By Anthony Barich
FREMANTLE’S University of Notre Dame Australia Student Association president Amy Rosario has redefined the body’s role in the context of what it means to be a Catholic university.
Amy, who coordinated the large-scale Mary MacKillop Festival in Fremantle on 17 October, the day of the saint’s canonisation in Rome, told The Record there has in the past been a “significant gap” to be filled, and the festival proved the perfect foil to have the staff and students work together to promote the Catholic ethos of education.
“I don’t know if we specifically set out to do it, but it’s certianly what we achieved,” Amy told The Record. “Being such a young university, we’ve been trying to find more of an identity, and the festival created more of a sense of where we should be heading.
“The relationship between staff and students is so unique compared to other universities, that they are able to work together as equals, as we are all passionate about a common goal that we’re all working to achieve, which is education. So the Mary MacKillop Festival tied that in well. It doesn’t have to be the staff versus the students.”
Law student Hannah Milligan, who was initiated as the Student Association’s new president on 25 November, plans to build on this success.
Amy, one of over 900 students from all nine schools at the Fremantle campus who graduated on 11 December, graduated from Nursing and completed a Pre-Medicine Certificate in 2010.
The Mary MacKillop Festival she organised attracted over 5,000 visitors to the west end of Fremantle. She said the spirit of the Mary MacKillop Festival “embodied the community nature of this special campus”.
”The way that one event brought together staff and students and the community was completely unique to any other event held so far and to be a part of this will remain a highlight of my time at Notre Dame,” said Amy, who ultimately wants to study Medicine at Notre Dame.UNDA Vice Chancellor Celia Hammond said the Student Association president “truly is an inspirational young woman whose quiet determination to do her best is to be admired. I congratulate her for all of her achievements whilst a student at Notre Dame and wish her well for what will be no doubt be an exciting and successful future”.
For the first time in the University’s history, graduation ceremonies have been held over three days of celebrations commencing with a Mass on 11 December.