Each year, we host a series of Career Conversations sessions where our current Year 12 students learn from our returning alumni. Over the years, generations of our girls have brought positive change to the world with empathy, humility and drive. As our current Year 12 students prepare to join this legacy, our Careers Conversations sessions offer them a glimpse into their futures.
Each session, themed around a specific industry or career, invites recently graduated alumni to share their personal and professional journeys, helping students plan for life beyond their final year of school. During these sessions, our alumni act as mentors, answering questions, recommending programs to apply for and offering networking advice for university. The discussions are frank and realistic, allowing students to gain valuable insights from women who have been in their shoes.
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“The Career Conversations events are a great opportunity for our alumni to come back to St Cath’s and connect with our current students,” Mrs Meagan Sharpe (Mclachlan, STC2003), Community Relations Manager, said. She noted the consistently positive response from both alumni and current students after each event. “It is incredible that our alumni get to play a role in helping our Year 12s begin to plan what their lives post-St Cath’s will look like,” she added.
Our Tertiary Adviser, Ms Ramona Lobo, has seen this firsthand. “These sessions let our Year 12 students hear directly from recent graduates, making the advice more relatable and impactful. Students get great ideas about potential jobs, learn how career paths can change and can ask about the challenges and steps needed to reach their career goals,” she said.
Harriet Hedger (STC2017)
Harriet loved doing Legal Studies during her time as a student at St Catherine’s but felt that a career as a lawyer wasn’t the right path for her. But then her class did a unit on criminology and all of the pieces fell into place. Here was a career that would allow her to explore her passion for the law in an active way, helping to shape the future of criminal justice. Harriet spent four years at university studying criminology. Harriet was then accepted into a government graduate program before moving into a role in justice. She now works in criminal justice policy reform for the ACT Government. “I’m not sure I would have had the same opportunities in my career if I didn’t go to school at St Cath’s. It showed me what was possible.”
Joanne Liu (STC2017)
Joanne didn’t set out to find success working
in the finance industry. Yet that’s exactly
where she is now, working for a management
consultancy firm, and she couldn’t be happier.
Joanne credits St Catherine’s with giving her
the self-belief and drive to succeed in a highly competitive industry. “I feel really grateful that I went to a school that instilled in me the kind of confidence to back myself,” she said. She
also mentioned the friendships she made
at St Catherine’s have been an invaluable
support network for her in her career and that
she couldn’t imagine life without her precious
school friends.
Elisabeth Cola (STC2019)
From Orchestra to Softball, Elisabeth
immersed herself in as many cocurricular
activities as possible during the seven years
she spent with us. Through these programs,
she discovered numerous passions and
hobbies that continue to enrich her life.
They also helped Elisabeth build “skills in
developing solutions and problem-solving”,
which she continues to use in her career.
Elisabeth now works in the technology
industry after receiving a Co-op Program
Scholarship to study software engineering at
The University of NSW. She feels especially
proud to be able to apply the skills she
learned at school to help people transform
their businesses using technology.
