Pursuing Their Passions
St Catherine’s girls become bold, independent, resilient, and creative when opportunities to explore their individual pursuits are encouraged. Three of our current students share their stories on pursuing their passions and the impact these choices have made on their lives.
Year 11 student, Rhea Werner has achieved a lot in her 17 years. Arriving in Australia from Germany at the age of eight, Rhea set about teaching herself English and understanding the Australian culture. “This experience has taught me to appreciate the diversified cultures that exist in Australia thereby expanding my horizons throughout my formative years,” Rhea shares.
Determined from an early age to continually improve herself, Rhea says in the past she would view success only when she achieved something, “my greatest mistake was that I viewed personal growth as something that could only occur in moments of achievement. In fact, I now know, real growth is achieved when you do not receive or achieve.”
Passionate about public and mental health, Rhea has been an advocate in Youth Parliament, Co-Chair of Body Confidence Collective, Harvard STRIPED and awarded the City of Boroondara’s Young Citizen of the Year Award.
“Stepping into these roles has affirmed my belief that to truly represent and catalyse positive change, understanding and approachability is vital. I have learnt that as much as you may want to walk in another’s shoes, sometimes you cannot simply understand the intricacies of people’s own lived experiences. It is so important to lift others up, and with your own voice, ensure their voices are heard.”
Year 9 student, Violetta Capanni pursued her passion for cooking her Nonna Gisella’s gnocchi recipe during the COVID Pandemic. This passion has resulted in a highly successful home delivery fresh gnocchi business and being featured in Mr Scott Pape, more famously known as the Barefoot Investor’s, new book Barefoot Kids: Your Epic Money Adventure.
“I went through a stage of feeling unmotivated during COVID. I decided I would cook, so I picked two recipes, one was a cake and the other was gnocchi. The cake was ok; however, my gnocchi was more fun and brought the whole family together. The idea was born, and I set about costing and working out the amount of gnocchi needed,” Violetta explains.
“My passion to cook and create helped me develop new skills. I needed to learn about pricing, timing, processes, and product delivery. I didn’t know how to do any of these things, I had to learn them and develop them along the way. From this experience I have learnt that hard things, over time, became not so hard after all if you have good people around you that you are sharing the experience with.”
Reflecting on what she has learnt from starting a business as an adolescent, Violetta comments that she hopes her story inspires others, particularly other young people to pursue their passions, “You can grow with your ideas, you don’t need to have it all sorted, you just need to start.”
Commencing at St Catherine’s School in Year 7, Mietta Passon, Year 12 believes her teachers have directly contributed to building her confidence to pursue her passions. “Every morning I walk past Mrs Gaensler’s office, my Year 7 House teacher, and she gives me a huge smile. I remember everything she gave me in Year 7. The confidence to sign up for co-curricular activities, the opportunities, as she nominated me for specific roles and most importantly, how fun she made school” Mietta fondly recalls.
Nominated by St Catherine’s School as an AOC Olympic Change Maker, Mietta was one of only 24 students Australia-wide to participate in the Program at the end of 2022, “I was truly surrounded by a very influential group of people. I was immersed in an environment in which leadership was a given. However, what I learnt most was you don’t need a fancy title to be a leader. It is those who step up despite any fear of failure that are true leaders.”
Discussing how failure can often be the best teacher, Mietta shares “I used to hide my mistakes and ignore them because I didn’t like knowing that I had failed. However, I have learnt that failure is what provides us with motivation. Failure teaches us more about ourselves and how to overcome obstacles than immediate success. Reality is, you can’t experience success without failure.”
We wish these three remarkable young women well as they continue to pursue their passions.
This article features in St Catherine’s News Autumn Edition. To read the full Edition click here.
