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Posted on by St Mary MacKillop College

2020 JJAMM STUDENT LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE

Well, what a JJAMM packed journey we have had…

Recently, the two of us received the amazing opportunity to be a part of JJAMM 2020. Along with Mr Lane, we travelled to Sydney on Saturday 15th February and were greeted by 26 other Josephite schools from across Australia and New Zealand.

We began our pilgrimage at Mary MacKillop Place in Sydney where we combined with other schools for a tour of the sacred place. We were guided through the story and history of Mary MacKillop’s journey to become Australia’s first canonised saint. We participated in a prayer surrounding Mary MacKillop’s tomb to recognise that without her work, our school wouldn’t be standing today. Whilst in the city, we ventured across the Sydney Harbour Bridge and visited places that had a connection to Mary MacKillop.

We then journeyed to St Joseph’s Spirituality Centre in Kincumber where Mary herself worked in an orphanage. The venue was surrounded by ocean waters, lakes, snakes, a pool, vegetation and thousands of mosquitoes. Over the next few days, we worked with like-minded student leaders and staff to learn about following in the footsteps of Mary, Joseph and Jesus.

Throughout our stay we completed various activities inspired by the Josephite values, which were aimed to improve our leadership skills. Some of the workshops we participated in included creating a protest for a social justice issue, extending our public speaking skills, participating in JJAMMERS Got Talent, learning about traditional New Zealand dances and games, planting trees and working to continue the legacy of Mary MacKillop.

Through our interactions with fellow leaders we were able to compare ideas and strategies to improve our school community and we are excited to hopefully put these into place in the near future. We would like to thank the school for giving us the opportunity to go to Sydney and Mr Lane for accompanying us. We thoroughly enjoyed our time and would highly recommend this trip to continue for future captains.

Joshua Sutton and Amy Jobling

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