Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Sister’s secret to staying 80 years young: work with young people

byEmilie Ng
9 April 2018 - Updated on 1 April 2021
Reading Time: 3 mins read
AA
Sr Elvera Sesta

Sr Elvera Sesta: “Youth have honesty, integrity and enthusiasm, and those who work with them will remain young.” Photo: Emilie Ng

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Sr Elvera Sesta
Sr Elvera Sesta: “Youth have honesty, integrity and enthusiasm, and those who work with them will remain young.” Photo: Emilie Ng

LEGENDARY educator Sr Elvera Sesta has revealed the reason why she’s stayed in the same school since she was eight years old.

The renowned leader in Catholic girls’ education and columnist for The Catholic Leader, who turns 80 on May 1, has spent nearly seven decades at the same school to “remain young”.

“Youth have honesty, integrity and enthusiasm, and those who work with them will remain young,” Sr Elvera said.

“I’ve given my whole life to education, really.”

The “young” sister has often described herself as an “anomaly”, but in her 80 years she has become an inspiration to generations of young women at one school in particular – St Rita’s College, Clayfield.

Sr Elvera was sent to St Rita’s College, a school founded by the Presentation Sisters, as a Year 4 boarding student in 1947 after her father died, and she has almost never left.

“I look around here and I think I’ve been teaching around here older than these people here who teach here now,” she said.

“More than half the life of the school.”

During her school years, she was Green House sports captain at St Rita’s and was awarded the college’s Prix d’Honneur, the highest award in the school, in 1955.

She entered the convent of the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1960 and at the same time began teaching science and mathematics at her alma mater.

Related Stories

French religious sister becomes oldest person alive at 118

US Marianite sister kidnapped by armed men from her convent in Burkina Faso

Pam Betts hands over the reins at Brisbane Catholic Education after 42 years teaching and leading

After a long stint as a classroom teacher, Sr Elvera was named deputy principal in 1986, the college’s 60th anniversary, and became principal in 1989 for 20 years.

Her love for teaching young women never wavered, and she now teaches Religious Education four days a week, co-ordinates the college’s extensive work experience program and is the college’s official photographer.

She has spent no more than five years away from the school since becoming a teacher in 1960.

In 2011, Sr Elvera received The Courier-Mail Queensland College of Teachers Professor Betty Watts Memorial Award for Outstanding Contribution to Teaching.

She was awarded with the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2017 for her contribution to education and in the same year received the title of School Leader of the Year at the Community Leader Awards, hosted by The Catholic Leader.

“I think the good thing about teaching is being able to impart knowledge. You need knowledge, because that’s the fabric you work with, and then once they get the knowledge, being able to do something with it and seeing the light go on in the head,” she said.

Sr Elvera claims to have never done a day’s work in her life – she has loved everything she has done too much to consider it “work”.

As a woman religious, who entered the Catholic Church from Greek Orthodox when she was nine, she said her Catholic values often underpinned much of her teaching.

“I have a certain set of values where human beings are not the be all and end all of life,” she said.

“There’s something beyond us and it’s something that you continually search for.

“Years ago I was a chemistry teacher, chemistry and biology, but I think teaching religion is the most challenging of all because … what you learn is religion is something that will last you for your whole life, not just a career, but all facets of your life.”

ShareTweet
Previous Post

Young Australians sent to Rome for pre-Synod meeting see ‘new potential’ for the Church

Next Post

Brisbane men reaching the un-churched through television

Emilie Ng

Emilie Ng is a Brisbane-based journalist for The Catholic Leader.

Related Posts

World

French religious sister becomes oldest person alive at 118

28 April 2022
US Marianite sister kidnapped by armed men from her convent in Burkina Faso
World

US Marianite sister kidnapped by armed men from her convent in Burkina Faso

7 April 2022
Pam Betts hands over the reins at Brisbane Catholic Education after 42 years teaching and leading
Education

Pam Betts hands over the reins at Brisbane Catholic Education after 42 years teaching and leading

31 December 2021
Next Post
Robert Falzon and Mark Doyle

Brisbane men reaching the un-churched through television

Pope Francis

Gaudete et Exsultate: New apostolic letter calls all Catholics to lives of holiness

Dr David Kirchhoffer

New Brisbane bioethics director tackling the big questions

Popular News

  • Blessed Sacrament desecrated in robbery of sacred vessels at Canberra church

    Blessed Sacrament desecrated in robbery of sacred vessels at Canberra church

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Christian Brothers’ community mourn the passing of Brother Tony White

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Br Alan Moss remembered for a life of faith and learning

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • All Catholics invited to pray rosary for peace with Pope Francis next Tuesday

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Ethiopian cardinal brings sense of gratitude to Australia

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Vatican

All Catholics invited to pray rosary for peace with Pope Francis next Tuesday

by Staff writers
27 May 2022
0

By Catholic News Agency THE Vatican is inviting Catholics to join Pope Francis in praying the rosary...

Gunmen kidnap two Catholic priests in Nigeria

Gunmen kidnap two Catholic priests in Nigeria

27 May 2022
Ethiopian cardinal brings sense of gratitude to Australia

Ethiopian cardinal brings sense of gratitude to Australia

26 May 2022
Blessed Sacrament desecrated in robbery of sacred vessels at Canberra church

Blessed Sacrament desecrated in robbery of sacred vessels at Canberra church

26 May 2022
Pope Francis – ‘My heart is broken’ over Texas elementary school shooting

Pope Francis – ‘My heart is broken’ over Texas elementary school shooting

26 May 2022

Never miss a story. Sign up to the Weekly Round-Up
eNewsletter now to receive headlines directly in your email.

Sign up to eNews
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyChoose another Subscription
    Continue Shopping