Josh Vaughan

from Pelican Semester 1 2022

Michael Moloney

Class of 1993

My St Edmund’s College journey began in 1985 as a fresh-faced year 4 student. My two older brothers both went to SEC which in some ways paved the path for me. Fortunately, I also had a few good mates from St. Jude’s who had also chosen SEC as their school. The forming of close, and as it turns out, lifetime friends and connections all happened very quickly. I look back and understand that SEC boys were similar in more ways than not and believe this is a characteristic unique to the College. Highlights for me were school camps at Tuross and later retreats in high school and college, Founders Day, Olympic sized trampolines in the quad, representing SEC in Rugby and Dragon Boat, table tennis in the very early years, my mates, some very influential teachers and of course, sausage rolls in a bun. In my final year, 1993, the senior rugby squad toured New Zealand and that truly stands out in my memory. We toured both the north and south islands, played a mix of strong and not so strong teams, and lived large during our free time. It was also during this trip that I made a commitment with a great mate Andrew Howell (Howie) to work together ‘when we grew up!’. After finishing year 12, Howie chose a career in the Army. We kept in regular contact, just not in close proximity, as Howie lived interstate and spent blocks of time away on active service overseas. My first teaching placement whilst at University studying teaching was at SEC under the immediate supervision of College legend and then Head of Primary, Patricia Doyle. Just after graduating, the stars aligned when I landed a job after visiting SEC just prior to school holidays in 1999. I spent the next five years teaching at SEC with a short break in 2016 when I moved to St. Francis of Assisi primary school in Calwell. I returned to SEC in 2017 into the leadership team under the amazing and influential Headmaster Chris Hayes. As a leader, Chris was the complete package. His genuine care and interest shown in all students and staff was ever present and I learned a lot from simply watching and being around the great man. My last year teaching at SEC was 2010. Fast forward to 2012, Howie and I organised ourselves to be in the same place at the time. Over a drink, we were sharing our experiences and our desire to help support adolescent boys. Howie has spent time leading small teams, most of which included men in their late teens and early 20’s. I had spent the best part of ten years in boys education and had moved into the Early Childhood Education and Care sector, where I was employing young men. We shared an understanding of common problems young men experience; we recognised a lack general respect for others and themselves, risky behaviours and the inadvertent attraction towards inappropriate peer

groups and destructive settings. Wanting to help where we could, we pioneered a personal development training course for adolescent boys at-risk. Our course focused on the use of communication and social skills to develop confidence, enrich an adolescent’s life and benefit the community. Everything in the program was based on our learned experiences. In mid 2012, we delivered our first course to Bimberi Youth Detention Centre. Our charity, The Right Direction Australia Limited, came to fruition soon after this initial pilot course and is still in operation today. Whilst Howie has moved on to other endeavours, I continue as CEO. Our flagship program now is Mengineering where we focus on strengthening the father and son bond and relationship. COVID has knocked us around a bit over the last two years, however we plan on moving into school communities this year and beyond. I returned to the education sector in 2013 as an Assistant Principal, then chose to reduce my role and workload due to changing personal and family circumstances. In 2017, I joined CatholicCare Canberra & Goulburn and have spent the last 5 years leading our adult and youth mental health, homelessness, justice, and family services programs. This year, I have taken on a new and exciting challenge in leading the merger between CatholicCare and Marymead, both longstanding welfare organisations and doing amazing things for some of Canberra and surrounds most vulnerable. A jump into the community sector has been an interesting journey and working with youth living with mental ill health has impacted me significantly. Having experienced firsthand early the general lack of identification and supports for young people whose wellbeing is declining, and with my experience in schools and leading both outreach and residential programs for youth with poor mental health, I was driven to do more. I have since developed Kinnections for schools. Kinnections is a web-based platform designed to capture data on students who are at risk of diminishing wellbeing affecting their mental health, allowing teachers to identify which children lack connection with peers, do not feel safe, and lack a positive future focus/ hope. Schools are able to highlight which children are at greatest risk, providing alerts in real time that a child requires intervention and additional or professional support. There is no silver bullet to addressing mental health. What we do know is that the earlier a decline in mental health is identified and supports are in place, the better the outcome in most cases. I really enjoyed my time and experiences within SEC; most were good, some were bad but all memorable and have shaped who I am today. I have a lot of great mates too that I cherish to this day. As a student I appreciated that the teachers really were invested in me and wanted me to experience success; and as a teacher I experienced a very fulfilling career by supporting many students along their way and connected with some amazing humans. ‘Service to others’ is a value that was promoted and lived in SEC. It was the foundation of the Christian Brothers and I believe it to be one of the fundamentals to living a great life. In doing more for others, you receive more in return. Eddies to the fore!

“A quote from our founder that resonates with me and helps me understand faith and service at St Edmund’s is that we should all ‘have faith and courage, for the good seed will grow up in all the children’s hearts, now, or later on’ … It is our Edmund Rice interpretation, and our animation and understanding of faith, spirituality and service that consequently leads to my sense of belonging and connection and makes me want to remain a part of the Eddies community … Everyone who experiences Eddies feels compelled to turn up for each other, to provide love, kindness, empathy and compassion.”