ST Joseph’s Nudgee College’s first Year 5 class who enrolled in the school in 2008 will graduate this year, coinciding with their 125th anniversary.
Seven years ago Ben Rada Martin was one of the first students to set foot in a Year 5 classroom at St Joseph’s Nudgee College.
This month, Ben, now college captain, reached another milestone for being part of the first junior class to graduate as a “Nudgee man”.
The 2015 graduating class are among the thousands who entered Nudgee College as boys and left as men since the school started 125 years ago.
During the Year 12 investiture with Archbishop Mark Coleridge on February 10, Ben said Nudgee students were challenged to be virtuous men.
“At Nudgee, we often hear the phrase, becoming Nudgee Men, not boys, not teenagers – men,” Ben said in his investiture speech.
“The term men entails so much more, a maturity, an understanding and an element of sacrifice,” he said.
The school also welcomed its new principal Peter Fullagar, taking over from Darryl Hanley who retired last year.
Mr Fullagar was previously at St Edmund’s College in Canberra.
He has spent 12 years teaching in Edmund Rice Education Australia, and was also a former college dean at St Joseph’s Gregory Terrace.
As principal for the school’s 125th year, Mr Fullagar said there was “a great sense of pride” among the Nudgee College community.
“My aspiration is to ensure St Joseph’s Nudgee College continues to be well known in boys education,” he said.
Christian Brother Patrick Ambrose Treacey opened St Joseph’s Nudgee College in 1891 after he saw a need to build a boarding school to ensure Brisbane Catholic boys received a solid education.
Nudgee College dean of identity Erin Wedge said Nudgee College was intended to be “a home for boys of the bush”.
St Joseph’s Nudgee College will hold a dinner at Ross Oval in October to commemorate the 125th anniversary.
