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On the 27 November members of our College Community gathered to celebrate academic achievement and success across different subjects and areas of the College. The students were presented with various awards by Learning Leaders and Special Awards were presented by our Congregational Leader Sister Mariette Kareh and Principal Joanne Bacash. Many thanks to our generous sponsors and all staff involved in preparing for the night.

Please read below for Principal's speech and the award winner

Principal's Speech

The tradition of Academic Awards is an important one. Sometimes I am asked if it is too exclusive since only certain students receive an award. My answer to that question is that these Awards Nights serve as a powerful platform to showcase outstanding student accomplishments and inspire others to strive for similar levels of academic recognition and merit-based awards. By highlighting the achievements of these remarkable students, the Academic Awards night aims to foster a culture of student success and academic achievement within our College.

The awards recipients inspire their peers to strive for similar levels of excellence. This positive reinforcement encourages students to push the boundaries of their potential and engage more deeply in their academic pursuits.

Each student in the College has their own talents, skills and unique personality.

We are reminded of the Parable of the Talents from Matthew’s Gospel where Jesus talks about a rich man who shares his wealth with his servants. He gives 5 talents to first servants, 2 to the second and one to the last servant. The two servants with 5 and 2 talents immediately invest their money and make 100% returns while the last one hides his one talent and makes no money on it.

The rich man rewards the two who made money, but severely punishes the servant who did nothing.

What is this parable teaching us?

God has given each person a wide variety of gifts, and he expects us to use those gifts in his service. It is not acceptable merely to put those gifts on a closet shelf and ignore them. Like the three servants, we do not have gifts of the same degree. The return God expects of us is commensurate with the gifts we have been given.

The servant who received one talent was not condemned for failing to reach the five-talent goal; he was condemned because he did nothing with what he was given.

The gifts we receive from God include skills, abilities, family connections, social positions, education, experiences, and more. The point of the parable is that we are to use whatever we have been given for God’s purposes.

We should invest our skills and abilities, but also our wealth and the resources made available to us to better the lives of others and for the work of God’s kingdom. This includes the production of needed goods and services. The volunteer who teaches Sunday school or helps out at Church or a charity is fulfilling this parable. So is the business person who starts a new business and gives jobs to others or provides a services that helps others, or the health service administrator who initiates awareness campaign to help people live healthier lives, and the machine operator who develops a process innovation that improves lives of those with disability. Or the lawyer who does some free work with legal aid to help those who can’t afford legal representation and who may be marginalised.

God does not give people identical or necessarily equal gifts. And God does not expect identical or necessarily equal results from everyone's work. In the parable, one servant makes a return on five talents, while another makes a return on two talents. The master praises both equally. It's important to observe that both servants invest for the benefit of their master, and they return to him not only his original investment, but also what they make on his behalf.

When we say that everything we have is a "gift" from God, we mean that it is a privilege to be entrusted with talents, resources, and opportunities to work toward God's purposes in the world. The implication of the parable is that we if we do so, we take our place among all the faithful, trustworthy servants of God, no matter how big or small our accomplishments may seem.

To you students present this evening, what will you do with your talents, your skills, your knowledge and the gifts that God has given you? Will you just be scared or lazy to use them or will you make the most you can? Will you use them for your benefit only or will you help others and work for the Kingdom of God?

To all of you students here tonight, I say to you well done on your awards! Congratulations on your hard work and your academic rigour or for standing out in other areas of the College, for going that extra mile. Now the challenge is how can you show God that you know that without him, you would not have these skills, talents etc? How can we make sure we are not arrogant or selfish but always being humble and always working for his Glory not our own.

Congratulations to the following students!

- Ms Ria Coffey