Aitken College past students, families and friends are invited to join the Aitken College Alumni. By joining the Alumni you will be able to keep in touch with each other and with the school, as well as being informed of upcoming events.
CLASS OF 2002
Since leaving Aiken, Matthew has been fortunate to be able to build the life he had always dreamed of. He now live in the United States, and get to share his strategies of success with the world. His bestselling book, The Introvert's Edge, is stocked in bookstores from 5th Avenue USA to Melbourne, Australia, and endorsed by Harvard, Princeton, Neil Patel, Marshall Goldsmith, and over 50 other global leaders.
Today he works with small businesses, helping them to realise their own dreams of rapid business success. And he gets to speak to thousands on stages across the world.
While it may seem like he has his life together these days, it wasn't always that way.
Because of a visual processing disorder, he struggled throughout his schooling. Aiken arranged special consideration during his final years, and went way out of their way to facilitate his needs. The College kept his moving forward and afforded him flexibility to aid him in assessments that were simple for others but extremely challenging for Matthew. This mindset of never giving up and finding a way to push though his barriers, nurtured at Aiken, plays a huge role in his entrepreneurial approach to this day.
CLASS OF 2005
Ashleigh's favourite memories of Aitken were music, playing flute. She participated in the first four musicals, three in the band and one on stage. There were many more opportunities, given to her by the amazing music and performing arts teachers. Without their encouragement, she says that she wouldn’t be the musician she is today.
Ashleigh studied a Bachelor of Music with honours, in flute performance. She also returned to Aitken for 2 years as a sessional flute teacher, and taught as part of the year 7 band program.
After finishing university, Ashleigh moved to Canada for 18 months, living in Toronto. She has toured extensively with ensembles such as the Toronto Youth Wind Orchestra and the Australian Youth Band.
Recently, she co-founded the West Melbourne Schools Orchestra, which caters to high school students in the western suburbs of Melbourne. It creates opportunities for students to play good music and socialise with other like-minded students outside of the school environment close to home.
Outside of music Ashleigh is a librarian at Monash University.
Without the foundation that Aitken College provided in terms of formal education, extracurricular activities and leadership opportunities her goal would not have been so easily achievable and for this she is very grateful.
CLASS OF 2008
Richard studied Marine Biology at Deakin University in Warrnambool, going on to do a Master Degree with the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies in Hobart. It was here he did my research work into the accuracy of product labelling: Labelling accuracy in Tasmanian seafood: An investigation using DNA barcoding which was published in Elsevier, a global information analytics publication.
He was offered a scholarship to work in Perth with the CSIRO and do some work on fisheries food web dynamics, and more genetics research.
Richard loves nature and trekking and has seen Mt Everest from the Base Camp while on an expedition with friends in Nepal.
Aitken College helped get him to where he is today by providing a challenging, but encouraging, learning environment. The Science Faculty in particular was responsible for nurturing his interest in natural science and stimulating his ambition. It was during his final years at Aitken that fostered his interest in biology and the broader environment but further education and career paths were not on his mind. A few of teachers saw this, and were able to open his eyes to the possibility of pursuing science after year 12. Simple words of encouragement helped set him on a path he might not have taken otherwise. For this reason Richard is grateful to the staff who encouraged him during those years.
He looks back with fondness to his time at Aitken, proud to have been shaped by this small community, on hills amidst farmland.
Aitken Alumni is looking for past students to join our Alumni Committee. If you are interested please contact us.
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Since leaving Aiken, Matthew has been fortunate to be able to build the life he had always dreamed of. He now live in the United States, and get to share his strategies of success with the world. His bestselling book, The Introvert's Edge, is stocked in bookstores from 5th Avenue USA to Melbourne, Australia, and endorsed by Harvard, Princeton, Neil Patel, Marshall Goldsmith, and over 50 other global leaders.