Welcome to the Christmas edition of the alumni e-newsletter.

2020 has been a challenging year for students, staff and of course for our families. COVID-19 has presented many challenges for the world to tackle, and I am proud to say that our Damascus community has risen to the challenge with grit, resilience and resolve.

Our students and staff have adapted quickly to an online learning environment, which at times presented challenges for us all, but our capacity to learn new things and pivot to a new way of doing things was nothing short of remarkable. You can indeed, teach an old dog new tricks!

The wider Ballarat community including members of our alumni have also endured hardship and challenges throughout this pandemic year. I trust that each of you, our alumni, have met these challenges head-on, with the grace and the tenacity needed to overcome and succeed.

As a Damascus community, we farewelled the Class of 2020, and I think it is fair to say that they have had a final year of schooling like no other, one for the history books! As the year drew to a close, it was wonderful to witness our senior students undertaking their final exams in our newest building project, the Damascus Events Centre, which is a purpose-built event and exam space.

As alumni of Damascus College, we now collectively look forward to celebrating our 140 year anniversary in 2021, where we will honour our history dating back to 1881. Past students and staff of Sacred Heart College, St Paul’s Technical College, St Martin’s in the Pines and Damascus College are invited to join us in celebrating this milestone, and we invite you to visit us online to keep up to date with our 140 year celebratory events https://www.damascus.vic.edu.au/news-events/140-year-anniversary

A unique feature of our new website is the Historical Timeline which pictorially tells our 140 year history and celebrates significant milestones along the way. Please take the time to peruse this timeline to learn more of our collective history:

https://www.damascus.vic.edu.au/about-us/history/timeline

We now look forward to 2021 with hope and optimism that we, and the world, achieve the elusive COVID normal so that we can all enjoy a safe Christmas and new year. I am hopeful and optimistic that the resilience of our community continues to shine bright in 2021, and I encourage us all to look back on the year that was, the year of remote learning, with pride.

I wish to thank the Damascus staff for their continued passion and dedication to delivering a quality educational experience for our students, through the ups and downs of remote learning. I encourage you, our alumni, to get involved in the life of your College, to reach out, to be proud of what we have achieved, and to re-connect in the variety of ways available to you.

Remote learning presented many challenges to our community, and I am proud to say that our Damascus Development team, consisting of myself, Korina Hegert, Alumni & Development Officer, Natasha Adam, Archivist and Jamison Thomas, Development Officer have risen to this challenge, which forced us to learn new things and to adapt, and collectively we have done a remarkable job in enabling our Damascus community to stay connected in the online environment. We found ourselves developing new and innovative ways to engage our community via our social media platforms, and the benefit of creating engaging video content has been enormous. I wish to sincerely thank Korina, Natasha and Jamison for their dedication, creativity and can-do attitude, as it served us well throughout two periods of remote learning, where we found ourselves working from home and we quickly adapted to it being our new normal. The fortitude and resilience shown has undoubtedly developed us each personally, and as a team, will help us to reach new and exciting heights in the future. Exciting times.

Finally, I take this opportunity to wish you and yours a festive holiday season and a prosperous new year.

Thank- you, and I look forward to welcoming you back to Damascus College in the near future.

Sarah Boswell

Leader of Marketing & Development

Born and raised in Ballarat, Jason Kelly attended St Pauls from 1986 to 1989 before heading to St Martin's in the Pines for his VCE years, graduating in the Class of 1991. At school, he enjoyed the sciences, in particular Physics and Chemistry, and he was a member of the St Mick’s team that won the “Titration Stakes” at Ballarat University (now known as the RACI school titration competition).

Following VCE, Jason studied Medical Laboratory Science at RMIT’s city campus, and during this degree, he secured a job working in pathology at the Ballarat Base Hospital. His pathology career began in 1994 and included a 15-year stint at Dorevitch Pathology and 5 years at St John of God Pathology. He worked across all areas of both blood and tissue pathology and developed an interest in how various diseases, particularly cancer, manifest in people. The strength of this interest in cancer was such that when an opportunity to study cancer as a PhD student at the Fiona Elsey Cancer Research Institute (FECRI) arose, at the tender age of 43 he once again became a full-time student.

Jason’s PhD studies investigated the immune system and bowel cancer, in particular how certain immune cells that respond to bacteria may be contributing to the progression of bowel cancer. He published some of his findings last year and was fortunate enough to win some travel awards allowing him to present his work at conferences both Nationally and overseas. His most recent presentations saw him visit Adelaide, Bangkok and San Francisco, though the timing of the global coronavirus pandemic put a halt to his conference hopping.

Outside of his work Jason has maintained an active role in the Ballarat community. He is a committee member of the Ballarat Hash House Harriers (a “drinking club with a running problem”) and he is the current president of the Golden Point Cricket Club. He can also be found out and about in Ballarat watching his sons perform in various bands and he enjoys hiking through the Victorian countryside with his partner Esme.

#TogetherWeAreDamascus

Congratulations to Amy Macallister, Class of 2007 who won the prestigious 2020 Woman In Defence Award, Technical Trade Division in late October.

The award organised by the Australian Defence Magazine (ADM) recognised the exemplary work that Amy does at Boeing Defence Australia (BDA) as an AME 4 aviation mechanical engineer. Amy gets to work on the Boeing CH-47 Chinook, which is an American twin-engine, tandem-rotor, heavy-lift helicopter. The CH-47 is among the heaviest lifting Western helicopters.

During the awards ceremony, which was live-streamed by ADM, the presenter noted the increased number of females in aviation and commended Amy for the mentoring that she does. Amy shared with the audience that she enjoys passing along her knowledge.

When she was a student at Damascus, I asked Amy what some of her favourite subjects were. She said, “I loved Simo’s Systems technology class and Indonesian with Nolene”.

Amy made the most of her time at Damascus and participated in a wide range of extracurricular activities, she was a Rice House Captain, a member of the SRC, played just about every sport and even did some debating.

Amy joined the Army straight out of school. She made the decision early on in year 12. She applied and the Army recommended she finish her schooling before starting. “I finished my year at Damascus then left straight for Kapooka. It was a struggle to adjust mentally at times but I loved it. It gave me heaps of opportunities and allowed me to travel the world, meet amazing people and do some things that made me proud” said Amy.

She started her career as a tradesman aviation maintenance technician which is an aircraft mechanic. Amy spent the first four years of her Army career working on Blackhawk helicopters where she deployed a number of times before going to Europe and America to train on Ch-47 chinook helicopters. She then spent the next seven years working and travelling the world with them before discharging and staring her job with Boeing.

She left the Army after 11 years. She had two young kids and the amount of time she was going away became too hard to juggle. Amy shared with me that she is “an independent inspector working with Boeing. I lead maintenance teams, help with forecasting, planning and am the final set of eyes over maintenance before it flys. I have also spent my time mentoring and training young people in aviation”.

Amy feels that the best part about her job is that every day is different. She is stuck behind a desk and the environment she works in changes completely, constantly. She loves the fast pace, and it keeps her on her toes!

Amy said “there were very few women in my field when I first started my career, I was in fact the only one in my unit up until about two years ago but we are seeing a lot more women in the field now. There were times it was draining or mentally hard but that was a reflection of myself, not my environment. I think it was a great field to work in, the army is great in the sense they don’t care if you are a woman or a man as long as you’re doing your job. I never felt out of place or singled out, I’ve always had a great crew.”

I asked Amy what would she say/or advise our young woman at Damascus College as they are considering their future? Her response was “take a chance, network and make the most of every opportunity you are given. Continue to train in whichever field you chose, education is power and it keeps you evolving. Stay outside of your comfort zone, that’s where all the good stuff happens.

Joining the Army wasn’t something Amy had always planned to do. In fact, she joined the army because she didn’t know what she wanted to do, but she loves that is has given her far more opportunities than she ever imagined.

Amy has an amazing partner who she met in the army. They have two bike crazy young kids who keep them on their toes. Amy finished with “we get the privilege of living life as a holiday in beautiful Townsville and in my spare time I love to run”.

Congratulations on receiving your award Amy, what an incredible achievement from an impressive field of woman in the Technical Trade category.

Damascus College is excited about the growth and development of two key extra-curricular program areas at the College, these being the Instrumental Music and Voice program and the Damascus Rowing Program. Our Students are expressing strong interest in these areas, which are lead by dedicated staff who create engaging and inspiring learning opportunities and support students in finding their ‘tribe’.

In support of continued growth and program excellence, Damascus College invites applications for the following two vacant positions, from appropriately skilled and experienced candidates with a genuine passion for helping young people achieve.

The full application process and the Application for Employment form are available at Damascus Employment

Hi Damascus community,

Next year in March of 2021 my Mum and I hope to take part in a special bike ride called Ride4Rescue. It is organised to raise funds for a very important project, Blossom Project Vanuatu.

Teenage pregnancy in Vanuatu remains an issue of concern with up to 80 pregnancies for every 1,000 teenage girls in the community. When Louise Ginn heard the tragic story of a newborn baby found abandoned in a bush toilet in Vanuatu, she instantly knew she had to do something. “I don’t think any mother should feel they need to abandon their child, but there are women in Vanuatu that feel they have no other option,” says Louise, herself a mother of four. You can learn more about the Blossom Project by following this link. https://www.adra.org.au/project/blossom-project/

My Aunty Louise has inspired my mum Sophie and I to participate in Ride4Rescue and to help.

Ride4Rescue is an off the beaten track charity mountain bike ride from Canberra to the top of Mount Kosciusko. Participants will cycle over 300km's in 4 days through some of the most scenic terrains in the Australian High Country. This is something I am looking forward to completing with Mum. This ride will be a challenge for us but we are up for it!!!

We do need to raise $3000.00 between us to be able to enter the team. We need your support and would love any contribution big or small because everything makes a difference.

GoFundMe Link: https://ride4rescue2021.gofundraise.com.au/page/Smarts

(Donations made through here are secure and will go directly through to ADRA, our charity of choice.)

Thanks heaps for your support!!!

Eli Smart, Year 9 Student at Damascus College

You're invited to attend the 2020 Class Reunion Celebrations scheduled in 2021.

In order to address growing concerns around the spread of COVID-19 (Coronavirus), as a College, we decided to postpone the 2020 class reunions scheduled for earlier this year. The new dates for the 2020 reunions are:

• 50 Year - Class of 1970 Sunday 14 March 2021, Welcome Reception and lunch at Damascus from 11:30am - 3pm
  
• 40 Year - Class of 1980 Saturday 1 May 2021, Welcome Reception at Damascus from 2 - 4pm with an afterparty at the Golden City
• 30 Year - Class of 1990 Saturday 15 May 2021, Welcome Reception at Damascus from 2 - 4pm with an afterparty at the Oscars
• 20 Year - Class of 2000 Sunday 18 April 2021, Welcome Reception at Damascus from 2 - 4pm
• 10 Year - Class of 2010 Friday 16 April 2021, Welcome Reception at Damascus from 6.30pm to 8.30pm with an afterparty at the Freight Bar

For full details regarding the reunion celebrations and to get your tickets please visit Reunions & Events

The dates for the 2021 Class Reunions will be announced shortly. If you are interested in joining the planning committee for your 2021 Class reunion please contact our Alumni Officer.

Have you had a chance to take a look at Damascus College’s new website yet?

Our interactive Historical Timeline takes you through the history of Damascus College and its three foundation Colleges, Sacred Heart College, St. Paul’s Technical College and St. Martin’s in the Pines. Illustrated with beautiful images of College history, the timeline takes you through from the early days of Edmund Rice, through to the campus as it is today.

Check it out at https://www.damascus.vic.edu.au/about-us/history/timeline.

If you have mementos of the special events throughout our history, we would love to hear from you. Email us at archives@damascus.vic.edu.au or post to us directly at 1412 Geelong Road Mount Clear. 3350.

The Spring edition of The Damascus College publication The Road is another bumper edition full of stories and pictures from our alumni, students and staff.

Damascus College has a long and proud tradition, commencing with three foundation colleges dating back to as early as 1881:

• Sacred Heart College commenced in 1881

• St Paul's Technical College commenced in 1948

• Sacred Heart Senior College, St Martin's in the Pines commenced in 1967

These three foundation colleges amalgamated in 1995 to form Damascus College; the junior campus was located on Victoria Street and the senior campus was located on Geelong Road, Mt Clear. In 2011, these two sites came together on the one Mt Clear location to form the current campus of Damascus College.

2021 marks the 140th anniversary of our college, and we will be proud to celebrate this milestone throughout 2021. We are looking forward to our Gala Night in 2021, where the community will be invited.

Visit us online to keep up to date with our 140 year celebratory events. Past students and staff of Sacred Heart College, St Paul’s Technical College, St Martin’s in the Pines and Damascus College are encouraged to update your details to stay connected.