New awards a feature at Speech Night 2020 The legacies of two inspiring Old Collegians was acknowledged with the introduction of two new awards in their honour at the 2020 PLC Perth Speech Night. Principal Cate Begbie said she was humbled to present the inaugural Dr June Jones and Dr Patricia Kailis Awards, in recognition of two extraordinary women whose dedication and service to PLC has left lasting legacies. Ms Begbie said the Dr June Jones Award recognised Old Collegians whose professional or volunteer accomplishments demonstrated a significant positive impact – locally, nationally or internationally. The Dr Patricia Kailis Awards celebrates achievements in the areas of innovation and entrepreneurship for alumni aged 40 years and younger.
The inaugural awards were presented to Donna Shepherd AM (1980), pictured right, and Tasmin Venter (2008), pictured below left, respectively. Ms Shepherd is the Chair of the Board of Directors of World Vision International and Managing Director of Creating Communities Australia. She is a humanitarian, entrepreneur and consultant. Her passion for social justice saw her move into international development, working with El Taller in Tunisia and lecturing in international development in masters programmes in the United States, Ecuador and Australia. At World Vision Ms Shepherd launched the ‘It take takes a world to end violence against children’ campaign in Addis Ababa in 2017. In 2020 she was made a Member of the Order of Australia for her significant service to children through international humanitarian aid organisations. Ms Venter joined Shell as a graduate engineer and has been a trailblazer for women in engineering at the company. Her role has taken her across the world and in the past few years she has worked on the Prelude FLNG, the first project of its kind to develop the world’s largest floating structure and first every floating LNG vessel. Ms Venter’s most recent position as Reliability Engineer requires creativity and innovation for the FLNG, one of the most challenging oil and gas assets in the world.
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COVID-19 failed to dampen the spirits of the Class of 2020 and the cohort’s resilience was on show at their final Speech Night. 2020 Head Prefect Ella Miels urged students to look beyond the pandemic and to seize their moments in life to ensure they made most of their opportunities. “Don’t try to only do great things,” she told the crowd. “Try to do small things with great meaning. Seize your moments.” It was a fitting speech to end Speech Night which dazzled all with a rendition of Elton John and Bernie Taupin’s I’m Still Standing, by the PLC Stage Band and Year 12 vocalist Emma van Schouwen, and the Combined Choirs, Years 3-6 Choristers and Bartok String Orchestra’s We’ll Rise Above by Jeannine Lasky and Masa Fukuda.
