Launch of 2019 SPC Great Man Video

Our student leaders of 2019 launched this video on Tuesday, August 6 at a full school assembly.

In their own words, they described what it means to be a great man of St Patrick’s College:

From our School Captain Aidan Hanrahan:

-Raising fine boys to the status of Great Men-. That is what we strive to achieve whilst here at St Patrick’s College, but what does it truly mean to be great?

That is the question that was posed to you the College community, and the five values that embodied the notion of transitioning to a Great Man were: respect, honour, hope, aspiration and compassion.

However, greatness is not merely confined to these five core values.

We can see examples of greatness all around us here at St Pat’s, for instance Shane Mackinlay’s recent appointment as Bishop of Sandhurst, or closer yet, the living example who our academic achievement awards are named after: Chris Nolan, who illustrated his great strength in character despite the significant challenges he has and continues to face. Ultimately, greatness isn’t a destination, it is a journey we are all on together.”

From our Vice Captain Jobe Quick:

“With the release of our renewed depiction of what it means to be a great man, I am reminded of one attribute I believe to be the most important of all -“ equality.

Equality in the sense that no one person is better than the next. Equality, in the sense that you are capable of completely disregarding the way someone looks, communicates or behaves, and therefore appreciating that they deserve the exact same level of respect and attention as your best mate.

Last week, the Year 12s and a select few students from around the College had the privilege of listening to the incredible children’s rights advocate, Steve Rocha. Steve is a passionate and inspirational Christian Brother who has spent the greater half of his life understanding that it is the neglect to pursue equity and strive for equality that results in the many poverty-based issues his country faces today.

Equality is the one key attribute that allows us to comprehend that the millions of people we consider to be less fortunate, are actually no less deserving of a healthy, educated and luxurious life as we are -“ because at the end of the day, they are no different to us and therefore deserve no less.

I encourage you to allow equality to govern your journey down discovering what it means for you to be a -‘great man’.”

From our Vice Captain Matthew Duffy:

“It’s difficult, dare I say impossible to stand up here and to tell you how to be great. The very notion of that is impossible; you’re not just going to wake up one morning and be great.

You can’t quantify greatness, and a lot of the time you aren’t necessarily rewarded for greatness.

The truth is, all of us here are still learning and at times failing. It’s a purely personal process and it can only be fuelled by ourselves; the desire to be the best we can be.

But we can see greatness around us, in the actions of people- the Old Boys who join us today who have given so much to the St Patrick’s and wider community.

What we can do is look to others and be inspired to better ourselves. It could be any of us returning to these assemblies 20 years down the road as an Old Boy.

But for now, for this year, for today, it’s in your hands, so keep aspiring and keep on truckin’.”

The video can be seen at this link

–

–

–