Hello Loyola Community!

It doesn’t feel too long ago that we addressed you all at the beginning of this year, and yet here we are nearing the end of what has been a magnificent 2024.

As quickly as the year has flown by, we have had a blast! We have had the pleasure of getting to know and working with so many people who make our Loyola Community truly unique. Whether that has been through initiatives and projects like ‘Roaming Captains’, special events throughout the year, or even just out in the yard, we are grateful for all the support and liveliness that everyone has contributed to making school a fun and engaging environment.

Rewinding back to the beginning of this year, we set out our vision ‘to foster a school driven by student-led initiative and ideas, where students have a love for learning, can grow and are continually inspired and engaged in a community made for and by them, seen through initiatives to promote sustainability, services, love of learning, and engagement with year-level cohorts’

We can definitely say that we have been able to live this out, with two big fundraisers, setting the foundations for a new recycling bin program to be implemented next year, a revision of the leadership formation process, senior student-run sessions on VCE stress and updated bell music throughout the day, just to name a few!

In addition, every fortnight we ran a new initiative called ‘The Great Debate’, which posed to students a fun question to get them thinking and chatting with their peers and teachers throughout the fortnight. These ranged from general school topics like ‘What is the Best Building to have a Class in?’, to more abstract questions like ‘What colour do you associate Maths with?’. Students would then vote on their preferred choice, and the winners were announced over the P.A system every second Monday morning. With hundreds of participants every week, we hope to have been able to give a little bit of extra spark to everyone’s daily school lives.

This year we wanted to bring our personal touch to the beloved ‘Roaming Captains’ videos. Coupling this with one of our other key goals this year, to try our best to bridge the subconscious gap between Students and Leaders. Hence this year we created a sitcom element where students were introduced to our College Committee playing themselves as characters, where we immersed ourselves within the student and staff community to ask the questions we all really want to know, including ‘Who is the most stylish Teacher at Loyola College?’, and ‘What crazy feature should be added to the school?’.

We can’t forget to mention St. Ignatius Day! The annual celebration that everyone in the Loyola Community looks forward to every year. First and foremost we want to acknowledge the astounding fundraising efforts from everyone, we are so incredibly proud to have donated as a school a total of almost $40,000 to our respective House charities. The day itself was filled with so much fun, with the endless rides, adorable animal farm, the fan-favourite photo booth and the new additions of the silent disco and arcade hall, all proving to be a hit. In addition, with the student performances and staff cameos in the Masked Singer, everyone could not stop laughing!

During the Mass portion of St. Ignatius Day, we were incredibly honoured to be part of the Official Commissioning Ceremony for Ms. Leutchford as our Loyola College Principal. We both have had such fun and fond memories working and laughing with Ms. Leutchford this year. The both of us trust much success will follow in the coming years and wish Ms. Leutchford the very best of luck!

Our year could not have been as much of an enjoyable and memorable experience without the help and collaboration of our College Committee members, the Loyola Student Council team, and various Consult members and staff. It has been an absolute joy learning from the likes of Ms. Salmic, Mr. Denton, Ms. Solomon, and Ms. Sudano, and of course, chatting with the Reception staff every week during our morning announcements. We are so grateful and proud of all our fellow leaders, all the fundraisers, initiatives and ideas would not have resulted in such success if it wasn’t for the help from all of you. So we thank you all!

We believe Loyola College is able to truly flourish, thanks to its pivotal community element, and it’s something we have found to be so incredibly strong. Collaborating with and meeting the likes of Mr. Doumbalis and Mr. Ibrahim and their Maintenance team, Mr. Day the Business Manager, and of course, Mr. Luczek and his classic humour, without whom nothing would run as promptly and smoothly. We also have to mention a very special staff member who has been there for us and helped us since we officially began last year until now, Mr. Tran. We don’t know what we would have done without his fantastic filming skills, comedic talent, and genuine care, so thank you for always making sure we weren’t figuring everything out on our own.

Soon we both will be on our respective journeys towards future studies, careers, and experiences, however, Loyola will always hold a dear and strong place in our hearts. The endless opportunities for growth, laughter, connection, and memories, the people, and the facilities, have truly played key factors in our growth and development for which we are so thankful.

It has been an honour to officially welcome our 2025 College Captains, Marlo Johnson and Kai Simpson. It was this time last year when we ourselves were in a whirlwind of celebrations, advice, and angst about the year to come. Having experienced and learnt so much from this year that has passed, we are confident that you both will do such an amazing job and take this role in your stride. We would also like to wish the best of luck to all the future leaders for next year. We are always here to offer advice and share laughter with you all. Even those who are not official leaders, remember the responsibility of being a good leader is so much more and we are so proud of everyone!

It feels so surreal to be writing this, but it has been such an honour being your College Captains this year, we hope we have done you all proud. As we finish our last days of school, full of celebration before our exams and study time, we hope to connect with as many of you as we can to share some final moments of laughter and memories. Thank you all for your faith in us, until next time!

Noah Iozzo & Shireen Yelburga
2024 College Captains