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.

Elodie Nadon (JD BPsychSc) graduated from Brighton Secondary College in 2009 with excellent VCE results. After starting BioMedicine at Monash, she transferred to Swinburne University to study Psychology. It was duirng this time that Elodie was diagnosed with a brain tumour. After undergoing brain surgery, rehabilitation and radiation treatment, Elodie eventually returned to studying Psychology, this time back at Monash. She graduated as dux of her degree in Psychological Sciences.

At this time, Elodie decided to pursue postgraduate studies in Law, being accepted into the Juris Doctor course at Monash. Her studies involved a semester in Italy. Once again, Elodie graduated as dux of the course and was offered an internship at the prestigious international law firm, Herbert, Smith, Freehills (HSF). As part of this internship, Elodie spent a month working at the HSF Tokyo office. Elodie’s work at HSF has been in Commercial Law.

Following her return to Australia, a routine scan revealed a relapse in Elodie’s cancer, requiring further treatment and on-going monitoring. As part of her processing of the experience of brain cancer, Elodie has been involved in a number of state and national cancer boards, becoming a youth cancer advocate.

Wanting to broaden her legal experience further, Elodie has taken leave from HSF and embarked on an associateship with a Supreme Court Judge working in Criminal Law. Among the choices Elodie will face at the end of this year is whether to return to Commercial Law at HSF or proceed towards the Bar Entrance Exam and pursue a role as a barrister.

Elodie is an excellent example of someone who has worked hard to overcome obstacles and achieve her goals. She has also demonstrated that the pathways towards these goals are rarely linear or smooth.

Dylan Murphy is a screenwriter, director and performer. His work has been recognised by the Melbourne WebFest and the Australian Writers Guild and includes the web series Feedback, the award winning short film Super Birthday, and the upcoming comedy anthology Who Do You Know Here, for which he established and led an expanded writers room of local filmmakers and comedians. He has also acted in the ABC series Upper Middle Bogan and The Inbestigators, as well as the play Dummy, which was awarded Best Show at MudFest 2019.

David Karoly was a student at Brighton High School during 1967-72, a skinny nerd with a keen interest in science and in sport. He did well at school and went on to do a Bachelor of Science degree at Monash University, then a new University with new science facilities. He majored in Physics and Applied Mathematics, but shifted to Meteorology for his Honours year at Monash. It was there that his interest in the environment and outdoor activities flourished as a member of the Monash Bushwalking Club. He was lucky enough to get a Shell scholarship in 1977 that funded him to do his PhD in meteorology at the University of Reading in England from 1977 to 1980.

David is now an internationally recognised expert on climate change and climate variability. He is Leader of the Earth Systems and Climate Change Hub in the Australian Government’s National Environmental Science Program, based in CSIRO. He is also an honorary Professor at the University of Melbourne. He is heavily involved in giving talks to the government, to business, and to community groups on climate change and what it means to them.

From 2012 to 2017, he was a member of the Climate Change Authority, which provides advice to the Australian government on responding to climate change, including targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. He has been involved in the Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2001, 2007, 2014 and 2021 in several different roles. As a Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, he shared in the award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize jointly to the IPCC and to Al Gore. He was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2019 and was awarded the 2015 Royal Society of Victoria Medal for Scientific Excellence in Earth Sciences.

From 2007 to February 2018, David Karoly was Professor of Atmospheric Science at the University of Melbourne and in the A.R.C. Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science. From 2003 to 2007, he held the Williams Chair in the School of Meteorology at the University of Oklahoma. Before that, he was Head of the School of Mathematical Sciences and Professor of Meteorology at Monash University during 2001-2002.