The Character of the Wesley Graduate

Our Class of 2021 are fine examples of the Wesley graduate, going forth into the world with courage, resilience, passion and an energy the world needs.

Resilience is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties with elasticity. It’s an inner quality that allows us to overcome challenges instead of being defeated by them. It is often spoken about in terms of navigating or simply getting through challenges. However, the critical part of resilience is not bouncing back; it is bouncing forward. The truth is that resilience – like elastic – is strengthened little by little, over time, as each challenge tests our fortitude. 2021 has been one of those times for the graduates of the Class of 2021.

They will be remembered for decades to come for their fortitude, their adaptability, and their optimism in the face of relentless uncertainty. They will be admired for their courage and perseverance weathering the challenges of an enduring pandemic at a time when their senior years should have been front and centre. Uncertainty aside, they have navigated the complexities of broader societal disruption while remaining stoic and steadfast when faced with the real-time responsibility for shaping change in and beyond their very own classrooms. Their leadership through turbulence has helped identify and raise expectations whilst setting new standards for progressive change. They will be fondly remembered for their instrumental leadership through this critical period of transformational change in the history of our great school.

2021 has turned us all inside out and we are a better world and a better school for the challenge. If the Class of 2021 have learned anything throughout this year of challenge and change, it is that significant difference and incremental change can be made when people come together in pursuit of a common goal.

The Class of 2021 have stood tall, leading our younger students with courage, conviction and hope. What they have achieved in this pandemic-ridden period has been magnified, rather than diminished, by the circumstances under which they have journeyed.

They will graduate from Wesley undaunted by challenge and adaptive to change, knowing how to think with their minds and feel with their hearts. We encourage them to take everything that they have learned and make meaningful change. This exceptional cohort of strong and determined young people will continue to demand respect, dignity, equal treatment and opportunities for all. Most importantly they will never lose sight of the value of people.

Nothing provides our community with more hope than the thought of our emerging leaders, our Class of 2021 bursting onto the landscape of a weary world that so desperately requires their passion, energy, resilience, courage and vision. They are reminded to draw strength from the wisdom, connectedness and power of community that they have learned right here at Wesley, and to bring that to communities they build elsewhere.

There is little doubt that they are well poised to go out into a world that needs their strength and their talents, their dynamism and their heart… that needs their questions. As we bid them farewell, we urge them to go forth and be the answers the world so desperately needs.

We acknowledge their contributions and applaud their efforts as we come together in celebration of their extraordinary journey. A journey most certainly like no other. They are ready and well prepared to take on the world.

Kim Bence is the Head of St Kilda Road Campus