We must strive to do ordinary things extraordinarily well.
- Catherine McAuley, founder of the Sisters of Mercy
The Sacred Heart Alumni Association is a welcoming and inclusive community that creates opportunities for past students to connect with each other and the College community.
The Association honours, respects and celebrates relationships with our 9.000+ alumni by creating opportunities to connect, learn and give back to the College community. We keep our Mercy history and traditions alive with a continuing love for the school by celebrating the unique impact of an SHC education - an impact that stays with us long after graduation.
We recognise that our alumni community offers a great diversity of talents, skills and abilities, which should be acknowledged and engaged to benefit the College, the Association and most importantly - each other.
To ensure long-term financial viability, the Sacred Heart Alumni Association ensures that the revenue and expenses remain in balance, whilst increasing cash reserves and investments.
The COVID-19 pandemic has presented significant challenges and opportunities for the alumni community. We now have new ways of connecting with alumni across the street and around the world, and more than ever, connection is critical for so many.
As our world changes, and our societies transform in the coming years, we know that for the alumni of Sacred Heart College, we are grounded by our Mercy Values. Supporting the wellness of our Sacred Heart Community is paramount in this new era. We know that by keeping our alumni connected to each other and to SHC, they can continue to be Mercy women, and live the Mercy values of respect, compassion, justice, courage, service and hospitality in practical ways.
Serving on the Alumni Association committee is immensely rewarding but it also requires a great deal of commitment and passion, as well as a good working knowledge of the ethical and legal considerations that governance entails. This new strategic plan will be supported by a dynamic action plan, and will provide the committee with purpose, leadership and direction.
Our role is to support a vibrant and inclusive community of Alumni with opportunities to deepen their connections with each other and Sacred Heart College
- Stacey Harris, President Sacred Heart Alumni Association 2021
Our Mercy values of Respect, Compassion, Courage, Hospitality, Justice and Service provide us with our motivation and purpose as an alumni.
This Strategy aims to enable the alumni to be supported in the pursuit of these values and it is strengthened by allowing the mercy values to be prominent in all that we do/offer.
To meet our purpose and live our values, the Alumni Association will focus on four pillars:
What we hope to achieve
By connecting our alumni through networking, we hope to create opportunities, support each other, share wisdom and learn together.
Why networking?
We deliberately recognise the incredible learning opportunities that abound from networking across all generations of alumni. Traditional networking brings more mature people to mentor youth, but we want a multi-dimensional networking model to thrive.
Learning, growing and sharing helps us all to live our Mercy Values and make a difference. Networking also helps us to find new ways to give back to the SHC community.
Who we aim to serve through this focus area?
What we will do
What we hope to achieve:
By connecting our alumni to each other and to SHC through experiences we hope to include our current and past alumni in various activities which provide mutual benefit, allow our alumni the opportunity to ‘give back’, learn from each other, and enable fun and friendship to thrive.
Why experiences?
Experiencing connection together is a way to strengthen the Mercy values we all share. In this post pandemic era, coming together for serious or fun reasons is so important - we know that this
strengthens our college community, enables us to make a difference and give back to the College community, and also supports the wellbeing of all of our alumni and their extended connections.
Who we aim to serve through this focus area?
What we will do?
What we will achieve:
The Association will ensure comprehensive fiscal governance that will enable revenue and expenses to be kept in balance. This in turn will increase the reserves and investments for long-term financial viability.
A financial audit by a certified accountant will be conducted each year with an official report provided to members at the annual general meeting.
Why give back?
Who we aim to serve through this focus area:
What we will do:
What we hope to achieve:
By connecting our alumni to each other and to SHC through communications and sharing stories we hope to celebrate and inspire impact - by impact we mean the ethos of ‘making a difference’.
Why storytelling?
Stories are powerful – they move people. We want our alumni to inspire our current students and each other - giving them examples of women out in the world, making a difference.
We know the stories of our alumni, and the impact of those stories will further inspire and connect our community.
Who we aim to serve through this focus area:
What we will do:
To tell these stories, and create impact from them we will:
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