I graduated from Brighton Secondary College in 2011. Throughout my time at Brighton Secondary College I always wanted to pursue my dream of becoming an airline pilot. I did my first trial flight at Moorabbin Airport in 2009 as part of the Royal Victorian Aero Club Young Eagles program. The teachers at Brighton Secondary College assisted me in choosing the relevant VCE subjects and applying for appropriate tertiary courses to best place me to kick start my career.

Following Year 12 I commenced a Bachelor of Aviation at Swinburne University and concurrently I became a qualified Commercial Pilot and Flight Instructor. I worked as a Flight Instructor training airline cadet pilots and domestic student pilots at Moorabbin airport for just over four years. In 2018 I began my first airline pilot job as an Airbus A320 First Officer flying domestically around Australia. I now have over 4000 hours of flying experience.

Unfortunately due to the COVID 19 pandemic I have recently been made redundant, however I am eager to return to flying! In the meantime I have commenced a Master Degree in Aviation Management at UNSW as I continue my search for a new Pilot job.

After starting her training in Surgery, she took three years’ maternity leave and juggled the birth of her two children and her husband’s surgical fellowship in New York City. During her time in the United States, she gave birth to her second child who had a congenital heart defect and required open heart surgery at birth; The very surgery her husband was learning to do himself. Her son’s surgery was performed by his mentors in New York, and Marni supported her son through his successful recovery. She also completed her doctorate during this time and graduated on return to Australia.

Marni explained that she was very fortunate to be coming through surgical training in an era where there has been a huge cultural shift towards flexible surgical training options for men and women. This allowed me to come back from an extended maternity leave in a part time capacity. My first year working flexibly in surgery was in Victoria and this year has been in New South Wales. She is currently half way through her surgical training.

Marni is a keen advocate for women in surgery and truly believes that “You can’t be, what you can’t see”. She hopes she too will someday inspire other young women into surgery or other professional careers knowing that you can balance a family, travel, research and work.

She leaves us with this final comment, “It is important to have a long term destination in mind, but you don’t win any medals for getting there first. Enjoy the journey and be flexible as opportunities arise, these small deviations off the path can be the most rewarding”. When asked about her biggest achievement, Marni said it was “being a Mum to Emmy and Seb without a doubt”.

At just 9 years of age, Maddy Buchner OAM identified a gap in the support system for young people who cared for sick family members. Growing up alongside her brother who suffered multiple chronic illnesses, and her mother, now a breast cancer survivor, Maddy began fundraising within her local community to recognise and support Young Carers like her, which would eventually culminate in a business plan for an organisation called Little Dreamers Australia.

By the age of 16, Maddy was running a small not-for-profit, attending high school and helping to care for two family members. Eleven years later and more than 5,000 young people reached, the organisation is now Australia’s leading organisation for Young Carers with staff spanning Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.

Across a range of support programs co-designed with young people in caring roles, Little Dreamers is breaking down barriers and empowering young people in caring roles, with a vision to ensure that every Young Carer around the world is supported by someone or something by the year 2030.

As a face for political reform, Maddy is working towards the creation of a peak body for Young Carers. She travels the world to share her innovative ideas with others, and in 2017 was recognised as a Queens Leader by Queen Elizabeth II.

In 2016, she published her first book, My Brother is Sick Again, which explores the obstacles that young carers must overcome. Maddy has also been recognised as a 2019 recipient of an Order of Australia Medal, as well as being named one of the Westpac Social Change Fellows of 2018, a 2019 AFR Woman of Influence and a 2019 Women’s Weekly Woman of the Future.

Attended BSC: 2007- 2012

BSC achievements: 2010 World Challenge Participant | 2011 Exchange to Italy | 2012 Sport Captain | Highest grade award in year 12 for English, Business Management, and Outdoor Ed.

After finishing VCE at Brighton Secondary in 2012, Gabby Samkova completed a Bachelor of Business (degree in sport management) at Deakin. Having studied abroad a year of her degree in San Diego, she continued to pursue travel after graduation and moved to Bali for 18 months to work in her field. After taking up surfing whilst living in Bali and seeing the devastating amount of plastic pollution, Gabby decided to create a product that mixed her passion of the outdoors and to keep plastic out of our oceans and forests.

SomerSide beach and travel towels was established which prevents 8-14 plastic bottles from ending up in landfill by creating them into quick dry and sand resistant towels. In order to raise capital, Gabby launched her idea on a crowdfunding platform called Kickstarter and successfully raised $37,455 to fund the venture. Today SomerSide is stocked in 16 stores across Australia with hundreds of customers around the world as well as being recognised in Australian Federal Parliament for paving the way for sustainability and innovation.

“I’ve always been interested in business and entrepreneurship and essentially knew I was always going to start my own small business once I found something I was passionate about as I’ve always been passionate about many things including travel, sport, and the outdoors. SomerSide tied all these together and was a way for me to help the planet as well as being a niche in the market. Sustainability is such a big driver behind SomerSide and wanting to make a difference and it certainly hasn’t come easy but I’m excited to see where it takes me.”

SomerSide towels are sustainable, stylish, and incredibly versatile.

Since graduating from high school, Emily, now known as her European name Emilia, has taken the Australian music scene by storm. Running her solo soul/jazz project ‘Miss Emilia’, she has since been the winner of the Bornstein Jazz Vocal Prize, the Future Leaders Jazz Awards and the Push Composition Prize.

Travelling to play international festivals including the Ubud Village Jazz Festival in Bali and Monash Prato Jazz Festival in Italy, Emilia has also played a trail of famed Australian music festivals such as the Melbourne International Jazz Festival, Stonnington Jazz Festival, Castlemaine Jazz Festival, Marysville Jazz Festival, Bello Winter Music Festival and FOJAM to name a few, and has performed with Australian house-hold names such as Kate Ceberano, Paul Grabowsky and opened for Kingswood.

She has also seen great success managing and fronting as ‘Sugar Mama’ from Australian band ‘The Mamas’, with organising and touring to sold-out audiences all across Australia, opening for the likes of San Cisco and Sex on Toast, and playing to crowds of thousands at Queenscliff Music Festival and Moomba.

During high-school, Emilia was a lead vocalist in the Victorian State Schools Spectacular, singing in an all star cast to thousands in HiSense Arena, broadcasted live to Channel 7. Through the State Schools Spectacular she performed for the British Royalty alongside NICA (National Institute of Circus Arts).

From the ages of 15 – 19 years old, Emilia was accepted into the competitive Juilliard Jazz Winter Music School run by the heads of music from the Juilliard School in NYC, as a student and later, vocal mentor.

With a passion for academia, Emilia was top of her class during her Bachelor of Music at Monash University, and has continued to teach music at her private bayside music school, Solfege House. Organising a string of music and arts events, mini-festivals and PR launches, Emilia also manages an Agency and PR company under the same name.