I began my time at Brighton Secondary College in 1996, after moving from the Eastern Suburbs, and completed Year 12 in 2000. I met some amazing people at that school and have life-long friends as a result.

I was lucky enough to travel to England the following year to play a season of cricket over there. It was life changing. I learned a lot about myself, both as a cricketer, and as a person.
Four years later and after a hell of a lot of hard work and luck, I was rewarded with a rookie contract for the Victorian Cricket Squad. I didn’t perform overly well throughout that season, and lost my contract. But I got an invitation to train with the squad the following season. I worked at Puma in their factory packing orders whilst training as much as I could with the State team. Through a couple of good performances and some good timing, I was picked to debut for Victoria against Qld in Nov 2006 in the one-day format and was Victorian representative number 810 in the Sheffield Shield team a few months later.

I was lucky enough to have represented Victoria over a period of about 10 years, which included being involved with some successful teams. We won 5 Sheffield Shield Titles during my time. Something that I never would’ve thought in my wildest dreams I would be apart of. In November 2012, I was selected to be apart of the Australian Test team, cricketer number 429, playing 2 tests. Unfortunately my performances in the Test arena didn’t warrant my selection for any more games.

Throughout my cricket journey, I was able to travel to places like India, England, South Africa, Switzerland, Italy, Holland, Austria, Sri Lanka and New Zealand.
During my time as a cricketer, I had tried a few different areas for me to transition into once cricket was over including Photography, Carpentry, media and ended up co-managing a Garden Maintenance Business. Ironically, working with professional athletes and their transition, is where my passion currently lies. I love helping people, and after some study and work placement, I am lucky to be currently working in a role that exposes me to my passion.

I am a Regional Manager with the AFL Players’ Association. My role ranges from being the conduit between AFL/AFLW Clubs and the AFLPA, to assisting the first year players’ Induction Program, guiding retiring and delisted players through their transition out of the game and much more.

Obviously, I get a little nostalgic thinking of my time at Brighton Secondary College. This year marks nearly 20 years since I finished Year 12 and I want to thank the teachers and staff who were so patient with me through my time there.

Image: Sourced from the Herald Sun

I’m a designer with a love for drawing and sustainability. I grew up in Vietnam, with parents who couldn’t understand why I ditched chemistry tutoring for art classes, or why I wouldn’t shut up about how bad plastic bags are for the environment. It wasn’t until moving to Melbourne and starting at BSC did I pursue these passions more seriously. My year 12 project – product design and branding for a staple-free stapler – got me a place in Top Design, an exhibition of the best works from Victorian school students.

From there I went to Monash University to study Industrial Design. This chapter saw me explore many creative directions, question and evaluate aspects of my life while working hard on my sketching skills. My favourite work is a recycled plastic gravestone, which was showcased at last year’s Melbourne Fringe Festival. The piece speculates how a material made for a few minutes of convenience may survive on this planet longer than we do. What I love most is how this intriguing object draws you in to contemplate deeper questions. My second favourite thing is how it all started as a random comment and everyone kept asking if was mentally okay (answer: I was fine). Anyway, this is the kind of design I want to do: environmental projects that spark imagination.

I recently joined the design team at Melbourne-based start-up Returnr. Our aim is to eliminate single-use waste through a deposit-return system. To have your take-away coffee in a Returnr stainless steel cup, you pay an extra $6, which you can get back upon returning the container to any partner cafe. Design R&D at Returnr means teamwork and lots of trial-and-error. It is an environment where I continue to make mistakes, learn from them, be challenged and supported to grow as a designer.

With my career starting off very well I feel thankful for its stepping stone that is BSC. I’m still in touch with my teachers, some of whom have been mentoring me till today. Those years nurtured my creative spirit and the first few achievements really gave me confidence to chase my calling.

After graduating from Brighton Secondary College, Michelle went on to receive a Bachelor’s in Creative Writing and Diploma of Languages (French) from RMIT University. Michelle produced the feature film length web series Feedback., which delves into the challenges young writers face in today’s culturally complex society. She co-produced and co-directed Love Songs (@lovesongsseries) with Hayley Adams, the world’s first narrative web series for TikTok. The series has over 150k followers, 8 million views and 2.4 million likes.

She has a strong understanding of young adult culture, as is reflected in her fan fiction focused podcast One Shot, which is distributed by female and queer focused podcast network Lipp Media. Her first short film Super Birthday won third prize in the Village Roadshow Unscene Film Festival in 2019 and is currently being screened outside of Village Cinemas across Victoria.

Her work has been accepted in local and international festivals. She is currently a producer at Balloon Tree Productions, and has several online projects in development.

I matriculated from Brighton High School in 1965. I enjoyed my six years greatly and it is probably because of this very positive experience that I applied for and received an Education Department of Victoria Studentship which was a scholarship with teaching at the end of tertiary studies being required and I started at Monash University in 1966.

I am grateful to my Mathematics teacher in Form 6, Mrs Freitag, who took me for both Mathematics subjects which were then named Calculus an Applied Mathematics and Pure Mathematics and fostered my interest in the subject. All of the students were fond of the Headmaster, Mr George Stirling and the Senior Master Mr Cyril Hallet who were both outstanding leaders and set up the school with academic purpose being central.

I completed a BSc (Hons) and a PhD and started teaching in 1973 at Moreland High School in Coburg. I continued to teach in schools including eighteen years as Head of Mathematics at Scotch College in Melbourne. In 2004 I joined the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute at the University of Melbourne and worked on developing curriculum materials as well as on the Australian Curriculum when contracted to ACARA. My love of teaching took me back to teaching part time from 2014.

I have been and still am a principal author with the Cambridge University Press Senior Mathematics series. These books are used nationally. I have worked with the Australian Mathematics Trust as a volunteer for the past thirty years and helped take the Australian Mathematics Olympiad teams to Hong Kong, Toronto and Mumbai in the mid-nineties. I also worked as a consultant for the Maldives College of Higher Education through the Asian Development Bank.

In 1999 I was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws by Monash University, recognising my contribution to mathematics education.

I am Michael Artemenko and I am the co-founder and director of Melbourne based architecture practice, FIGR.

After graduating from Brighton Secondary College in 2002, I enrolled into RMIT school of Architecture and Design. Over a six-year period I dedicated all my effort and energy into my studies and graduated with Distinction in 2008. In my first year at RMIT I met friend and now business partner, Adi Atic, and we conjured a grand plan to start our own architecture studio.

After working at some of Australia’s most respected architecture practices an opportunity in 2012 came up to design my first solo project. A decent size family home in Beaumaris. Like most architects doing their first PJ (private job) this required a lot of after hours work in addition to my day job. To assist with the demands of the project I called in a favour from my old university pal, Adi. It was our first project together and it could not have gone better. The house became the stepping stone for what is now our business and studio, FIGR.

Our first project led to several more commissions. Soon we were at the point where we made the call to go out on our own. We founded FIGR in 2015 and have never looked back.

The two of us started out working out of a friend’s freezing warehouse around a meeting room table that was made from a sheet of plywood and 4 tyres. Today we employ 8 people and our projects are diverse, spanning large education, infrastructure, commercial projects as well as residential typologies. Our work has attracted industry awards and been published in magazines, books, and digital media all over the world. We continue to enjoy the opportunity to work with amazing clients and collaborate with interesting people.

Image: Michael Artemenko (R) & Adi Atic (L)