16 May 2012 - Marist College

Marist College Enews MAY 16, 2012
Year 9 Service Day
The day started with an excellent presentation on Service by
the Radford Service Coordinator George Huitiker, followed
by Gus McManus (College Service Captain). Gus did a great
job with his presentation about Service at Marist and how
Year 9 fits into his vision for Service. After Recess each of the
Service Captains met with the Year 9’s in their House to talk
about Service involvement and to brainstorm new ideas
of how Year 9 students can get involved in Direct Service
Initiatives. Each of the eight Service Captains did really well
with their Service learning activities that they designed
and implemented. The Footsteps staff were outstanding,
and by the end of the day they had coordinated their Year 9
students into teams to produce a presentation about their
House Charity and ideas for new direct service initiatives.
My highlight for the day was watching the role plays put on
by the other Houses and it gave me an insight into what other
peoples service passions are. I hope to get more involved by
grasping any opportunities I can and do more service outside
school. I like seeing someone smile and when someone says
thank you and they mean it. “H” was and still is a great guy
and he helped make an idea a reality and made a huge
difference to a small number of peoples lives and made them
just that much better. Gus McManus used his own experience
to show how he became the Service Captain through hard
work and keeping the Marist service sprit alive. I found out all
of the opportunities for service in Year 9 and how I can partake
in more direct interaction with people who need a bit of help.
This was the part of the day where I got to know my House
Group more and we brought all our ideas on service and how
to reach out. I can do more then help at school, I can help
outside in the community.
James Agius, Year 9 Crispin
Thanks to everyone who helped prepare for the day
especially Simon Rugala, George Huitiker and the Service
Captains who gave up time to come and present. Two
Year 9 students were so inspired by the presentations that
they would like to start a sports program for students with
special needs at Malkara.
ACTIV8
Sign up is this Friday 18 May, at lunchtime in the Forum. See
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The Year 10 Christian Leadership class excelled in their
Youth Ministry role, presenting on the Marist themes of
Simplicity and Presence. In small and large groups, they
engaged the Year 8 students through personal sharing,
dramas, multimedia clips, music and creative liturgy. This
set the mood for the rest of the day which saw the Year
8 students living out the Gospel message of service to
love their neighbours. The second part of the Brothers
Together day was the Service Learning component,
led by Erica Drewsen. This involved various guest
presentations, from Gus McManus (College Service
Captain), Debbie Kensey (Operation Christmas Child),
Will Downing and Liam Highmore (Solomon Islands
Immersion participants). The boys were challenged to
discover who their ‘neighbours in need’ are and what
they can do about supporting them in practical ways.
This led them into the hands on service activity which
involved the boys working on the ‘Clackers 4 Kids’ project,
whereby each Year 8 student created a clacker for a child
in a developing nation to receive at Christmas this year.
The Year 5 students in the Junior School will also be
The CSYMA National Conference was held last
Wednesday 9 to Friday 11 May in Canberra with 190
staff and students from around Australia in attendance.
The aim of the Conference was to inform, inspire and
send teachers and students back to their schools with
a renewed energy for Youth Ministry. The keynote
speakers included Sister Hilda Scott, OSB ‘Finding
the God… who is looking for you’ Fr Ken Barker, MGL
‘Presenting the Gospel Message: 101’, Stephen Lawrence
‘The New Evangelisation’ and Fr Steve Fletcher, MGL
‘Opening our hearts to more of God’. This was followed by
a liturgy including the Sacrament of Reconciliation and
Adoration. The following day we were given a choice
of workshops to attend on various aspects of ministry
in Catholic schools such as; developing engaging
school liturgy, project web sharing, new youth ministry
resources, indigenous Youth Ministry and immersions.
The students were also treated to a variety of workshops
on using drama, music and testimony in Youth Ministry
projects. Kathy Haseler and I took away many new
ideas for Marist College Canberra, and had a great time
networking with Youth Ministers from around Australia.
From humble beginnings at St Edmunds College and
a few other Colleges in Canberra, including Marist,
CSYMA has now grown to 48 schools around Australia
and continues to draw in more each year. Marist has
Year 8 Brothers Together
working on this project and will assist with painting of
the clackers.
Student comments: Awesome! We had a great day, and
want to do it more often – how about every week? Thanks
heaps for putting this on. The Year 10’s did a great job
putting on the Youth Ministry session and I got a lot out of
it, especially the personal sharing.
We believe this day compliments the Year 8 camp week
by giving the boys some time for reflection, learning
and action in the service of others. All Year 8 students
participating in the Brothers Together day receive MATES
hours for their Service, and are encouraged to find other
ways to continue serving the community. Thank you
to all involved in the day, especially Erica Drewsen and
Luke Croker who put a lot of effort into the day. We look
forward to the second half of Year 8 participating in the
Brothers Together program on Friday this week. Look
forward to more photos in the Enews next week.
CSYMA National Conference
had a long involvement with CSYMA (beginning
with Br Greg McDonald), and has been critical in the
development and formation of many of our students
who’ve participated in the courses and Youth Ministry
teams that we’ve implemented at Marist in the CYSMA
model. It was inspiring to see our Year 12 students
presenting to everyone at the Conference about Marist
Youth Ministry; how it’s developed, the effect it has had
on our College community and what it has given them
in their faith journey. This group of students will form
part of a new ‘Core Group’ in Marist Youth Ministry, with
the task of directing and coordinating the mission of
MYM. It is exciting to see their passion and commitment
to MYM and I look forward to supporting them in this
new role.
The CSYMA conference was a truly amazing experience
for everyone involved. The conference helped to shape
a core group which will further enhance the MYM team
moving forward. This core group learnt much about how
other schools go about Youth Ministry within their schools
and in the wider community and the boys will use some of
what they have learned and put it into practice in future
youth ministry events.
Matt Clark, Year 12 Conway