Interview with Brian Lewis, Head of School, Nudgee International College
When did NIC first become involved with East Timor?
Nudgee International College’s connection to East Timor commenced in 2002. At this time Education Queensland and Nudgee International College agreed to share the funding to sponsor 4 students (2 boys and 2 girls) form East Timor for English Language Education and High School. Following a period of English language instruction the two girls, Ester and Floriana attended Corpus Christi College and the two boys, Joao and Juliao attended Nudgee College.
Have you sponsored many East Timor students since that time?
Nudgee International College has sponsored a number of other students from East Timor. In my time at the college they have included two students in 2005, Teresina and Joana and last year Carlos. We have even had a priest, Father Domingos come to study at our College for a short time to improve his English proficiency.
Does the College still keep contact with the East Timorese students?
We kept in close contact with the four students we initially sponsored from East Timor. Indeed we assisted in obtaining scholarships for the students for Tertiary Education. It’s interesting that Ester is still studying for her teaching degree in Australia. Floriana completed a Diploma of Business and has returned home, John has also returned home after completing an Advanced Diploma in Engineering at South bank TAFE and Julio is currently doing a degree in Health Administration at QUT. Carlos still keeps in contact with the occasional letter and Julio comes to visit me occasionally to keep me up to date with all the latest news on the others.
Who is your main contact in East Timor (Timor Leste)?
Our main contact in Timor Leste is Brother Bill Tynan. Brother Bill heads a group called Communidade Edmund Rice. A group assisting the Timorese people made up of Br Bill and a community group of volunteers. This community group assists the Timorese in many ways including Education, Health, Lighting, Clothing and other fundraising activities through schools in Queensland.
At Nudgee International College we receive a regular newsletter from the Community and we share this with the staff of Nudgee International College.
Apart from providing English Language education to assist East Timorese students does NIC do anything else with East Timor?
Nudgee International College have conducted a few clothing drives. Indeed last week we just completed one. Our students, level 2 under the direction of staff, Ann Marie and Jacquie Sadi Brydon, packed and labelled the boxes. Level 3 helped me load them onto my trailer and Mary Davies from the Queensland Province and I took them out to the container yard and unloaded them.
We have also recently raised a few hundred dollars by way of a raffle and some jumpers we have sold to students. We expect Br Bill to visit on the 27th of September when we will pass over the cheque.
What benefits does NIC gain from being involved with East Timor?
There are so many benefits, where do I begin.
Firstly as an Edmund Rice Institute we feel our involvement has helped ground our values of assisting the less advantaged in a concrete and meaningful way our students can understand. We are about to introduce a values program into NIC and our connection in such activities as these will definitely be part of the program.
Our students from East Timor have really joined in the NIC community and we have really enjoyed their company. In particular they have joined us through presentations at our assemblies and joining in music performances with other students. It’s great when you see students from China, from Turkey and from East Timor, join together for a music jam session with no prompting and just having fun through music. This happened on our International Day earlier this year.
Anything else you would like to mention for this article?
Just to say thank you to all the staff and students for your ongoing support of Communidade Edmund Rice. In particular the recent clothing drive and raffle.
