Carmel Hempenstall, Class of 1968, has spent many years as a teacher, at both St. Martin’s in the Pines and Damascus College. After completing high school as a boarder at St Martin’s in the Pines, Carmel completed a Bachelor of Economics at La Trobe University followed by a Diploma of Education. She taught at St Patrick's College Ballarat, Keoghan College Broadmeadows, Catholic College Sydenham, Loreto College Ballarat and Ballarat School of Mines.

During her teaching career and alongside her work in schools, Carmel has consistently chosen to study and work to improve the lives of young people at the margins of society. While teaching at St. Martin's she was a volunteer at both Lisa Lodge and Hayeslee, doing night shifts caring for young people who were in care and deemed at risk by the court.

She has worked as an Honorary Probation Officer in the children’s courts in Ballarat and Broadmeadows and has served on committees of organisations that fostered opportunities for young people, including those not always well served by existing structures.

An active participant on committees associated with the Childcare, Kindergarten, and Primary and Secondary schools attended by her two children, Carmel was the inaugural Catholic Education representative on the Highlands Local Learning and Employment Network Committee of Management for five years.

Carmel’s is a life dedicated to action - she was on the Management Committee of the Ballarat Learning Exchange (BLX), President of the Ballarat Careers Education Network, Ballarat Diocesan representative of the Catholic Education Commission of Victorian Pathways Network, and a Board Member of Centacare Ballarat. She was also involved in the introduction of the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) and coordinated the introduction of it at Damascus College as part of a trial across 21 sites in Victoria. She was responsible for the development of the Industry Skills Strand of VCAL.

In 2016 she was awarded Life Membership of the Australian Centre for Career Education. In retirement, Carmel became part of the formation of the Asylum Seekers Pathways Steering Group. This program was developed for young students seeking asylum and explored strategies to find employment and education for students who were not entitled to government-funded education or training places. The Pathways project has since expanded and now forms much of the directions being taken by The Hope Co-operative which recently won a Victorian Multicultural Award (2022).

Her work at The Hope Co-operative also included the production of ‘The Shape of Hope’ book, a collection of Asylum Seekers’ stories documenting why they left home, how they got to Australia, and what it is like to start building a new life. Stories that include bombs, broken-down boats, summer bushfires and all-night study sessions in the middle of winter. Each story is unique, but there are common threads - frustrations with visas and bureaucracies, and the excitement of being accepted into university or getting a job. The Shape of Hope is a beautiful book that gives very practical insights into the barriers faced by asylum seekers and how they overcame them.

Carmel’s life's work has focused on developing pathways for young people living on the margins of society. She has maintained this focus in all her choices as a teacher, a community leader, and a participant in modelling new ways to change the lives of society’s most vulnerable. Carmel has made a difference in many lives and continues to do so by steadily taking action, often in unobtrusive ways, to change or work around unjust structures which form obstacles for those excluded from mainstream society. Carmel’s passion for social justice is an example to us all.

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