‘Life Lessons with a Lunchbox’ – a lunchtime speaker series connecting past and current students of the College. It was very successful and we wish to offer this series to the students again in 2018.

The focus of this series is to share life experiences based on one, or more of the College Character Strengths (listed below).  These character strengths are part of the College’s Mercy Wellbeing Program, a carefully structured and a planned approach to wellbeing and pastoral care for all in our community.

The ultimate aim of the Mercy Wellbeing program is to furnish those within the community with the skills to strengthen their relationships, build positive outcomes, enhance personal resilience, promote mindfulness and live a healthy lifestyle. Our hope is that these skills will enable all to value themselves and those around them and to make a difference in the world.

The College focus for this year is GRIT. Grit is generally accepted to mean the motivation, energy and drive that keeps a person on a difficult task over a sustained period of time. Sometimes we refer to it as ‘character’. People have grit in varying degrees. We also know that it is contextually dependent. People may have it in one area of their life but not in others. Grit is one of the indicators of future career success for kids. Research shows that it is a more accurate indicator than intelligence. We want to be able to able to model grit for our students.

As a Santa Maria Old Girl, you might consider being a speaker for Life Lessons with a Lunchbox and talk about grit, or one or more of the character strengths that you live in your life, either personally, or professionally.

We require eight speakers, one per year group (Year 5 to Year 12).

We host a maximum of 20 students per session.

Sessions are held at lunchtime Monday to Friday 1.00 pm – 1.25 pm throughout Term 2 and 3.

If you are interested, please complete this form  https://santamaria.wa.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/oga-mentoring-form.pdf and return to [email protected] by Friday 8 June.

Each application will be carefully considered. I will be in consultation with the Dean of each Year group, and we will choose applicants who meet the current needs of the cohort. I will be in touch early in June, as to the outcome of your application.