The College by the Harbour - St Aloysius

Micronesian Scholars
Regular readers of the Aloysiad will be aware that
each year the College sends two Year 12 boys on a
twelve month GAP year to the United Kingdom
as a part of the Grumitt Scholarship. At the Conclusion of
his HSC in 2000, John Quilty (SAC 2000) decided that
he wanted to do some sort of community activity prior to
commencing his university studies. John organized a GAP
Year with our brother Jesuit School, Xavier High School
in Chuuk, Micronesia.
John returned to Australia in late 2001 and was the
Guest of Honour at the first Senior School Assembly of
2002.
John tells his story and the impact on his life that
twelve months in Micronesia has had on him.
“In 1999 I suffered a serious accident, which forced me
to take a step back, take some time out and ask myself the
question, "What I am doing with my life".
After some conversations with a Jesuit who had taken
the trouble to come and visit me at home during this time,
the question I began asking myself was "What more could
I be doing?"
I knew that all I wanted to do was travel, so the most
logical step for me was to find some way of combining
these two ideals.
After further inquiries around the school it was the
then Deputy Headmaster, Mr Martin Scroope, who
informed me of the opportunity I was later to take on.
"John, do you know where Micronesia is?" he asked me.
John Quilty (SAC 2000)
Maybe it was because I dropped Geography in Year 9, but
I certainly didn’t know where Micronesia was! It was for
that reason that I found it most appealing.
I commenced working at Xavier High School on the
Micronesian Island of Chuuk in January 2001 and now,
after twelve months, I cannot begin to count all the
reasons why I love it so much living in Chuuk Lagoon
(Chuuk is the local and official name of this Micronesian
State. The more popular and publicised name is Truk, a
German adoption of the name Chuuk). The people, the
community, the experiences and friendships they’ve given
are what I appreciate most. The lessons I have learned in
patience and respect, I believe, are now my greatest assets.
The faculty I worked with at Xavier comprises Jesuits
from New York, Singapore and Indonesia. There are ten
young volunteers from The Philippines, Japan,
Micronesia, America and now myself from Australia. The
student body is made up of 160 students from all four
Micronesian states as well as the Republic of Palau and the
Marshall and Caroline Islands. It is an extraordinarily
diverse population in which everybody learns from each
other about how to reason and compromise with respect
for students, staff, cultures and the community alike.
At just nineteen years old I’ve been given a lot of
responsibilities and learned even more lessons from these.
The larger responsibilities I’ve had since arriving has been
to coach the Xavier High School athletics squad, teach a
senior English skills course and start a tutoring
department that assists students with academic contracts
and lower grades.
Along with winning the islands Inter-School Athletics
championship, the most rewarding experience was to
organize a Summer School program for fifty Year 6 and 7
students from three local elementary schools, whilst
overseeing 7 Xavier students completing 160 hours of
community service. I was never especially talented at
mathematics during my time at St Aloysius’, however I
found myself not only teaching mathematics but also
doing so in a language I’d only been learning for six
months!
Taking students studying Marine Science SCUBA
diving in the lagoon through sunken Japanese battleships
from the Second World War brings history to life and
helping local farmers on their Tarot patches on
Community Service Project weekends gives a whole new
perspective to geography.
Since my time in Chuuk commenced I’ve become
excited about spirituality through the example of the
students and other volunteers working here. Masses are
truly exciting experiences filled with color, creativity and
strong voices.
As well as living on campus, I also have the
opportunity to live with a sponsor family down by the
water in the same village (Sapwuk) where Xavier High
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