
Our Mission
Italian Colleges Australia Ltd brings together parents, teachers, professionals and community members with a commitment to preserving and promoting the Italian language, heritage, culture, values, and help raise new generations of passionate young leaders through education.
Vision
To establish Italian Colleges as a unique type of Kindergarten to Year 12 College that delivers a comprehensive English-Italian primary and secondary education, guiding students through the richness of culture, family values, traditions and the Roman Catholic faith.
Core Values

At Colleges established by Italian Colleges Australia Ltd:
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Children are at the heart of all that happens
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The whole child is valued
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A high-quality bilingual and bicultural education is provided
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A sense of belonging
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A vibrant, supportive and engaged community
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Achievements are celebrated
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An fulfilling, safe and inspiring environment
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Encourage risk takers
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Approachable and accessible throughout
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Engaging, quality teaching and learning activities
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Excellent relationships are promoted and maintained with strong self-discipline expected
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Learning is valued
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Many opportunities to participate in various activities
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Pride in all we do
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Students strive to achieve their potential
Emiliani and The Somascan Tradition
The decision to name the new college Emiliani Italian College, honors the life and pedagogical model of Saint Jerome Emiliani, founder of the Order of Regular Clerics of Somasca, commonly known as the Somascan Fathers.
Saint Jerome's mission developed into a new theory of learning, one of filial love, solid Catholic teaching and ‘on-the-job’ skills transferable to real-life.
Emiliani provided orphans with a family environment to address their grave poverty of love, instilling that everyone became the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, the child and heir of God through faith in Christ, and the imitation of His holy life.
“St. Jerome [Emiliani] developed the idea that youth, in order to grow up with health - and especially the most needy - cannot be abandoned, but that love is an essential requisite. In him, love went beyond resourcefulness, and given that it was a love that arose from the very charity of God, it was full of patience and understanding: attentive, tender, ready for sacrifice, like that of a mother.”
– Pope Benedict XVI, 20 July 2011
Emiliani’s pedagogy can be addressed under three broad pillars:
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live by the dignified rule of work (according to one’s state in life),
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educate on devotion and loyalty to the values of the Catholic tradition,
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create a stable atmosphere of charity with communal acceptance of all and love for the poor
Somascan Charism: “Showing the Paternal Love of God to the poor, the abandoned, the needy and thereby testifying to the world that EVERYONE is a dignified child of God.”
Read more about Saint Jerome Emiliani here. To learn more about the Somascan Movement in Australia visit www.somascan.org.au.

Great Alumni since 1532
The Somascan Tradition has accompanied many notable Italians who were educated in colleges established by the congregation of Saint Jerome Emiliani. In 1532, two priests Alessandro Besuzio and Agostino Bariso joined the charitable work of Saint Jerome Emiliani and founded a religious society, placing the motherhouse at Somasca.
In Italy, the Somascans are the rectors of the Pontifical Collegio Gallio, in the city of Como, established by Pope Gregory XIII with the bull "Immensa Dei providentia". To this day, the Collegio Gallio represents the oldest continuing primary and secondary education institution in all of Europe, founded in 1583.
Some of the alumni educated in the Somascan Tradition include:

Blessed Caterina and Giuditta Cittadini Foundresses of the Cittadini Schools and of the
Ursuline Sisters of St. Jerome in Somasca
Apostolo Zeno
Venetian poet, librettist and journalist
Alessandro Manzoni
Father of the Modern Italian Language
and author of I Promessi Sposi
Blessed Giovanni Battista Scalabrini
Father of Migrants, Founder of the Scalabrinian Fathers and Apostle of the Catechism
Pope Benedict XIV
Regarded by some to be the greatest
scholar among the popes
Alessandro Malaspina
Tuscan-born and sicilian-raised explorer
whose expedition landed in
Port Jackson (Sydney) in 1793
Saint Luigi Guanella
Priest and Founder of several religious institutes

Italian Colleges Australia Ltd is a charity advancing education registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission.