Urban Engagement is a 4-week experience which allows year 9 students to develop strong interpersonal skills and participate in a range of learning opportunities in Melbourne’s CBD. This interdisciplinary program follows the rich learnings of our college touchstones – Liberating Education, Gospel Spirituality, Justice and Solidarity, and Inclusive Community, where students will put into practice the wisdom of Edmund Rice. Academically, the Urban Engagement program is excellent preparation for the senior years of schooling, whichever pathway they choose. Their learning will be based on direct experience, inquiry, and group cooperation. Like many modern workplaces, this experience will ask for a multi-dimensional approach to the task being done rather than a single ‘subject discipline’.

The students will be encouraged to see how rich the city is in human and physical resources and develop skills to tap into those resources. It can involve research in libraries, interviews with experts, surveying the public, and collecting key artifacts from relevant landmarks. The students’ perspective is more likely to be simple and more direct: The city is exciting and fun! No Year 9 student will want to miss it, not just because of the obvious enjoyments, but because they will discover many of Australia’s richest resources and opportunities found in the CBD.

All students will benefit from the experience of getting about safely and efficiently and they will gain a new appreciation of their traditional schooling and the offerings of being a young Melbournian!