On Wednesday 10 February, we celebrated our 105th year as a College at our annual Foundation Day assembly, which was attended by students in Years 5 to 12.
We were fortunate to be joined by one of our ex-students, Dr Catherine Yang (1994), who was our guest speaker on the day. Catherine shared her motivational story, discussing the challenge and fear associated with commencing at Pymble in Year 11 as a migrant from Taiwan with very little English. She spoke about kindness and how her teachers and smiling peers offered her friendship, support and a sense of belonging while she was failing Year 11!
Catherine spoke to the girls about how some failures in life are inevitable but reminded the girls to be grateful for experiencing failures and to continue forward.
She said failures help us to learn from the lessons, to change for the better, and to grow to be stronger.
Step on the fear so that you can be who you want to be, do what you want to do and live how you want to live!
Catherine overcame her fears, successfully completed Year 12 and went on to train as a dentist – quite an achievement for a 15-year-old with only two years of English under her belt. She has also since written a book called STEP on Fear to help others overcome their fears to pursue and achieve their dreams. Please visit Catherine’s website to learn more.
