Genazzano FCJ College Kew top 20 students of all time
From sporting stars to judges, Genazzano FCJ College has produced leaders in every field in its 130 years. Launching a new education series on alumni at Melbourne’s top schools, these are the 20 leading graduates from the prestigious Kew school.
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From trailblazing veterinarians and human rights lawyers, to fashion designers, film directors, sports stars and social justice crusaders, Genazzano FCJ College has produced leaders in every field.
To launch a new series highlighting successful alumni from schools across Melbourne and Victoria, here’s our top 20 most outstanding graduates the Kew school has produced in its 130-year history.
Belle Bruce Reid, class of 1901
Trailblazer Belle Reid was the first woman to qualify as a veterinarian in Australia.
After graduating from Genazzano College in 1901, she enrolled at the Melbourne Veterinary College where she was one of only five students to sit the final exam in 1906 – and the only person to pass.
She established the Balwyn Veterinary Surgery – the oldest veterinary clinic in Melbourne – and was the Lost Dog’s Home’s first honorary vet in 1913.
Today the Belle Bruce Reid Medal is awarded to outstanding female veterinary science graduates at the University of Melbourne.
Dr Brenda Niall AO, class of 1948
Academic, author, biographer, literary critic and writer Brenda Niall was born in Melbourne in 1930 and graduated from Genazzano College in 1948.
She received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Melbourne, followed by a Masters at the Australian National University.
In 1964 she became a teaching fellow in the English department at Monash University, and it was here she also gained her PhD.
In 1995 Niall retired from her position as Reader in English Literature at Monash University and began writing full time.
She is the recipient of numerous literary awards, including the Nettie Palmer Award for nonfiction in the Victorian Premier’s awards as well as the National Book Council (Banjo) Award.
In 2002 she was awarded the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards nonfiction award for The Boyds: A Family Biography.
In 2016 she won the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal for Mannix, her biography on Daniel Mannix, Archbishop of Melbourne from 1917 until his death in 1963.
Niall received a Centenary Medal in 2001 and in 2004 she was appointed an Officer of the order of Australia (AO) for services to Australian literature, as an academic, biographer and literary critic.
She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.
Dr Judith Paphazy, class of 1958
Psychologist Dr Judith Paphazy is one of Australia’s leading experts on resilience in children and a recipient of a fellowship from the Australian College of Educators.
The former schoolteacher and school administrator is a member of the International Council of Psychologists.
She was one of several internationally acclaimed experts who co-authored a pioneering book in 2003 book on resilience, edited by the American psychologist Professor Edith Henderson Grotberg.
Dr Paphazy helped implement the program, ‘I Have, I Am, I Can’, in Australian schools.
Dr Paphazy received the Sir John Reid Community Service Award – 2008/2009 for her work with disadvantaged children and homeless youth over thirty years.
Julia Zaetta, class of 1969
Editor of Better Homes and Gardens, and former editorial director of The Australian Women’s Weekly, Ms Zaetta’s four-decade reign in Australian publishing saw her awarded the Australian Magazine Awards Editor of the Year.
After attending Genazzano FCJ College she studied at the University of Melbourne, gaining a Bachelor of Arts degree.
While at uni, she worked as a book editor for Hawthorn Press.
Her magazine career began with Australian Home Journal.
She has also been extensively involved in television as the host of the magazine spin-off Family Circle TV and as a regular panellist on Sunrise as one of Kochie’s Angels.
Under her editorship, Better Homes & Gardens has been named Australian Magazine of the Year on three occasions.
She is a Magazine Hall of Fame inductee and is regarded as one of the most successful and longest serving editors in Australian publishing history.
Dr Judith Pettitt OAM, class of 1969
Dr Pettitt has worked for more than 30 years in senior roles in various government departments.
A former senior official specialising in human resources and corporate services with VicRoads, she was a director of human resources for the Department of Natural Resources and Environment from 1998-2001, the assistant director of training and development at the Department of Human Services from 1992-1998, chief executive for Janefield and Kingsbury Disability Services, Department of Health and Community Services, 1991-1992.
She is currently a board member of charity Mirabel, which helps children who have been orphaned or abandoned due to parental drug use.
She received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 2019 for service to public administration.
Judge Felicity Pia Hampel, class of 1972
A prominent Australian human rights lawyer and, since 2005, County Court judge, Felicity Hampel’s career as a barrister began in 1981.
In 1996, was appointed Queen’s Counsel and she made Senior Counsel in 2001.
She has served as adjunct Professor of Law at Monash University, as president of Liberty Victoria, and as deputy co-convener of the Australian Republican Movement in Victoria.
Hampel has also served as a Victorian Law Reform commissioner and was a founding member of the Australian Women Lawyers and the Women Barristers Association.
In 2010 she was appointed vice-president of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
She was a part-time commissioner of the Victorian Law Reform Commission for 11 years, retiring in June 2012.
She has also been president of Liberty Victoria and a board member of the Royal Women’s Hospital and Trinity College.
Cate Molloy, class of 1972
Former Australian politician Cate Molloy was a Labor and independent member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland from 2001 to 2006, representing the district of Noosa.
She entered Queensland State Parliament as a newly elected Labor MP following the party’s landslide win at the 2001 state election.
She was subsequently re-elected at the 2004 state election.
In 2006, Molloy publicly opposed her party’s policy to build a dam on the Mary River, and was disendorsed as Labor Party candidate in June 2006.
She was defeated at the 2006 election and unsuccessfully recontested the Noosa seat in 2009.
Gabrielle Trainor AO, class of 1973
Gabrielle Trainor has more than 25 years experience on boards in the public and private sectors ranging from infrastructure, urban development, public transport, tourism, construction and mining contracting, hospitality, to sports, arts and culture and indigenous welfare.
Ms Trainor is an AFL commissioner and on the Australian Sports Commission.
She chairs the Construction Industry Culture Taskforce, and is a member of the boards of Zurich Australia Ltd and WAM Global Ltd.
Ms Trainor is chair of the National Film and Sound Archive and a trustee of the Charlie Perkins Trust.
The former Churchill Fellow and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors has been named an Officer of the order of Australia.
Janet DeNeefe, class of 1976
Melbourne-born Janet DeNeefe is the founder and director of the Ubud Food Festival and Ubud Writers & Readers Festiva.
DeNeefe met a Balinese man in 1984, and moved to Ubud, where she has lived for more than 30 years.
Ms DeNeefe owns of Casa Luna and Indus restaurants and Honeymoon Guesthouse and Bakery in Ubud and she runs the The Casa Luna Cooking School.
In 2003 she published Fragrant Rice – an account of her life interspersed with Balinese recipes and insights into local traditions.
In 2004 she created the international Ubud Writers & Readers Festival in response to the 2002 Bali bombings, which has been named by Harpers Bazaar UK as “one of the top Festivals in the world” and by ABC’s Asia-Pacific network as “the next Edinburgh Festival of Asia”.
In 2011, her cookbook Bali; The Food of My Island Home was released.
She lives in Ubud on the premises of the Honeymoon Guesthouse with her husband and four children.
Fiona Scanlan, class of 1978
Melbourne-based designer Fiona Scanlan is a co-founder of iconic and critically acclaimed Australian label Scanlan & Theodore.
Founded in 1987, the label was the baby of designer Fiona Scanlan and creative director Gary Theodore.
The label first showed in Paris at Cour Carrée du Louvre in 1989, has won ‘Best Show’ at Mercedes Australian Fashion Week and Scanlan & Theodore pieces have been exhibited at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum.
Scanlan left the label to create her own children’s wear range, Big by Fiona, from 2004-2011.
In 2008, the brand expanded to include ‘fiona’ offering teen clothing to 8-14 year olds.
Scanlan has been design consultant for Inspirational Spaces at QIC since 2014.
Tina McCarthy, class of 1981
Tina McCarthy is the founder and director of fun at Wheel Women Cycling, an organisation which seeks to empower and engage women in a healthy lifestyle through cycling, not matter what their age, shape or size.
Founded in 2012, Wheel Women is more than just a cycling group; it is place where women can build their confidence in a safe space supported by other women.
Tina is the face of cycling in the VicHealth This Girl Can – VIC campaign.
She is the winner of the Cycling Victoria Iris Dixon Award for her commitment to women’s cycling, as well as the Cycling Luminaries Award for Leadership.
Jane Kennedy, class of 1982
Journalist, actor, comedian, author, producer, radio presenter and mother of five Jane Kennedy first rose to fame while working on Melbourne commercial radio on the D-Generation Breakfast Show.
Kennedy was not originally a member of the group, but the newsreader assigned to work with them during their timeslot.
The team made a game of trying to make her laugh while she read the news.
Their frequent success in this aim led to Kennedy joining the D-Generation as a full time member and she continued to work with them on the radio show.
As part of the group, Kennedy went on to contribute to the hugely successful comedy sketch show The Late Show, current affairs spoof Frontline and retro ’70s police drama spoof Funky Squad.
Kennedy moved behind the camera in the mid-1990s, as a casting director and producer for various Working Dog productions, including The Panel, and films The Castle and The Dish.
In 2009, Kennedy branched out into books, publishing Fabulous Food Minus the Boombah.
In 2010, she released her second cookbook, OMG! I Can Eat That? and has since written two other cookbooks One Dish Two Ways and The Big Book of Fabulous Food.
Since mid-2017 she has been co-hosting Kennedy Molloy, a national drive show on the Triple M Network with her long-time comedy colleague Mick Molloy.
She and her husband Rob Sitch have five children.
Ruth Borgobello, class of 1994
Australian-Italian film director and screenwriter Ruth Borgobello went to the Victorian College of the Arts after Genazzano, graduating in film and TV direction.
Borgobello also holds a Graduate Diploma in Screenwriting for Film & TV from RMIT and a Bachelor of Commerce with Honours (First Class) in Marketing & Communications from The University of Melbourne.
Her debut film The Space Between was selected as the Australian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 2018 Academy Awards.
The film premiered at the Rome International Film Festival and sold out Australia-wide at Lavazza Italian Film Festival in Australia.
The film has screened at numerous international film festivals around the world including Palm Springs, Rome, Toronto and Sydney.
She is currently working on her next feature film, two original television dramas; and the screen adaptation of a best-selling Australian novel.
Dr Sarah McNab, class of 1995
The Royal Children’s Hospital’s first female director of general medicine, Dr Sarah McNab started at the hospital in 2003 as a junior resident.
Her research has been accepted for publication in The Lancet and she has presented at conferences all around the world, including the Pediatric Academic Societies conference in Vancouver, the International Conference in Emergency Medicine in Hong Kong and the International Congress of Paediatrics.
She has previously worked as a paediatric tutor at the University of Melbourne and regularly teaches advanced paediatric life support courses across Australia.
The mother-of-three says her three boys aged 8, 5, and 3 are her greatest achievement.
Monique Milenkovic, class of 1995
Monique Milenkovic may not have a background as a chef or baker, but she hasn’t let that stop her launching a cupcake empire.
The founder and director of The Cupcake Queens was working as an HR manager when her quest to find the perfect cupcake for her wedding revealed a gap in the market she quickly capitalised on.
She opened her first store in Williamstown with just $100, buying all second-hand appliances to make the first batch.
She opened her first store in Williamstown, and now the mother-of-four has stores across Melbourne and high profile fans such as Fifi Box, Dannii Minogue and Chrissy Swan.
Her husband packed in his day job in finance to join the expanding team in locations from Albert Park to Armadale.
Olivia and Miriam Nervo, class of 1999
Twins Olivia and Miriam Nervo were accepted into the Opera Australia Academy, but decided to pursue a music career, signing with Sony when they were 18.
Early recognition followed their single Negotiate with Love, written for British pop singer Rachel Stevens, which reached No. 10 on the UK music charts in 2005.
The duo went on to write for Kesha, Richard Grey, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Ashley Tisdale and the Pussycat Dolls.
They won a Grammy for their work with Kelly Rowlands on the dance hit When Love Takes Over, which made No. 1 on numerous charts around the world.
The song was also ranked the No. 1 dance pop collaboration of all time by Billboard.
In March 2010, Nervo announced a worldwide recording deal with Virgin Records/EMI Music.
They also served as ambassadors at the L’Oreal Fashion Festival.
Nervo have been described as the world’s highest paid women DJs.
Sarah Banting, class of 2000
Australian rowing coxswain Sarah Banting won national championships and competed in the women’s eight event at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Raised in Melbourne, Banting was a member of the Mercantile Rowing Club.
She was first selected to represent Victoria in the women’s youth eight in 2013 contesting the Bicentennial Cup at the Interstate Regatta within the Australian Rowing Championships.
In 2015 and 2016 she coxed successful Victorian senior women’s eights who won the Queen’s Cup at the Interstate Regatta within the Australian Rowing Championships.
Banting’s national representative debut was in 2013 when she steered the Australian eight at the 2013 U23 World Rowing Championships in Linz to a fourth placing in the final.
The following year she was again in the stern of the Australian U23 eight when they achieved a fourth placing at the 2014 U23 World Rowing Championships in Varese.
In 2015 Banting took the rudder of senior women’s eight.
She coxed that crew at two Rowing World Cups in Europe and then at the 2015 World Rowing Championships in Aiguebelette.
Banting was the cox of the Australian Womens 8 at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Chloe McCardel, class of 2002
Open water swimmer and coach Chloe McCardel is the current world recorder holder for the longest ocean swim, having swam 124km from South Eleuthera Island to Nassau, Bahamas, in 41 hours, 21 minutes.
She has made 31 crossings of the English Channel, including one triple crossing and three double crossings.
She was named International Marathon Swimmer of the Year in 2014 and 2015.
In 2016, McCardel crossed the English Channel eight times, breaking the World Record for completed crossings in one season.
She was inducted into the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame that year – its youngest member – and was awarded the International Marathon Swimmer of the Year ‘Poseidon Award’.
McCardel trains in water temperatures as low as 11C for up to six hours and distances of 110-140km in a week.
She hasn’t ruled out further channel crossings.
Linda Monique, class of 2005
Linda Monique studied commerce and arts at the University of Melbourne.
She’s lived in Milan and London, lectured in food design, and dabbled in being a private chef for A-list celebrities after finishing runner up in the first season of Master Chef.
In 2015, when her auto-immune condition worsened, she was forced to make some drastic lifestyle changes.
She discovered almond milk and launched her business Almo Milk, which won the Melbourne International Coffee Expo Product Innovation Award the day we launched.
It has now won many awards and is exported to Asia and Europe.
She’s also been a TED speaker and won the 2018 Telstra Young Business Awards.
Bec Daniher, class of 2008
Bec has been acknowledged for her outstanding commitment and dedication to raising funds for the Fight MND Foundation, in the pursuit of finding a cure for motor neurone disease.
After graduating from Genazzano in 2008, Bec went on to represent Victoria in both junior and senior level rowing, winning two Queen’s Cups during her time.
She had the honour of being selected to represent Australia, culminating in the World Championships in 2013 in South Korea.
Her rowing success was honoured by Genazzano with a rowing squad named after her, along with other alumnae who represented Victoria.
Bec then completed a Bachelor of Business at RMIT and went on to pursue a career in accountancy, working as an accountant for several years.
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During this time, Bec’s family were faced with the difficult news that her father and much beloved AFL personality and former player/coach, Neale Daniher, had been diagnosed with motor neurone disease.
Bec decided to make the change from accountancy to the not-for-profit sector, and took the opportunity to work alongside her dad to take up the fight against MND.
Bec and the team at FightMND have been able to raise over $40 million and contributed $28.8 million to clinical trials and research.
Details: genazzano.vic.edu.au