nominated the first of a perpetual ‘Best Female Football Player Award’, named the ‘Chelsea Masclet Award’ at the event which went to Ellie Fixter.
Kennedy Brooks Halls of Residences officially launches
On 24 March we officially launched the Kennedy Brooks Halls of Residences, the newest building resulting – in part – from generous funds from donors. These ten rooms sit atop the Enterprise Deck study area, and are the finest in student accommodation, many having kitchenettes and en-suite bathrooms. St Ann’s meritocratic policy means these rooms tend to be home for some of our longest residing students, who have contributed whole-heartedly to the College community, whilst also excelling academically.
Around 80 guests joined us, including friends of St Ann’s, Governors, Collegians, current students and those who help steer the direction of the College.
Guests included The Hon Anne Levy AO, The Hon Rachel Sanderson MP, Deputy Lord Mayor of Adelaide Mary Couros, Councillor Alexander Hyde as well as Mrs Cathy Kennedy and former Principal Dr Rosemary Brooks, whose generous donations assisted the building of the Kennedy Brooks Enterprise Deck.
Guests were greeted with a glass of wine and our Patron, Uncle Lewis Yerloburka O’Brien, AO held the official ‘Welcome to Country’. We heard from Fellow Jim Howard AM RFD, who talked about how scholarships and donations to the College can be so life changing to many students, and introduced Dr Rosemary Brooks, sharing details of a new scholarship in her honour.
Dr Brooks thanked all those involved with the building of the Kennedy Brooks Enterprise Deck and Halls of Residence and shared her gratitude for those who have supported the College over a number of years. The event concluded over a glass or two of wine and canapes from the kitchen team.
The new Dr Rosemary Brooks Scholarship appeal is now open and we are actively calling for donations. The new Scholarship will help to support a student or students from a rural and remote location across South Australia, who may otherwise not have had the opportunity to attend University, without incurring significant debt.
If you are interested in contributing or finding out more, please do contact the College at info@stannscollege.edu.au
Read a letter here from Jason Turnbull, Chair of the Foundation regarding the scholarship and how you can donate.
Broadening minds with guest speakers
In Autumn 2021, we welcomed a number of speakers to address students at several of our formal dinners. This speaker program introduces students to inspiring people from all walks of life who share news of their careers, their personal story, or open their eyes to a cause or issue that may inspire them.
The first speaker we welcomed was Australian of the Year Dr James Muecke AM. Dr Muecke shared his fascinating life to date since graduating from the University of Adelaide Medical School, including working as a Doctor in East Africa and Asia to his role today as a Social Entrepreneur.
Having specialised in eye health, Dr Muecke founded Sight for All, a charity with the ‘Big hairy audacious goal’ of ‘Creating a world where everyone can see’.
He shared his beliefs on what it takes to be a successful social entrepreneur and how others can also harness their passion to change the world.
Later in March Gemma Burdon, who is General Manager of Zahra Foundation Australia joined us for dinner.
Gemma shared the history of the not-for-profit organisation, from its founding to the essential work it does today to support women and children in South Australia who are affected by domestic and family violence.
In May, we were thrilled to host the Premier of South Australia, Steven Marshall MP. He outlined his experiences from studying in Adelaide through to becoming the State’s 46th Premier in 2018. He shared his personal enthusiasm for College life, having studied in the UK for a while and mixed with a diverse range of people, studying various disciplines. He talked about how despite the challenges of the past year, now was such a good time to be exploring career options in Adelaide, with many emerging industries such as renewable energy, machine learning, space, film, gaming and cybersecurity considered growth areas.
Students move into ‘Melbourne House’
The good news that St Ann’s was to be over capacity for 2021 brought with it the small issue of where to put everyone! The College had purchased the adjacent property at 288 Melbourne Street a few years ago, which had most recently been used as a doctors’ surgery, so the team set about getting refurbishment underway in record time. The property has eight spacious bedrooms with high ceilings, typical of the property, a common living area, kitchen and bathrooms and is accessible via the Melbourne Street entrance to St Ann’s.
Before
After
Friends of St Ann’s annual luncheon May 2021
An intimate lunch in the newly refurbished library was held in early May for the Friends of St Ann’s College with a highly distinguished group of Collegians, Council and Foundation members. At the lunch, the Principal Denise von Wald commented that St Ann’s is so successful today because of the contribution of its Governors, Council Members and Collegians. She said, “we are standing on the shoulders of giants” and it is their intellectual greatness that underpins our College’s culture and strategy today. She also expressed her gratitude to those who have contributed for many years to make St Ann’s the special place it is today.
Guests enjoyed a three-course meal paired with wines and were served by members of the Tutor team.
Welcome Week 2021: A recap
Yet again the first week of College was a huge success for everyone. Everyone was out in their yellow and green on Sunday to help move the first years in; we even had some enthusiastic first years putting their hands up to help move their fellow students into their rooms. Once everyone had moved in and was getting settled it was time to say goodbye to the parents as we moved to the Lion Hotel. It was great to see everyone mingling without any restrictions after the year we all had in 2020. Upon returning to College we had the annual water fight across in the park where everyone got involved, with returners targeting first years, and first years getting their fair share of returners back.
Monday night saw the first years receive their gifts of headbands and a pair of binoculars to fit with the theme ‘Welcome to the Jungle’. This was followed by the Frontyard Party, again a major success. It was amazing to see everyone talking to each other, with the only way to discern between first years and returners being the headbands everyone was wearing.
Tuesday saw the new and improved COVID friendly Amazing Race, followed by speed dating. The first years were heavily involved in each event with some heavy debating occurring over some controversial topics at speed dating.
The dress up nights were great fun, as everyone went all out in truly outlandish costumes, including the Jungle themed pub night.
All week people had been frantically studying to prepare for the first-year exam and I am proud to say that everyone passed with flying colours despite College Clubs best efforts to try and put them off their game. This was then followed by the Merch Parade where our lovely tutors modelled all of our merch, and I’m sure they definitely convinced everyone that they needed to get some of that ‘Boony’ gear.
Saturday saw us waking everyone bright and early ready for the annual beach picnic. Everyone was decked out in their best Hawaiian shirts ready for a great day of swimming and games, as well as a BBQ lunch. After the big day, and even bigger week we were treated to some KFC from College Club, as well as some bacon and eggs provided by our amazing chef, Rohit. It was great to see everyone recovering and recharging their batteries out in the spectacular Rose Garden, already showing how close everyone had become.
All in all, despite the challenges of accommodating an extra 30 students this year, I am delighted to say that Welcome Week 2021 was a huge success. We are all looking forward to a full year of College (touch wood), and another year of creating friendships and memories with our fellow Boons!
Student News
Bridgette McKinnon from Mount Gambier, who is in her fourth year at St Ann’s was recently selected in the Shooting Australia Training Squad, giving her access to the best shotgun coaching in Australia.
At a qualification event for the 2021 Oceania championships in 2021 held in Melbourne in late March, she won her grade and is currently sitting at ‘Number 3’ in the women skeet shooters. She was the only person in the Skeet shooting to shoot a perfect round score of 25/25. With further qualification events over the next few months, Bridgette hopes to remain at number 3, which would secure her spot in the championships. Her local paper, The Border Watch wrote about it here.
Kahli Lock, who is in her first year at St Ann’s featured in her local paper, the Border Chronicle for being the recipient of the 2021 Playford/ Chartwells / St Ann’s College Residential Scholarship which supports students from regional South Australia who are studying sciences, engineering, mathematics of technology.
Dineshkumar (Dinesh) Sivasubramanian, originally from Tamil Nadu in India is in his second year at St Ann’s, studying his final year of a Bachelor of Accounting and Corporate Finance at the University of Adelaide. He secured an internship with Adelaide accounting firm in late 2020, assisting with ad-hoc tasks and tax returns, and in early 2021 was afforded a permanent part time role as a Graduate Accountant, working three days a week – while also studying.
His role within the Business Advisory team includes recording transactions from source documents, preparing business activity statements, completing tax returns and other advisory services. Dinesh will be completing his final exams in June/ July and hopes to stay in Adelaide and continue with PKF.
Collegian News
Julian Zheng (2019) joined St Ann’s College as an international student from China to study a Bachelor of Engineering Honours) (Civil), knowing relatively little about Australian culture or having any connections in Adelaide. Fast forward five years, and Julian is now an Australian citizen, officially welcomed to the country in March 2021. Julian credits his St Ann’s experience with helping him on this journey, saying “Through my five-year journey at St Ann’s, the people at the College including staff and students showered me with friendship, love and respect. It transformed me from an introverted foreign teenager to a confident young professional. Those long-term friendship I received at college and skills I built during my time at St Ann’s were what had driven me to go for Australian citizenship. Today, I made the important step of pleading my loyalty to the country at my citizenship ceremony and can finally call myself a proud Australian.”
Liam Kain (2020) recently graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Space Science and Astrophysics) and is now working as a contractor with the Defence Science and Technology Group, in Electronic Warfare in particular. His role involves providing capability development, acquisition and operational support to the Australian Defence Force’s Electronic Warfare capabilities in Air, Land and Sea domains.
St Ann’s Collegians graduate from University
In April and May the Universities of Adelaide, South Australia and Flinders University held their graduation ceremonies, with many former St Ann’s students taking part in this rite of passage, and gaining their certificates. We offer our congratulations to all the students, who include:
Collegians’ Association Representative Renee van der Hoek (Bachelor of Podiatry); former College Club Treasurer Joe Martin (Mathematical Sciences -Advanced); 2020 Tutor Georgia Ferguson (Bachelor of Media); College Club member Julia Scott (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery); Abbey Barrett (Bachelor of Nursing), who continues to provide academic tutoring to the current students; James Lyon-Green-Rudland (Bachelor of Arts in Japanese); Dr Stefanie Lopriore (Honours Degree of Bachelor of Psychology – Advanced) and Collegians Association Secretary, Wendy Matson (Bachelors of Health and Medical Science – Advanced, now studying Honours in Health and Medical Science with SAHMRI).
Thanks to the Collegians who shared photos below of their special day – we congratulate them (L-R) Renee van der Hoek, Joe Martin, Rylee Norton, Emma Waide, Jayden McInnes, Dr Stefanie Lopriore, Paul Newland and Connor Shalley.
In memoriam: Dr Trevor Nagel
Dr Trevor Nagel, the first male tutor at St Ann’s College sadly passed away in February 2021, aged 70.
South Australian-born and bred, Dr Nagel graduated from the University of Adelaide with a first-class degree in law and was soon a professor at Sydney University Law School and the Elton Mayo School of Management at UniSA, before moving to the US, where he practiced law and eventually became partner at prestigious firm White and Case in Washington DC and was a member of the International Bar Association’s global technology group.
Dr Nagel’s sister, Paula resides in North Adelaide and is a close friend of St Ann’s. Our thoughts are with Paula and the family.
We’d love to hear from you!
Remember, we’re always eager to hear what St Ann’s Collegians are up to, so please do get in touch with your news: marketing@stannscollege.edu.au