Making a positive impact on the world and those we share it with is true to the very heart of what it means to be an Ormondian.

Part of our DNA as a College for over 130 years, the great sense of responsibility our community feels to be a force for good still lives on as strong as ever among students today.

From raising funds and sharing resources for social justice causes to volunteering in the name of environmental sustainability, students lead a wide range of local and global community initiatives. By playing active roles in being the change they wish to see in the world, our young people enrich their understanding of some of the planet’s most complex problems while also doing what they can to make a difference to them.

One way students demonstrate this commitment is through Beyond Ormond Borders, a student-led philanthropic program facilitated by the Ormond College Learning team. The project empowers students to work together and find ways to contribute to causes they’re passionate about while learning key community organising skills along the way.

“Volunteering on your own can be difficult; it can be hard to make a connection with an organisation. When you give time or money from organisation to organisation you bring communities together and build really strong relationships. For me, it’s the best part about institutions.”

Georgie Currie (2017), Community Taskforce Leader

One of the organisations students are excited to be developing an ongoing relationship with this year is AIME, a national mentoring program connecting university students with Indigenous high school students to help bridge the gap in Australia’s education. Another is SecondBite, where every Sunday, Ormond students travel to South Melbourne Markets to collect surplus produce and deliver it to the organisation to ensure more families in need have access to fresh, healthy food.

In May, a group of students spent 5 days living on a food budget of $2 per day – the Australian equivalent of the world poverty line – as part of youth-led organisation Oaktree’s Live Below the Line campaign. Oaktree CEO Sashenka Worsman visited Ormond to share the organisation’s inspiring story, students hosted an inter-collegiate cook-off, and the Ormond kitchen showed its support for the initiative by providing a 5-day $2 menu for those taking part. Together students raised over $4,700 for the cause. Ormond students came second in a recent inter-collegiate blood drive competition for the Australian Red Cross, with 22 total blood donations contributing to saving 66 lives.

In future months, students look forward to building relationships with the St Vincent de Paul soup kitchen, The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, and Australian NGO Barefoot to Boots and its many programs supporting people living in refugee camps around the world.

When you help others, on the most basic of human levels, you help yourself as well.

James Cafferkey (2018), Community Taskforce Leader

In addition to Beyond Ormond Borders, the spirit of giving runs deep through all corners of College life. Not a week goes by where students aren’t planning or running a broad range of community initiatives, in coordination with the Students’ Club and various subcommittees or as part of their own personal aspirations.

The Robert Connor Dawes Foundation is an organisation students are always eager to support. In honour of a young man and brother of Ormondians, Nick (2014) and Hannah Dawes (2017), who lost his battle with brain cancer in 2013, students raise money by running events such as the 24-hr erg challenge, and taking part in Connor’s Run, a 9.6km fun run from Sandringham to the Yarra River boatsheds. Students also saw an opportunity to raise more money for the cause during the Master’s Run for this year’s O Week. Runners challenged Acting Master Robert Leach to a race around Princes Park, with every victory adding to a donation from the College.

Student-led subcommittees work hard to help our community reduce its impact on the environment, from volunteer tree-planting drives to special campaigns such as encouraging more students to go meat-free throughout the month of May.

In 2017, students chose to focus a lot of their philanthropic efforts towards tackling homelessness, an issue affecting close to 1 in 200 Australians on any given night. The O Week committee organised activities for new Ormondians which supported 11 charities working in the space, one being helping pack sanitary care packages for homeless women with the Melbourne Period Project. Students also arranged a winter sleep-out on the rooftop of the Wade Institute of Entrepreneurship at Ormond College to raise money to buy sleeping bags for people sleeping rough in Melbourne.

These are just some of many ways our student community takes action to make meaningful change. As global citizens, Ormondians are determined to be part of the solution for a more just, sustainable world, and as a College, we are just as committed to being the place for young people to champion this.