Mission
Campus Ministry & Retreats
Through its Ministry and Retreat programmes the College seeks to provide opportunities for students to develop a deeper understanding of faith and grow in relationship with Jesus and all creation. Annual Pastoral Care Retreat experiences play an important part in this formation which culminates in the Year 12 Retreat as students close on their time at Chisholm. Other forms of Ministry include regular experiences of formal and informal prayer and Liturgy (including opportunity to receive the Sacraments of Eucharist and Reconciliation). Students are also welcome to participate in either the Liturgy Committee, as Chisholm Ministers, or the Social Justice Committee, in helping promote and celebrate social justice causes as well as assist with fundraising initiatives.
Chisholm Care
In light of our Mission, Chisholm runs an extensive Service Learning Programme known as “Chisholm Care”. This involves students, across all year groups, engaging in rich experiences of service to others. “Chisholm Care” is a developmentally appropriate programme which draws on the Gospel teachings of Christ as well as our College patron Caroline Chisholm and our College traditional links with Edmund Rice and Catherine of Siena. These guides and role models help inspire our College Community to transform our world for the better. These broad areas of service activities occur in the home, at school, in the outside community and ultimately involve our senior students engaging with approved external service providing agencies. Our hope is that these experiences help form our students as life-long supporters and contributors to acts of kindness, care and generosity to others wherever we see the need and have the capacity to help make the world a better place.
Mission In Action
The concept of immersion is not just to visit another part of the world but to experience time with the people, culture and heart of another place, for the betterment of both those we visit, our travelling party and for what the experience brings back to our College. Chisholm is in the process of building two distinctly different Immersion experiences both of which draw connections with our College history.
The Dominican Sisters formed St Thomas Aquinas which would ultimately become one half of the amalgamation that created Chisholm Catholic College in 1989. The Sisters continue to live and work in Vietnam. The Vietnam Immersion involves our students and staff spending time with the Dominican Sisters and experiencing, even making some contribution towards their amazing work in the Highlands region of Vietnam. This draws on our own continuing links with the Dominican Sisters with our very own Sr Chau on staff and Sr Mary Ryan on our College Board.
The Pilbara Immersion draws on our Edmund Rice connections with the Christian Brothers who were instrumental in the formation of St Luke’s College in Karratha. Both St Luke’s and Chisholm Catholic Colleges are Edmund Rice-affiliated Colleges and as a mark of living history share the naming rights of their respective Gymnasiums after the same Br Olly Pickett. The shared history and mission between our schools offers a unique opportunity to grow in relationship and see both schools respectfully immerse in aspects of the Pilbara, especially the Yindjibarndi and other local Aboriginal peoples, heritage, history, cultures and languages. Over time this is hoped to become a reciprocal arrangement with guests from the Pilbara being hosted and immersed in Chisholm Catholic College and include our own journey to grow in relationship with the NOONGAR people.
Click below to watch the 2023 Pilbara and Vietnam Immersions.