The Girls We Have Not Met Yet – Jennifer Oaten
I have been thinking about a girl who will start at Santa Maria College in 2035. She may not have been born yet. Her parents might even be in high school right now. We cannot know what her life will look like or what opportunities and challenges she will face.
But I do know this. When she walks through our gates, she will need what every girl before her has needed. A place where she belongs. Teachers who see her potential. Spaces where she can grow, try new things, and discover who she is capable of becoming.
What we build today is for her.
Building Something That Will Last
Right now, the Cultural Centre is taking shape. Each week, the structure rises a little higher, and the vision becomes more tangible. By Term 2 2026, it will be complete.
What excites me most is that this building is not only for our current students. It is for the girl who will step onto the stage in 2040. For the student who will find her passion for lighting design in 2038. For the orchestra that will rehearse here in 2045. It is an investment in futures we cannot yet see.
Imagining Forward
A Year 8 student who has never performed before walks onto the Cultural Centre stage. The acoustics magnify her voice, the light gives her confidence, and she discovers something inside herself for the first time.
A Year 10 student arrives on a scholarship funded by an alumni she will never meet. She thrives, graduates, and later establishes her own scholarship for future girls.
A Year 5 girl learns in a contemporary space designed for the way students learn now and in the future. Technology supports her without distracting her, and the space promotes curiosity and exploration.
A Year 12 student leads a sustainability initiative that builds on decades of work. She presents her research at a national conference, and universities take notice because the foundations were set long before she arrived.
This is the future we are building toward.
The Santa Maria College Foundation
To help bring this future to life, we have recently established the new Santa Maria College Foundation. It will play an important role in shaping our long-term future.
We recently held our first Foundation meeting. In that room were people who understand that the most important work is often work whose full impact we may never see. The Foundation will help guide our thinking as we plan for the next generation of Santa Maria girls.
The Foundation will focus on three key areas.
Building Fund
This supports the future development of our campus beyond the Cultural Centre. While we have a Master Plan, we will review it in 2026 to ensure that our priorities align with the rapidly changing needs of education. This review will help us identify the learning spaces, facilities, and sustainability initiatives required for the years ahead. The girl who arrives in 2035 will learn in buildings and environments shaped by the decisions we make today.
Scholarship and Bursary Fund
This ensures that talent, character, and drive, rather than circumstance, determine who can access a Santa Maria College education.
Bequests Program
This allows families to create a legacy that will support students long into the future. Like Catherine McAuley in 1824, who invested her inheritance in the House of Mercy for women and children she would never meet, this is an opportunity to make a lasting impact.
Your Place in This Future
In February, we will launch our Take Your Seat campaign for the Cultural Centre. This initiative invites you to mark your connection to something that will shape the lives of young women for decades. Your gift will be recognised with a commemorative plaque on a theatre seat and will help create a vibrant new hub for learning and the arts, leaving a lasting impact on generations of students to come.
The Foundation also invites you to think even further ahead. To consider how you might support facilities that will serve the 2030s and beyond. To help create scholarships that will change the lives of girls who are not yet students here. To imagine the Santa Maria College of 2050 and take part in building it.
What Matters Most
Somewhere right now, there is a three-year-old who will one day be a Santa Maria student. She might be learning to ride a bike, starting preschool, or asking endless questions about the world around her.
The choices we make today will shape her experience in 2035. Will she learn in spaces designed for how she learns best? Will she have access to excellent facilities regardless of her family circumstances? Will she stand on a stage and find her voice?
The answers depend on what we choose to build now.
What do you hope Santa Maria College will look like in 2040?
- Building fund schools, Catholic Education Perth, Cultural Centre Santa Maria, Educational legacy, Empowering Young Women, Featured, Girls’ education future, Santa Maria College Foundation, Scholarships for girls, School fundraising campaign, Take Your Seat campaign
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.
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