By Matt Kean
Each year I hold a lunch in Parliament for all the secondary school leaders from Hornsby High Schools. I didn’t want these students to miss out in a year when so many other events have been cancelled. So we took the event online with Premier Gladys Berejiklian and billionaire and co-CEO of Atlassian Mike Cannon-Brookes joining us.
Rather than hear what I thought. I asked Holly Hayes from Galston High School to give us her impressions of the online event.
“I was honoured to represent Galston High School at the Hornsby Secondary School Leaders zoom meeting.
Minister Matt Kean was instrumental in encouraging us to share our visions for the future and become better acquainted with our fellow Captains and leaders of the Hornsby District.
We were incredibly privileged to have the opportunity to speak with the NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian amongst her extremely busy schedule.
The Premier encouraged us to voice our concerns regarding the HSC and present numerous other questions and queries regarding parliamentary decisions and policies; all of which were answered with immense compassion and integrity. She motivated us to remember that success is merited through hard work and the willingness to achieve our goals.
We were later joined by Mike Cannon-Brookes, CEO of the highly successful software company Atlassian who shared his story and words of wisdom. Mr Cannon-Brookes encouraged us to pursue our passions, despite the current ever changing climate, and learn how to accept failure. We were inspired to think critically about preserving our environment, utilising time to harness our full potential and most importantly we learnt that if there is change you want to see in the world, there is no better person to initiate it than yourself.
On behalf of all the leaders who attended, a huge thank you to everyone who made this meeting possible and provided us with so much wisdom, inspiration and support.”
