From the Principal

A gift of a lifetime

Hello, from overseas where I am on enrichment leave over the holiday break visiting innovative STEM-based buildings and learning spaces, meeting with existing and future academic partners at leading universities, undertaking a course at the University of Oxford and attending a global conference on girls’ education, amongst other professional learning experiences. I’m inspired by the opportunity to learn from the best minds around the world and look forward to sharing how this research will inform the development of exciting new programs, buildings and learning facilities at Pymble in subsequent editions of this newsletter.

Typically, I use this column space to talk about new initiatives or student achievements but today I’d like you to cast your mind ahead to your daughter as a Year 12 graduate, a university graduate or perhaps even a young woman at the beginning of her career. For some of you with very young children, this will be a stretch, but bear with me…

You see, we believe one of the many benefits of a Pymble education is the ongoing connection and support of our community throughout our students’ lifetime. ‘Once a Pymble girl, always a Pymble girl’ is our way of saying you will always be a cherished member of our Pymble family who we take great pride in championing and supporting, even as a graduate embarking upon and travelling through each new life stage.

Each year, the College hosts a number of career-focused events for ex-students to meet with members of our community who volunteer to share their professional experience and knowledge as mentors, speakers or panellists. Our most recent such event was our Alumni Networking Event held in May. More than 300 professionals in our community attended to connect with and mentor our younger graduates – some as recent as our Class of 2021.

The night included keynote speakers across a range of industries, before mentors and mentees broke out into industry chat spaces to share experiences, seek advice and connect. The overall theme of the night was summed up perfectly by one of our graduates, Evie, who now works in agribusiness:

“What we talked about tonight was don’t have any fear, reach out, people are always happy to help and you already have a network, an amazing Pymble Alumni community.”

This followed a networking event for ex-students working in the Legal industry – the first of a series of smaller networking events giving our Pymble Alumni the opportunity to network with others working in the same industry, from entry point to senior levels.

The beautiful thing about our mentoring culture is that it goes both ways, and we frequently welcome back our ex-students as mentors and advisors to our current Pymble girls at a wide range of careers events including:

Careers Expo

This event is held in the first half of the year for Pymble students in Years 10, 11 and 12. This year our girls were fortunate to be joined by 40 ex-students representing a wide range of professions, including architecture, audiology, communications, education, engineering, firefighting management, geology, law, medicine, nursing, politics and policy, publishing and research but to name a few. Our students also appreciated catching up with recent Pymble graduates representing residential colleges of the universities they now attend as undergraduates. Seeing familiar faces goes a long way to making a step into the unknown world of university a whole lot less nerve-racking, as I’m sure you would agree!

Sydney Boarding Schools Rural Health Careers FOrum

Jointly hosted by Pymble and NSW Rural Doctors Network, this annual forum is designed for senior Boarding students from rural NSW and students with an interest in pursuing a career in health. The event informs students, parents and staff about the pathways and career opportunities across rural health, including medicine, nursing, midwifery, allied health, Aboriginal health, administration and practice management, and includes Pymble ex-students sharing their insights of studying and/or working in this sector.

emPOWER Lunch Series

This is a new monthly event where guest speakers join our Senior students for lunch to share insights and promote a greater understanding about their work. Our inaugural emPOWER Lunch speaker in May was an ex-student from 2016 who shared her experience of studying and working in the field of engineering.

Future Careers Insight Evening

Held towards the end of the year, this event is hosted in conjunction with St Ignatius’ College, Riverview for students in Years 10 and 11. Alumni from both schools lead group sessions designed to shed light on industries and areas of interest for our students as they embark on their Senior School studies and set their sights on a future beyond school.

We also host a hugely successful Junior School (K-6) Careers Expo each year where our Junior School parents working in a diverse range of professions host expo-style ‘stands’ for the girls to interact with equipment or activities and learn more about potential future careers. This highly successful event speaks to research that shows parents are one of the greatest influencers in their children’s careers – even above academic success – and that girls and boys who have an understanding of their parents’ qualifications and careers have higher levels of self-confidence than those who do not.

Our goal is to offer a world-class education that sets each student up for life – but it’s by no means a case of set and forget. The care and commitment we deliver during our students’ school years extends into their professional lives, as members of our alumni, and our Pymble Network is genuinely a gift of a lifetime.

PS. Should you wish to get involved as a mentor or mentee in one of our abovementioned programs for students or alumni, please contact our Alumni Relations Manager, Mrs Katrina Corcoran (Hum, 1987), or our Director of Futures and Partnerships (K-12), Mr Andrew Kozyra.