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Youth Citizen of the Year
Jennifer Gong was nominated for Youth Citizen of the Year for her outstanding contribution to the Make-A Wish Foundation and the Adopt a Pensioner charity. The Glen Eira Rotary Club held a dinner in recognition of the four Youth Citizen of the Year Award finalists, including Jennifer. On the night, Jennifer delivered an inspiring speech about the Rotary Club and its continuing good works. She was subsequently announced as the winner of the 2011 Youth Citizen Award. Jennifer won $500 for her chosen charity, Adopt a Pensioner. She also won $500 for a charity based program to be conducted at Kilvington.
Cut to Give Fundraiser
Giulia Oppedisano, a Year 11 student at Kilvington Grammar School, and her mother Roberta had teamed up to publicly cut 35 centimetres of hair from their heads to benefit the Princess Charlotte Alopecia Foundation’s ‘Tresses For Princesses’ program.
On Thursday, June 23 in Kilvington’s Dalton Hall, the two brave souls went under a pair of scissors in what was a truly hair-raising event. Students and staff at the school offered their much needed personal cheers during this special event, and further supported the event by donating a gold coin to the Princess Charlotte Alopecia Foundation.
Giulia Oppedisano believes that “to be able to give to someone who has not, is a kind, generous and rewarding thing to do.” “Hair, that has taken so long to grow, will be made into a beautiful wig for someone who really needs it.” “Not only will it give them the feeling of having their hair back, it will give them confidence, a return of self esteem, and allow them to be just like everyone else,” said Giulia
Kilvington Grammar would like to thank Giulia Oppedisano and her mother for their generous participation in this special event. We would also like to thank including David and Louise from Emphasis Hair for taking part in this special event and making a difference to children who suffer from Alopecia areata.
A 7-year old Stella Hammet who suffers from Alopecia, and her mother, Erin Horsley, attended this event to address students and watch hair cutting.
Giulia, Roberta and Stella David, Roberta, Louise and Giulia
VCE Premier’s Awards
On Monday 30th May the 2010 VCE Premier’s Awards were presented to last year’s VCE high achievers. Kilvington’s Sarah Holper, having achieved the highest possible ATAR of 99.95, received two awards, a French award and a Top-All Round VCE High Achiever award. The Top-All Round VCE High Achiever award is awarded to students who have achieved study scores of 46 or higher in at least five VCE studies in the current year and the year immediately prior. For 2010 there were only 20 students identified as Top-All Round VCE High Achievers. Sarah’s achievement is absolutely outstanding. It was a very proud moment for Sarah, her family and, of course, the School.
Golfing Success
Golf can be a game of patience but Kilvington student Shanaiah Fernando hasn’t had to wait long for success. Shanaiah is just 11 years old and she recently won the under 18 Victorian State Girls Golf Championship. Shanaiah played some outstanding shots to put together the winning round against a talented field. She also competed in the 2011 Stuart Appleby Rookie Series and was declared the winner of the Under 14 section. Shanaiah will go on to play in the National titles later in the year and we wish her all the best.
Press Club Lunch with Mike Quigley
On 22 March, students from Business Management 3/4 were lucky enough to join Mr. Charlton in attending a Melbourne Press Club luncheon. On this particular occasion, we all heard Mr Mike Quigley, the Executive Chairman of the National Broadband Network, present a speech. Recently, his new plan to utilise $36 billion dollars in order to improve our current internet, making it faster, capable to download more megabytes in shorter time, and more efficient in general, has sparked a mixed reaction and much discussion from the general public. Mr. Quigley was instrumental in addressing some common concerns in an enthusiastic and engaging way, and also was able to clarify some widespread misconceptions. It was a most interesting and enjoyable lunch.
Robotics at Kilvington
Over the first Term, Year 5 and 6 students have been involved in an inquiry into robotics. This has involved looking at robots used in our society today, learning to programme the schools NXT robots and designing our very own robots.
The Robotics Programming Challenge saw the students teach their robot to dance to music. The students were asked to include movements including forward, backward, left, right and a spin. The creativity of their choreography showed some of the robots dancing in time to music. We used a software program called Lego Mindstorms to program these fascinating objects. The programming was complicated and we learnt to use the training module which gave us step-by-step instructions on how to make our robot do as it is told. Our latest challenge was robot dancing, where in groups or individually, we have been programming our robots to move in time to a song. It has been so much fun to programme the robots and listen to music we like. We had to be very precise so the moves the robot was programmed to do were in time. We then had the robots perform the dance to the class in an official class dance off and everyone did such a great job.
Excellence in Science
On the evening of Wednesday 9 March, Year 11 students Amelia Barrow, Cher Chen and Loreena Hem were invited to attend the 2011 Graeme Clark Oration and Dinner. The Oration was given by Professor Terry Sejnowski (Professor of Biology and Neuroscience, University of California San Diego). His topic was the workings of the brain, whether we are any closer to building artificial brains, how our understanding of the brain is transforming ideas about learning, the role of social robots and the bionic eye.
Amelia, Cher and Loreena were invited, along with four students from other schools as guests of VESKI (Victorian Endowment for Science Knowledge and Innovation) having been recognised as science students of excellence from their entries in the BHP Billiton 2010 Science Awards. The evening gave the students a chance to talk one on one over dinner, with eminent science professionals such as the Dean of the Faculty of Science at the University of Melbourne, the CEO of St Vincent’s Hospital as well as current university medicine and science students.
Art About Town’ Finalists
Late last year, a number of Kilvington students created artworks to illustrate their local community in the hope that theirs might be chosen for the front cover of the Bayside Yellow Pages. We were lucky enough to have two students reach the finals and have their artworks on display in an exhibition at the Gasworks Art Park. Giulia Oppedisano from Year 11 and our Art Captain Gemma Mattea both missed out on the cover, but are to be congratulated on making it to the finals. Well done, girls!
Giulia Gemma