Vinnies Voices St Vincent's College Foundation

Rachel Givney (Class of 1999) is a writer and filmmaker. She has worked on Offspring, The Warriors, McLeod's Daughters, Rescue: Special Ops and All Saints. Rachel wrote international Best seller Jane in Love & critical acclaim Secrets My Father Kept .

Rachel is currently writing the screenplay for the movie of Jane in Love and working on her third novel.

In this episode we find out Rachel's dream of working with Arnold Schwarzenegger, was Rachel really the one who "killed off" Patrick on the Offspring? and she gives incredible advice to Vinnies girls "Find the thing that brings your heart joy and work out a way to do that for the rest of your life".

Melinda Gainsford-Taylor AM (Class of 1989) is one of the truly great runners of Australian athletics history. Melinda is a three time Olympian and is the current Australian Record Holder in the 200m. Melinda also held the Australian Record in the 100m, for some twenty years. Melinda is committed to coaching and mentoring athletes through her group sessions. Encouraging kids to be their best and lead a healthy and active lifestyle.

Melinda is a successful media commentator and is an ideal choice as an MC or guest speaker inspiring audiences by sharing the challenges and successes from her international athletics career. www.melgt.com.au

Most importantly Melinda’s biggest achievement has been becoming the mother of two beautiful children, Nicholas and Gabriella

Alice Gardoll (Class of 2009) is a lawyer who is passionate about fighting for vulnerable individuals in Australia’s justice system. She has previously worked as a criminal defence lawyer representing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Darwin, and as a refugee lawyer in Australia and Samos, Greece. 

In 2019, Alice was awarded the Fulbright Postgraduate Scholarship to undertake her Master of Laws at Columbia Law School in New York. At Columbia, she was awarded a Public Interest and Government Fellowship to work at Reprieve, an international human rights NGO that fights against unlawful detention and the death penalty across the globe.

Alice has recently started as a Senior Lawyer in the Office of Amal Clooney.

Laura Jayes (Class of 2001) joined Sky News in 2006 as a reporter, and in 2011 became a political reporter and member of the press gallery based in Canberra. She was the presenter of Lunchtime Agenda until mid 2015.

In 2015 Laura began anchoring the Friday edition of NewsDay. Laura was nominated as favourite female personality in the 2014 ASTRA Awards.

In January 2016, Laura was given her own primetime program The Latest with Laura Jayes .

In November 2016, Laura became just the third Australian journalist granted a visa to Nauru, which houses a large Australian asylum seeker processing centre, the Nauru Regional Processing Centre. Nauru has restricted access to the country to members of the media.

In October 2018, Jayes moved from hosting NewsDay to co-hosting breakfast programs First Edition and AM Agenda.

Kate Wild (Class of 1990) is an investigative journalist whose work with distinguished teams at the ABC has been recognised with three Walkley Awards and a Logie. Her reports from Darwin, where she lived from 2010 to 2016, laid the groundwork for a Four Corners story on juvenile detention that prompted the calling of a Royal Commission.

The biggest stories she has worked on are Who Killed Mr Ward and Code of Silence, for Four Corners, both of which won Walkleys, a Logie and NSW and Victorian Premier's Awards for journalism.

Kate published her first non-fiction book, Waiting for Elijah, in June 2018. Waiting for Elijah can be purchased at booktopia.com.au
If you or someone you know is struggling go to headspace.org.au. Headspace is the National Youth Mental Health Foundation providing early intervention mental health services to 12-25 year olds. headspace can help young people with mental health, physical health (including sexual health) alcohol and other drug services, and work and study support.

Kate provides media training in television, print, radio and social media presentation to non-profit organisations.

Dr Marjorie Spooner O'Neill BA, BBus(Hons), PhD MP (Class of 2003) is an Australian politician. Marjorie was elected as a Labor member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly representing Coogee at the 2019 state election. Marjorie has been a Waverley councillor, a rugby coach and holds a PhD in management economics.

Marjorie spent ten years working and playing rugby at Essex and California Polytechnic State Universities.

Marjorie was a former Chair of the Community Safety Advisory Committee and the Waverley Surf Life Saving Club Committee.