Mary Fitz-Gerald Tribute

Mary Fitz-Gerald College Principal 2001 – 2020

Following are edited extracts from three contributions to 'Let your light shine for others', a tribute publication acknowledging 20 years of outstanding leadership of Mater Christi College by Mary Fitz-Gerald.

As I reflect on Mary Fitz-Gerald’s fine qualities and gifts I think of a feminine image of the Good Samaritan on a very modern-day mountain ‘Jericho’ road responding to the needs of the College community with genuine hospitality and compassion.

Mary is a true Benedictine woman who has epitomised values of peace, stability and perseverance in creating the inclusive, welcoming and vibrant learning community that Mater Christi is today. She regularly acknowledges through her writing and teaching the guidance offered by St Benedict. She believes that his advice to ‘arrange everything so that the strong have something to yearn for and the weak nothing to run from’ provides a daily challenge for all at Mater Christi.

Mary is strong in holding Mater Christi’s ancestral story and at the same time looking to the future. She has a deep respect for the legacy of the Good Sams. She often speaks with great admiration for Sr Mary Ronayne’s humility and courage in sharing her prophetic vision and wisdom.

Mater Christi staff are encouraged by Mary, a natural mentor, to take up their leadership roles with confidence and with her implicit trust in their professional skills and initiatives.

Mary is a woman of great strength, integrity and courage. She can always name the heart of a matter in truth and with pastoral concern and respect for the wellbeing of individuals whether they be Good Sam Sisters, board members, staff, students or families. She also has a wonderful sense of humour and can hold things lightly even at those times that I know she found very challenging. Mary’s vision for education in a contemporary and challenging world, her deep commitment to her pastoral responsibility, and leadership through nurturing her own spirit in the Benedictine tradition and Good Samaritan story, will be her legacy.

Mary is a true leader in the Benedictine tradition as servant…visionary…with a discerning spirit and faithful to Mater Christi’s Motto: Informed…Compassionate…Creative

Veronica Hoey sgs

Of all Mary’s wonderful qualities, the first that comes to mind is her energy, a very important, perhaps underrated, trait in a leader. Regardless of the time or day, whether presenting ideas and information to staff, or in smaller meetings in her office, across a spectrum of daily encounters both formal and informal, Mary projects boundless energy. She never looks tired or indicates that she is. Mary has energy to do things, to think things, to speak of what needs to be spoken to, and to read the plethora of documents, letters, memos and submissions which cross her desk on a daily basis. Projecting this energy is infectious and motivating to all at the College. Mary is the most innovative of Principals. She is always exploring new ways of organising the school or exploring new and better teaching and learning facilities and materials. During my time at the College, a complete transformation occurred, especially with the expansion of teaching areas. There was an IT revolution at Mater Christi during Mary’s time and this is certainly an area she ‘drives’ with tremendous enthusiasm. Indeed few schools can match Mater Christi in this area.

Mary has faith in abundance! Faith in the Benedictine tradition and the College Mission Statement; faith in her staff whom she trusts implicitly to ‘deliver’ good teaching; faith in the students whom she challenges to believe in themselves and in their capacity to make a difference; and, finally, faith in herself - she is very conscious of the importance of her role as leader and possesses the self-confidence which all good leaders need to have. As a person, Mary is both humble and approachable. She enjoys a laugh, even at her own expense sometimes. She is unpretentious and mixes comfortably with both teachers and parents. She can be assertive when required but never intimidating. Teachers like Mary and align themselves with her values and work ethic, always with the one overarching aim, namely to provide the best possible education for every Mater Christi student.

Peter Cahill Former Mater Christi College Teacher

In between the extraordinary bookends of 9/11 and a global pandemic lies an amazing 20-year leadership journey tempered by events outside and inside the College. The changing Australian political landscape; crisis in humanity man-made and natural; social change and cultural shifts are never overlooked at staff morning briefings or in countless, well-crafted speeches delivered to students at assemblies.

Within the microcosm of the College so much also happened - a massive shift through the introduction of an International Baccalaureate Curriculum for the Middle Years, a major restructuring of Good Samaritan Education and school governance, huge investments in technology to enhance student learning, restructuring of College leadership teams, a rethinking of the pastoral program, binding learning and well-being, managing course changes or staffing while balancing the increasingly pluralist nature of the College’s demography with the spiritual needs of upholding Catholic identity and Christian values filtered through the Benedictine tradition.

Mary’s journey has been pursued with courage and unflinching conviction. Making change and going beyond the boundaries of the dominant paradigm requires both courage and a degree of calculated risk. There are risks involved when you turn curriculum on its head, when you gradually eliminate all but the most essential text books, when you take away students’ diaries, when you allow two ear piercings instead of one, when you make subtle changes to school uniform, when you festoon the façade of the school with a banner in support of the plight of refugee children in detention, when you do your utmost to support the careers of young mothers as they juggle motherhood and return to career, when you make sure that in this institution there is no such thing as a glass ceiling, when you acknowledge that staff are equally many and varied, in values, lifestyles and beliefs or when you encourage students to stand up publicly for what is right. Some risks cause large waves others barely a ripple. Both require great skill to negotiate and stay the course.

Mary’s courage and unflinching conviction is underpinned by the humanity to understand and nurture the many lives that make up the fabric of the College. Mary’s ability to weave everything cohesively is what gives Mater Christi its much-lauded position as a place of welcome, of innovative and accessible learning and care for all levels of the human condition. All of that can only stem from its driving force and the ability to foster a shared vision and a recognition of common goals

Con Sarris Mater Christi College Teacher