Jodene’s Story

Jodene Garstone (EM’16) is a Jahru and Bardi woman who joined Geelong Grammar School in Year 7 in 2011 from Halls Creek, a remote community in the Kimberley. Jodene remembers how excited she was to explore the world beyond her community and her first impressions of Corio. “It was so amazing and grand. I’d never seen anything like it,” she said. “I was really young, it was just the most exciting thing, and I didn’t think that I would get homesick.” She was wrong. For an 11-year-old girl in an unfamiliar environment, with her family on the other side of Australia, overcoming homesickness was an early lesson in resilience. “I knew that I was extremely lucky to have this scholarship to go to Geelong. I was trying to be tough because I really wanted to be here (at GGS), and I was enjoying myself, and I didn’t want Mum and Dad to worry about me because they were so far away.”

Despite the initial homesickness, Jodene felt supported, accepted and encouraged at GGS. “The teachers were so encouraging; they really pushed you to be your best, believed in you, and wanted the best for you. It was a whole new experience for me. I loved the variety of subjects. I could really feel myself growing as a student and as a person. I feel like Geelong Grammar is a community of diversity and that it’s a melting pot of so many different cultures and people from different backgrounds learning from each other.” There were more lifechanging lessons at Timbertop. “It was so different to being out bush than the way my family is out bush. It taught me that determination is more important than motivation, which is something that I’ve taken into other aspects of my life.”

Jodene’s determination to make the most of every opportunity is evident. Whilst she didn’t get the ATAR score in Year 12 to study her first preference at university, Jodene “worked really hard for the first year” at ANU to transition and will graduate with a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) and Bachelor of Arts in November 2023. “I have surprised myself. This scholarship (to GGS) put me out of my comfort zone and put me in a place that I never thought I’d be. I’ve exceeded my own expectations of myself, and that’s been so important. Being in a supportive environment with the safety net that the School creates, you can explore who you are. I used to be this really shy girl. I’m loving this journey of growing and it was sparked by coming here (to GGS) and being allowed to be someone different.”

Whilst studying at ANU, Jodene completed an internship with the National Native Title Council (NNTC) and serves as Co-Chair of King & Wood Mallesons’ First Nations Youth Voice Council. “I want to make a difference to the lives of others. I feel that I’m on the right path, working in the space of Indigenous rights and human rights. All these opportunities are giving me the experience and the tools that I need. I can speak on behalf of Aboriginal people in a majority non-Indigenous space. I know that’s a space where my voice can be heard and respected, to work with other like-minded people to implement change. We need to be seen and heard. Everybody needs to know the beauty of our culture, not just what they hear on the news or all the stereotypes.”

The shy 11-year-old girl who arrived at Corio from a remote community in the Kimberley was MC at this year’s Yalari graduation at Parliament House in Canberra, celebrating the 2022 cohort of 26 Yalari Year 12 graduates, including Troy Brown (Yr12 P), Marlley McNamara (Yr12 Ga), Cassie Peris (Yr12 Ga) and Tahlia See (Yr12 Ga). It was an opportunity for Jodene to share her story of navigating the delicate path between two worlds with confidence and purpose. “I am living in two worlds but it’s the best of both worlds,” she explained. “I’m living in a world of opportunity and education and fulfilment and purpose. I can also go home and reconnect with my family and my culture on country. It’s just so beautiful to be in the middle.”

Mody’s Story

The story of Mody Yim (FB’21) is one of remarkable resilience and opportunity. In 2021, Mody became the third Lee Hysan Scholarship student to be Dux of Geelong Grammar School in the space of five years, following in the footsteps of Nat Lam (Ga’17) and Bernice Ng (Ga’18). What makes Mody’s story more remarkable is that he was marooned in Australia for two years and unable to return home to Hong Kong during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through school closures and remote learning, Mody was supported by his Australian guardian, Susie Officer (Potter, Je’83), her husband Bruce (M’78) and their children, Amy (Yr12 Fr) and Thomas (Fr’20), and niece Emma Doak (Fr’19).

The Lee Hysan Foundation enabled Mody to come to GGS, the Officer family enabled him to stay and immerse himself in everyday Australian life. “Because of the pandemic we built a much stronger relationship together,” Mody said. “They helped me a lot. I got to learn more about the Australian culture. I learned how to become a better person because of them.”

Mody achieved a perfect IB score of 45 (equating to an ATAR of 99.95), but the objective of the Lee Hysan Scholarship is to provide students from Hong Kong whose families could not otherwise afford to study overseas with “an all-round education” at boarding school in Australia and the UK (offering scholarships to Rugby School as well as GGS). Roland Wu (P’93) volunteers with the Lee Hysan Foundation to select scholarship recipients and mentor students. Roland explained that the School’s focus on holistic education was extremely important. “For Mody and every other Lee Hysan scholar, one thing they take away from school deeply in their heart is that an academic school report is not everything,” Roland said. “If Mody had remained in Hong Kong, I think his academic result would represent him. But at GGS I saw him jumping into school life – he was a stage manager for one of the school musicals, he constantly spoke about mates in Francis Brown House, he really cherished the friendships, and he really loved the boarding school environment.”

The Lee Hysan Foundation is a private family foundation established in Hong Kong in 1973. For nearly 40 years it has actively supported meaningful and impactful charity initiatives in Hong Kong across education, culture, environment, health and social welfare. The foundation focuses on initiatives that benefit Hong Kong – the boarding school scholarships are designed to “create a much deeper and long-lasting beneficial impact which will help to develop productive citizens who can contribute to Hong Kong”. With the financial support of the foundation, Mody is now studying a Bachelor of Biomedicine at Melbourne University, which is the pathway to the Doctor of Medicine (MD) programme. “I wanted to become a doctor as early as I can remember,” he said. “It is one of my first memories.” Mody doesn’t know where his medical degree will take him, but he does know one thing for sure: “I will give back to the Hong Kong community”.

Mody describes the opportunity to attend GGS as “life changing”. “Without this scholarship, I would not have even dreamed of going to Australia for a vacation, let alone studying here. I could not thank the Lee Hysan Foundation enough for the opportunity it provided me.”