Big, Wide World!
- December 5, 2018
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We love hearing about the exciting journeys our Old Girls take upon leaving the College. Lorraine Varnakulasingham (2012) has taken the leap of faith and is now following her passion, transitioning from business to artist. “Since leaving Santa Maria, I graduated with a business degree, majoring in Economics and Management from Notre Dame University in 2015. Upon completion of my degree and entering into the workforce, I rediscovered my passion for art. I started my own independent business, Lorraine Angelina Designs, and began stocking my artwork at the Common Ground Collective in Fremantle. I was then offered a position in an Art Exhibition hosted by RAW. Since then, I have opened an online store for my art. I began stocking my work at King Street Collective and Vanilla Gifts Homewares in South Fremantle. The main medium I draw in is ballpoint pen on paper, which was first introduced to me during the Santa Maria Artist in Residence Program when artist, Stormie Mills came to share his work. My inspiration comes from many places: nature, animals and in particular space and the moon, which is a common theme in many of my pieces. I enjoy taking something in its standard form and creating something people don’t expect. I take a lot of pride in the amount of detail in each piece because I want people to look at it multiple times and realise there’s more to it than what meets the eye. My short term goal is to expand my business within Perth, mainly through stockists and markets, while my long-term goal is to grow my social media presence (mainly Instagram: lorraineangelinaaa) to national and international customers. In my journey since leaving Santa Maria, I have discovered that my vocation is in art. While I am not using my degree in a traditional sense, I have applied the skills I’ve learnt to manage my own business which includes social media promotion, creating and maintaining products, packaging, accounts/stock, shipping orders and ensuring I take all opportunities available to promote my artwork.”
Kendall Galbraith (Piper 2000) has had an interesting journey since leaving Santa Maria and has hit her stride in politics.
After finishing Year 12, I enrolled in a Bachelor of Arts at UWA. I was unsure if this is what I wanted to do, or where it would lead. I was then offered a position to be a personal assistant in a real estate agency, which I loved and so my studies were deferred for quite some time. However, I always wanted to complete my studies but was unsure if the Bachelor of Arts was the right pick for me. In that time, I had also moved to Margaret River and UWA was unable to provide long-distance education. I then transferred my degree over to Curtin to enrol in an International Relations Degree. Working on issues of international value appealed to me and possibly working abroad. After completing my undergrad degree at Curtin I secured an internship with MP Dr Anne Aly for her Countering Violent Extremism Research Unit. This work led me to secure a research grant of my own at Edith Cowan University to explore the political views of youth in a social media era. I’ve published articles with the Australian Institute of International Affairs and I’m currently working on my Masters in National Security and Counter-Terrorism from Charles Sturt University.
I now work for the WA Labor Party as their Labor Women’s Organiser. My efforts are designed at empowering women to engage politically and to realise that their voices are both needed and wanted to balance the policy debates, tackle the traditional and patriarchal culture and improve the gender representation of Western Australian politics. Both my studies and political work is done remotely as I still live in Margaret River with my husband, Shane and our two sons, Will and Jack. Whilst it’s a challenge I’ve never allowed my geography to determine my career aspirations, nor impede my skills.
I invite anyone to contact me to discuss the political empowerment of women here in Western Australia – [email protected]
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- alumni
Author: Santa Maria College
Santa Maria College is a vibrant girls school with a growing local presence and reputation. Our Mission is to educate young Mercy women who act with courage and compassion to enrich our world. Santa Maria College is located in Attadale in Western Australia, 16 km from the Perth CBD. We offer a Catholic education for girls in Years 5 – 12 and have 1300 students, including 152 boarders.