OURS Week 7 Term 1 2025

Principal’s Report

Alistair Michener (MHS 2005) – a shining example of entrepreneurial success

This week, I had the opportunity to meet Alistair Michener, founder and CEO of Drawboard, a software startup offering PDF markup and communication tools tailored to the design and construction industries. Alistair’s app, Drawboard PDF, was pre-installed on Surface devices globally in 2015 and 2016, leading to millions of installations worldwide.

Like many entrepreneurs, Alistair started his journey from home and, over the past decade, has grown his business with the help of a dedicated team, including alumnus Rajas Satija (MHS 2022), who kindly facilitated our introduction.

Alistair’s story exemplifies the combination of talent (skills and abilities), passion (motivation and drive), and courage (the willingness to take risks) that is often seen in successful entrepreneurs—qualities we actively encourage in our students.

I’m looking forward to collaborating with Alistair on an exciting school-based project in the near future.

Shreeneel Tarale – Another budding tech entrepreneur

One of our Year 12 students, Shreeneel Tarale, is already demonstrating a strong entrepreneurial spirit through the development of his app, vSeek. Shreeneel describes vSeek as “your intelligent companion for VCE exam preparation.” The app is designed to streamline studying for VCE exams by offering smart access to past VCAA exam questions, making the process more efficient and effective. I look forward to hearing how the app evolves.

The AI Revolution: Ethics, Innovation & Entrepreneurship—Navigating the Future with Integrity

Next week, MHS will be hosting its first Entrepreneurship Forum for 2025, featuring an impressive lineup of speakers. I’m confident that our Year 10 Business and Economics students will leave the event both inspired and equipped with valuable life lessons they can apply in the future. A special thanks to Mr Marotta for his dedication in overseeing the organization of this event.

Recognising the increasing demands for higher levels of numeracy and mathematics in the 21st Century and the correlation with higher remuneration.

Recently, NewsCorp published several articles highlighting the future economic and employability benefits of having a strong foundation in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). This is an area where we excel at MHS, consistently achieving outstanding results in STEM subjects. For example, in 2023 and 2024, our students achieved the highest Year 9 NAPLAN results in Victoria.

When interviewed, I mentioned that I believe every student should study some Mathematics, as it’s essential to apply numerical concepts in various contexts. Similarly, I also think every student should take at least one Liberal Arts subject such as History, Philosophy, a language or Politics in their senior years to develop a broader perspective and a deeper sociocultural understandings.

The articles also highlighted a correlation between future earnings and the growing demand for STEM-related jobs, or jobs requiring STEM skills including data analysis and interpretation, coding, forecasting and using software applications. So, pursuing a STEM subject in your VCE won’t just equip you with valuable knowledge and skills for future studies and careers – it might just give you a bigger slice of the pie. (Or in our case is it – π!)

9J Millgrove Report

Throughout the year, every Year 9 and Year 10 form group will spend time at Millgrove, our outdoor education camp. This program is a vital part of the MHS educational experience, offering students the chance to challenge themselves both physically and mentally. After each camp, I receive a report, and based on what I’ve read about 9J’s experience, there was some fantastic teamwork. Although some activities proved challenging, the students put in a lot of effort and gained a great deal from the experience.

A sincere thank you to Megan Wilson and Sam Owen, our Coordinators at the Millgrove Outdoor Education Centre, as well as to Form Teacher Tyler Howie and Year 11 mentors Jiahai Zhu, Shaayer Mostofa, Zarif Ahmed, and Heejae Ku, who supported 9J throughout their activities.