JJAMM Leadership Conference
- March 19, 2025
- St Mary MacKillop College
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On Friday the 14th of February Koby, Bella and Mrs Wright travelled to Sydney for a JJAMM leadership conference.
The conference started at St Mary MacKillop’s heritage centre which included galleries, memorial pieces, her final resting place and tomb. Having the experience to witness and stand where Mary Mackillop once stood was breathtaking. It was such a surreal moment that we will remember forever.
At the conference, which was guided by Sister Jan, we had the opportunity to see many familiar faces and new students from other Josephite schools. We participated in many sessions to enhance our knowledge of the Josephites and their journey, helping to inspire us in our leadership journey.
On Saturday night we were able to encounter Sydney’s true beauty as we went for a ferry ride across the harbour sightseeing the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Sydney Opera House and Luna Park under the lights.
It was a bright and early start on Sunday morning as we prepared ourselves for another big day of learning and growing as leaders. We had the privilege of listening to many guest speakers such as, Josephite sisters, community helpers and two students who are active members in their school in Sydney. It was inspiring to hear everyone’s speeches of their journey’s and achievements. After a few more leadership sessions (and some sweet treats) the collective of JJAMM organised a Mass and we had the privilege of performing a liturgical movement.
Following the mass, we then headed to our new destination in Baulkham Hills where we settled in to prepare for the next day. In the evening we held a Mary Mackillop song remix. This activity required students to split into groups, pick an appropriate song and adapted the music to relate to Julian Tenison Woods, Joseph or Mary MacKillop.
Monday was another busy day putting the leadership skills we had learned and refined over the past few days into action by creating our own ‘soap box’ to imitate us protesting an issue we were interested in and wanted a change to happen. After this individual chance to protest we split into groups and chose an issue to protest as a group. We created signs, a chant and a speech to perform as a group, as we walked through the chapel to the stands. We also held a great race where students we mixed into groups and had to find 18 different objects around the place. This tested our strengths and weaknesses as individuals and displayed how we implemented them in a team setting. We then had some fun showcasing our skills and talents with JJAMMer’s Got Talent.
Our last day of the JJAMM Leadership Conference consisted of planning and collecting ideas from other schools that we would like to implement in 2025. We then packed our bags and headed to the airport to fly back to Melbourne, inspired to utilise the skills and ideas that we gained over our experience.
We would like to say a huge thank you to Mrs Haeusler and Mrs Wright for making this trip possible.
