Miranda Fisher, centre, has been inspired to help other people by family members like her uncle Greg and nan Dorreen
November 25, 2013
by Marcus Priaulx
Miranda Fisher is glad her parents refused to buckle when she cried and begged for them to collect her from St Saviour’s College boarding school in Toowoomba.
Miranda had been there a fortnight when a deep-seated homesickness set in.
“I missed being around my family; my brothers, my parents, everything; sitting around yarning, having a good time,” she said.
But mum Rosetta and dad George told her to see out the term.
When Miranda, then aged 13, returned to Cherbourg she realised the grass wasn’t greener.
She had dreams and ambitions.
“I realised it had become natural for me to go back to school,” she said on Monday.
“It had to be done to succeed and show all those other young, little kids they can be whatever they want to be.”
It’s what her Year 6 teacher Eric Law and his wife Shirley, at St Joseph’s School in Murgon, had told her.
The talks they gave students made Miranda realise she wanted a career that would have her help other people to have an easier life.
She graduated on November 15 and is about to embark on a community services course in Brisbane.
“Youth justice is the way I want to go because of family and all these other young kids,” Miranda said.
“I want them to see there’s a better future for them than doing nothing. It’s not easy. They have to want it, too. You can’t force them to do it.
“I want it and I want them to have a better future, too.”
Respected South Burnett educator Eric Law
Parents Deserve Praise
Nine students will share a special bond of achievement when they attend the Indigenous Secondary School Graduation Celebration in Murgon on Thursday, November 28.
For it was in Year 6 at St Joseph’s they approached their teacher Eric Law and asked if he could help them make something of their lives.
Mr Law is now the Queensland Catholic Education Commission’s Indigenous Committee Chairman and was only too happy to help.
Last week he gave the students’ parents praise for their full support in helping their children to graduate from St Saviour’s College in Toowoomba, Marist College Ashgrove, St Mary’s Catholic College in Kingaroy and Murgon State High School.
“At the time we had nine Indigenous students in my Year 6 class and they came to me to ask if I could help them achieve their goals,” Mr Law said.
“We were getting our boys into Marist College and had thought about what we could do for our girls.
“We contacted St Saviour’s in Toowoomba.
“The history of these big schools is steeped in helping disadvantaged kids.
“Marist College Ashgrove and St Saviour’s were getting back to their roots by helping us but the parents still had to contribute financially.
“It’s a big commitment for them to do so but these parents have really supported their children.
“They proved it can be done and we really have to take our hats off to these parents.
“Without their support, their children couldn’t have got the education they need to set them up for a great life.”
Mr Law said the Aboriginal Indigenous Education Fund (AIEF) also supported the children with scholarships that bridged the gap between ABSTUDY, their parents’ monetary input and the remaining school fees.
“The parents still needed to make a contribution and their willingness do to so could be, in some instances, termed amazing,” Mr Law said.
“These parents have put a real value on their children’s education and their future.
“Some of these children came from families that struggled financially but still paid to send them to St Joseph’s and then onto further private or boarding schools to ensure they got the best start in life that they could.”
