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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
School Children

At Colleges established by Italian Colleges Australia Ltd:

 

  1. Children are at the heart of all that happens

  2. The whole child is valued

  3. A high-quality bilingual and bicultural education is provided

  4. A sense of belonging

  5. A vibrant, supportive and engaged community

  6. Achievements are celebrated

  7. An fulfilling, safe and inspiring environment

  8. Encourage risk takers

  9. Approachable and accessible throughout

  10. Engaging, quality teaching and learning activities

  11. Excellent relationships are promoted and maintained with strong self-discipline expected

  12. Learning is valued

  13. Many opportunities to participate in various activities

  14. Pride in all we do

  15. 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.

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“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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  1. live by the dignified rule of work (according to one’s state in life),

  2. educate on devotion and loyalty to the values ​​of the Catholic tradition,

  3. 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.”

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Read more about Saint Jerome Emiliani here. To learn more about the Somascan Movement in Australia visit www.somascan.org.au.

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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.

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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.

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Some of the alumni educated in the Somascan Tradition include:

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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

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

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