Culture in Action

ASHLEI MAJOR

ST MARGARET MARY’S COLLEGE 2015 GRADUATE

Since graduating from St Margaret Mary’s College in 2015, Ashlei has completed a course through the Huxley Makeup School at TAFE Queensland and is currently working for Fenty Beauty.

Fenty Beauty was launched in 2017 by A-list celebrity Rihanna as a personal project, and is known for its inclusivity across skin tones and gender. Fenty reached out to Ashlei to form a partnership after seeing her videos on social media using their products and Ashlei now performs her role designing makeup looks for Fenty Beauty from her home in Townsville.

See Ashlei’s incredible makeup skills in action, via her Instagram page @ashlei_major.

KIA CARROLL

COLUMBA CATHOLIC COLLEGE 2018 GRADUATE

Kia was the 2018 Bishop Putney award recipient in her senior year of schooling at Columba Catholic College. Since graduating, Kia has moved to Townsville to study at James Cook University and is currently in her third year of a Bachelor of Education (Primary).

During her time at university, Kia has remained committed to her studies and last year was awarded ‘The Indigenous Undergraduate Student’s Top Academic Award’, and has been nominated for another Indigenous student award this year.

Kia is set to graduate at the end of 2021 and is looking forward to starting her career in education.

ELISABETH MATTERS

ST MARGARET MARY’S COLLEGE 2020 GRADUATE

Elisabeth Matters is a past St Margaret Mary’s College student who graduated in 2020. Elisabeth is currently undertaking a Cert III in Carpentry with Ausco Modular. Elisabeth chose to pursue this pathway after winning the North Queensland School Based Apprentice or Trainee of the Year award last year. During her apprenticeship so far, Elisabeth has gained valuable experience working on major projects such as stage one of the DriveIt NQ development project.

Congratulations

to our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander graduating class of 2021

INSPIRING OUR FUTURE LEADERS

The First Peoples Emerging Leaders Incentive Scheme is a holistic and equity based approach to Indigenous scholarships and student development within Townsville Catholic Education (TCE) secondary schools.

All Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students across the 11 secondary schools in the Diocese are able to join the program. As an Emerging Leader, each student completes a Personal Leadership Agreement with the support of a mentor and their school’s own Emerging Leaders Coordinator.

The Personal Leadership Agreement requires the Emerging Leader to set goals based on the three pillars of the program:

• attendance • academic improvement; and • engagement.

Once the agreement is in place, Emerging Leaders receive a school fee subsidy, uniform allowance, and opportunities to participate in activities that support attendance, academic improvement and engagement in: • community service • cultural events; and • other experiences.

There are currently more than 580 Emerging Leaders on the program across the 11 TCE secondary schools.

“The Emerging Leaders Incentive Scheme sets high expectations of our Indigenous students and families whilst rewarding and promoting a culture of high attendance and academic improvement, seeing students fully engaged in their schooling,” said Tammi Webber, Townsville Catholic Education Indigenous Education Adviser.

As part of the Emerging Leaders' journey, students participate in leadership, cultural and wellbeing experiences. These activities aim to equip students with the tools they need to meet the challenges of schooling and adolescence.

The Emerging Leaders Program was introduced in 2018 in partnership with the Australian Government and has seen more than 2300 students transition successfully through the program.

OUR STUDENTS FEEL THEY ARE EMERGING LEADERS BECAUSE:

“It helps us become a leader because to earn our Personal Incentive Goal we need to do these leadership activities and/ or programs, and by doing so is becoming an emerging leader.”

“I am an emerging leader because I will go out of my way to help anyone with almost anything and I enjoy volunteering for events” “Since I started this program a few years ago, I have noticed that I have become much more involved within the community, I even had the courage to take on the role of an Indigenous leader, and I am grateful to have this opportunity. I am trying my best to support my fellow Indigenous students and put forward ideas that will benefit us as a union.”