News

International Women’s Day ’24

News

International Women’s Day ’24

, written by

Ending week 7, female students and staff from all SEDA College SA campuses travelled to the State Basketball Centre to celebrate International Women’s Day, joined by students and staff from other high schools too. The day featured guest speakers, a shared brunch, two raffles, and yoga.  

We were blessed to have a range of powerful women speak about things they’ve faced in their careers and life. The speakers included Rosie Panetta, Ashum Yarlupina Owen, Sarah Gun, Izzy Vincent, Angela Foley, Kym Meers, Racheal Quigley and Nicola Jensen.  

The day started with popular radio host and sports presenter Rosie Panetta talking to us about her journey into her career and challenges she faced along the way including gender stereotypes and competitions. She explained the difficulty of being a female radio presenter and situations where she often felt she was treated unfairly due to her gender. She was placed into gender stereotypes and originally wasn’t allowed to talk about male dominated topics on the radio, these things included sport which she now focuses on today. She inspired us by explaining how important it was to fight for the topics she thought people needed to hear and topics she wanted to present.  

After Rosie’s speech, Ashum Yarlupina Owen provided a Welcome to Country. She followed by providing a speech about the background of her Indigenous culture, important women who have made a difference in her life and taught us a movement activity that celebrated the land. Owen showed and told us about how stomping her feet and clapping her hands sends vibrations and messages to the land. She encouraged us to follow along by stomping our feet and clapping our hands to the rhythm she provided.  

Then Sarah Gun, the CEO of the Gogo Foundation talked to us about her experience in running her business and life with alopecia.  

Before the Q&A with other guest speakers, we enjoyed a brunch filled with croissants, fruit, yogurt and more. We were also provided with drink stations that included juice, chocolate milk, iced coffee and water. During this time, we also walked around and met invited members including Anne Hatchard and the guest speakers. Students also had the opportunity, during this time, to meet students from other campuses.  

After brunch, we listened in to the Q&A featuring our guest speakers. Rosie led the Q&A the panelists included Izzy Vincent, Angela Foley, Kym Meers, Rachael Quigley and Nicola Jensen. Izzy Vincent, a paralympic swimmer shared her journey in swimming and her love for the water. She shared her challenges and how she overcame them through mental strength. Angela Foley, a Port Adelaide AFLW player, shared her story about being a woman in sport and her journey from the Crows to Port Adelaide. Kym Meers talked about the challenges her daughter faces through her mental disability and the way they’ve overcome them. Kym also showed moments where her daughter showed more strength than anyone else could imagine and how capable she is. Rachael Quigley also talked about the challenges she’s faced as a woman in soccer and how she beat them. She talked about her levels of achievement and aimed to inspire us as female sports players. Nicola Jensen was the last speaker in the Q&A and talked to us about menstrual cycles and endometriosis.  

When the Q&A had finished, we had a small break, leaving room for more interaction with students and guests. After the break, we all got involved in 2 raffles. The first raffle involved asking members in the room to answer questions asked by one of the guests. We then placed the name of the members we had talked to in a bag which created the raffle. This was a great opportunity to meet more people and make our way out of our comfort zones. The second raffle included regular raffle tickets that had been placed in our gift bags. The smallest prizes started from small vouchers and the biggest prizes included football boots and an iPad.  

We had a short break, followed by an in-depth presentation by Nicola from PPEP discussing menstruation and learned more important information that could assist us during our female cycles. 

To finish off the day we participated in some light yoga. We pulled out the Yoga Mats that were kindly donated to us and got into stretching. We were instructed by a yoga teacher, Jamie from PEAQ fitness, on how to perform each pose before going into a seamless rhythm of movements. We also learned about breathing and how utilising it in yoga is very important. We were also taught about how learning breathing patterns and performing mindfulness routines provides better performance in games and manages anxiety. After the session ended, we were able to talk to the instructor more about what we had learnt and how to use each method. 

Related Articles

AUFC Experience Offers Insights

News, Student blog

Boys Knockout Grand Final

News, Student blog

NSA: ‘The Coach’ Wrap Up

News, Student blog

Study With Us

Get In Touch

Give us a call

Send an email message