ALICIA HILL   - Chiropractic student visits India!

An experience of a lifetime has changed the way chiropractic student Alicia Hill now looks at life.

The 21 – year-old Waikiki resident and ex-Kolbe student considers herself extremely lucky after embarking on a practical trip to India to help treat children who crush stones for a living.

Alicia and 24 fellow students, five chiropractic professionals and a paramedic spent two weeks based in the village of Sulguri, West Bengal, treating 200 patients with spinal injuries and other conditions.

“I’d only ever visited Westernised places,” Miss Hill said.

“It’s not until you get there that you see how different life really is for them – the smells and sights are quite confronting.”

She treated a range of patients and those who linger in the mind the most are the people living with leprosy and tuberculosis.

“We visited five different sites, two hospices and three rock-breaking communities,” Miss Hill said.

“In one hospice we had a tour through the leprosy ward where we saw one man with no legs or arms and he was sitting there crying and shaking.  One of the clinicians adjusted his neck and he immediately stopped crying – it was pretty amazing.”

“We saw conditions we were taught about at university but never thought we would come across them in our lifetime.  To help these people who had been in pain for years and see the difference in them straight away was special.”

Having spent two weeks in third-world conditions, Miss Hill is thankful she was born in Australia.

“In Delhi there were people lying on the side of the streets, stray dogs and rubbish everywhere,” she said. 

“There were also lots of little children coming to the site, curious as to what we were doing in the village.  On the last day we surprised them with bags full of toys and toothbrush packs which had been donated before we left Australia.  They were so excited and didn’t even know what to do with half the stuff – it just really makes you thankful for everything you have at home.”

Miss Hill is now looking forward to finishing her studies and going on to practice.

“Hopefully in a few years time I can go back again but next time as a clinician – I’ll have a bit more experience and will be able to help out a lot more too, she said.

Belinda Cipriano - The Sound Telegraph

DAVID DONNLEY

DAVID DONNLEY was part of the engineering team from UWA, who won the international Society of Automotive Engineering Motorsport Competition in Detroit this year.

The team designed, built and marketed this car over the last year and it has become the world champion motorsport car against 122 teams from all over the globe.

TOBY PITT'S MILITARY LIFE

We were pleased to welcome back Toby Pitt, a past Kolbe student, who spoke at the end of Term 2 assembly about his career and the Australian Defence Force.  Toby has been studying for a degree in Politics and Economics at the Academy and recommends the lifestyle.

Toby left Kolbe in 2003 having been President of the Student Council and receiving both the Maximilian Kolbe Award and the Barbara Scott Award for Performing Arts. Toby’s leadership skills were obviously evident while he was still at College and he feels that the Academy has given him further opportunities to enhance many other attributes.

As well as being able to take advantage of free study for his degree, Toby said he has really enjoyed making friends from all over Australia and is never short of accommodation if he wants to visit any particular place!  If you love sport he reckons the Academy have a team for just about everything. 

He acknowledges that Academy entry does require appropriate education standards and particular physical, medical and personal standards and you have to serve nine years in one of the forces.  However, he is looking at the long term and knows that the qualities of integrity, professionalism, adaptability, initiative and determination will make him highly employable in whatever area he chooses to pursue when he leaves the services.