The News has sat down with Shepparton’s high-school leadership cohort to hear from the young future leaders in our region.
This week, we spoke to Notre Dame College’s 2024 school captains, Harry Brown and Bella Woods, and vice-captains, Mitch Serra and Erica Shaw.
Captains
Harry Brown
Harry applied for the role to push himself and inspire others.
“I wanted to challenge myself, and I thought I might be able to be a good role model for other students and leave a positive mark,” he said.
His goal is to ensure students are engaged and enjoying their year.
“I want people to remember us for the fun things we do, trying to engage all the students in everything we do, fundraisers or charities,” he said.
Outside his leadership role, Harry is tackling English, maths methods, chemistry and his favourite subject, psychology.
Harry is keeping his options open in terms of plans after high school, considering something in the psychology field.
When he’s not studying, he enjoys playing football and light reading.
“But my attention span is a bit short for that now,” Harry said, with a laugh.
Bella Woods
Bella said she was looking forward to the personal growth side of her new leadership role.
“I want to grow as a person, learn new skills, meet new people and just be involved in the school,” she said.
“I also want to have a say and get to do fun things and plan those fun things for the school community.”
She said she was ready to leave her mark and wanted to be remembered as a good school captain.
“I just want (us) to be remembered as good captains, who did fun events and represented the school well,” she said.
In her final year of school, Bella is studying English, maths, physical education, psychology and chemistry.
Bella is also leaving her options open, with vague plans to attend university. Taking a gap year is also on the table, she said.
Outside school, Bella is a local netball and cricket player.
Vice-captains
Mitch Serra
Mitch applied for the role of school captain to challenge himself.
“I wanted to get out of my comfort zone a bit,” he said.
“Two years ago, I didn’t think I would be doing this, but now it’s something I want to do well at.”
He said he was ready to involve himself in the school community.
“I want to be more involved with all the year levels and stuff like that, not just stand up in front of the assembly and speak,” Mitch said.
“I want to actually get involved with everyone and get everyone engaged in school.”
Mitch is studying general maths, English, accounting, economics and business, with a particular interest in the latter two subjects.
Next year, he plans to attend university in Melbourne to study economics and commerce or something similar.
He is involved in local sports team, playing football for Shepparton United.
“That takes up most of my time, and I’ll try to do more study this year, too,” he said.
Erica Shaw
Erica was ready to be a voice of the school, which was her motivation for applying for captaincy.
“I wanted to be able to have a bit of an influence and say on things that happen in the school,” Erica said.
“I also want to be able to represent the college and just have a positive influence on other people.”
Her goal this year is to leave her mark on the school.
“I want to be remembered as a captain that was quite involved, who actually put time and effort into the school and events that happened and just for it to be something fun and not looked at as so like straight and serious,” she said.
This year, Erica is studying biology, environmental science, physical education, general maths and English.
In her free time, Erica is a dedicated member of Shepparton Swimming Club.
As for next year, she has applied for the Australian Army gap year program.