Congrats to Lilliarna – Blacktown Young Citizen of the Year!

06 Feb 2018

We were so proud to partner with Willmot Public School and Chifley College last year to run a fantastic project co-ordinated by The Hive-Mt Druitt and Blacktown City Council.

Now one of the superstar student volunteers from Chifley College’s Shalvey Campus has been named Blacktown Young Citizen of the Year! 

Huge congratulations Lilliarna, that’s just fantastic, and so well deserved. We are so proud of you!

Read more at The Daily Telegraph.

In this project Chifley College students became tutors for the Willmott students – and the results were amazing. Our students had a big task – to cast a critical eye over the aspects of their suburb they liked the least, attribute these annoying and terrifying and frustrating events to an evil villain, and then create a superhero who would combat them with powerful qualities such as kindness, respect, resilience and love. 

We brought both groups of students together no fewer than four times, over two intense days, across two weeks, and both tutors and young writers were nothing short of wonderful. 

The Chifley College students – including Lilliarna – displayed some of the best tutoring we’ve seen, and we don’t say that lightly. As one of the students said in the orientation, “We’re the disengaged students you’re talking about, we know what works best!”

The stories the Willmot students came up with were simply spectacular. One student decided his hero would soak up all the love of the victims of his bullying villain, and use the power of love to emanate from his heart and prevent the villain from bullying any further. Another student had her hero become friends with the evil zombie eating everyone’s brains – a gesture no one had ever offered and which stopped her in her tracks.

We were quite literally brought to tears, especially when our Willmot Students cried because they had to say goodbye to their awesome tutors.

Thanks for inviting us to be part of your community!

Photos: Ben Rose