Mateo Soriano
The project I have chosen to complete has a couple of facets that I have planned out with the Old Boys coordinator, Adam Hendry, and the alumni liaison, Jacqueline Roveto.
First Section – HSC Assistance (HSC Ignition)
This year, Parramatta Marist has decided to launch a program called HSC Ignition, which is an event for the class of 2027 that introduces different courses and outlines the expectations of the subject and the school. In assisting within this project, I have developed different slide decks and resources for students alongside history teachers and archival teams for devising study strategies. I will also be giving a presentation to the Year 12s on excelling in history subjects in the HSC program. While not necessarily a production of history, it utilised skills in research and creating informational panels that aim to inform pedagogical practice.
This event is particularly useful to the school and its future year 12 graduate students, in which our work in archival research and historical faculty communication can produce grounded and understandable resources. Particularly in academic fields, the gathering of alumni has become a way to exercise my historical skills; multidisciplinary communication, creative and critical thinking, and devising a pedagogical strategy were all very much needed in this project.
Second Section – Old Boys at War
This is a much more history-detailed project that involves a lot of archiving. I have teamed up with the archival department to produce records on an official document of all the alumni from the school who have served in wars that involved Australia. I am also working on collecting more information on records that have not been completed or researched about enough. This includes biographical information, pictures, and connections to Parramatta Marist.
The archival project is particularly useful to enable the school to commemorate its various alumni who have given light to the people involved in Australian-fought wars. It also forms a bond between modern students in the school and historical figures who previously attended it, developing a shared sense of respect for wartime heroes through communal connection. In this way, students are more inclined to respect the rich cultural history behind the Marist title, alongside appreciating and commemorating heroes who have served in devastating wars.
Third Section – Year 9 History Project
Utilising the information collated with the Old Boys at War project, alongside the newly reformed 2027 history syllabus, I want to create a project for year 9 students to work on that engages with commemorating Old Boys and their participation in war. Using notes from the excursion at the Australian Museum, I have chosen to undertake a project that involves students actually ‘doing’ history – this is particularly in the sect of constructing narratives based on limited information. Because Marist operates on a Project-Based Learning (PBL) system, students can undergo a project that involves the students putting research into the alumni themselves and produce a memorial piece that could be displayed in a museum.
This section is ultimately how I aim to produce a meaningful effect for students after working on the Old Boys at War project. Instead of curating a collection of archives for students to look through, the aim is to utilise the PBL system to directly engage with and immerse themselves in actually ‘doing’ history. In this way, ‘usefulness’ is generated in developing the historical skills of devising narratives and accurately representing the past with respect and connection.