IN a “tear-jerking” moment on such a significant day, Sister Trish Franklin was fittingly reunited this month with a child who used to play truant from English class.
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Nguyen Thanh Vinh, who is blind, was graduating from RMIT University Vietnam with a Bachelor of Communication in the same graduation ceremony in which Sister Franklin was awarded an honourary doctorate in social science.
Sister Franklin, who hails from Ballarat, had taught Vinh in year two at a school for the blind in Ho Chi Minh City later played a key role in helping him secure an opportunity scholarship to study at RMIT Vietnam.
The scholarship was the first of its kind in Vietnam and Vinh wants to use his skills to create change in the world for people with disability.
For more than 20 years, Sister Franklin dedicated her work to helping disadvantaged children and those with special needs to develop a love for learning. Sister Franklin had arrived in 1995, initially for one year, and stayed on at the suggestion of her superior developed the Loreto Vietnam-Australia Project.
- READ MORE: The story of Sister Trish
This was her first trip back to Vietnam in the three and a half years since retiring.
“I stood on the roadside the night I arrived and shook my head and said, ‘My God, did I really live here for 20 years?’ But I did,” Sister Franklin said.
“I was reflecting a bit on that...It was what I was born to do. That sounds like a clinical cliché, but it is true. My 20 years here and all that was achieved through the Loreto program was meant to happen.
“Yes, I feel very joyful. I don’t miss the CEO (chief executive officer) job. I was tired of that.
But I miss the kids. We used to go down to the bush and play soccer in the fields. That’s what I loved.
Sister Franklin was humbled and honoured to be awarded an RMIT honourary doctorate in a ceremony at the unveristy’s South Saigon campaus in Ho Chi Minh City. She said there were many in her life who helped her achieve what she had in Vietnam.
In her address to graduates, Sister Franklin urged them all to be like donkeys. In short, as highly intelligent creatures, to channel energy into “helping hooves” for your family, your workplace, your social settings.
Read an excerpt of Sister Franklin’s graduation speech below
“When I was preparing my words for this address – I was taken back many years – when I myself graduated from University in Melbourne. An orator told usthat we were and must continue to be donkeys- of all things!
The status quo of donkeys suggests they are senseless, mindless and foolish!
I still remember his words and they made a great impact on me at that time, though possibly I may have thought that to be told I was a donkey – was a little offensive.
Here are some points about donkeys that I now understand – because I’ve journeyed and experienced many personal and professional encounters.
- for thousands of years donkeys have been the “helping hooves” of the world and despite popular misconception they are highly intelligent
- donkeys also have an incredible memory (I’m not sure that that skill is as sharp within me now – as it was when I was younger)
- donkeys are not startled (unlike horses) and they have a keen sense of curiosity
- donkeys are really independent in their thinking (this is sometimes interpreted that they are stubborn). But they do reason and then make decisions based on safety and well-being
- donkeys learn what it is we want them to do – if we take time to show them
- donkeys also don’t like being kept on their own – and even a single donkey will live quite happily with goats
- donkeys are a lifeline to families in many regions of the world: they help with water and wood-fuel collection, land cultivation and transportation of produce to the market
- And this final point I love so much – donkeys are often fielded with horses due to the perceived calming effect they have on nervous horses. If a donkey is introduced to a mare and a foal – the foal will often turn to the donkey for support after it has left its mother.
Conveying these points in human terms – my words today, are for us all – though primarily for you, the graduating students: some simple guidelines of how to clasp the new journey you are setting out on today!
Like donkeys, I believe you are highly intelligent – and this will be channeled into being the ‘helping hooves’ – for your family, your workplace, your social settings. As you leap into the next phase of your lives - career-wise –maintain a keen sense of intelligence, memory and curiosity. Keep it going: it doesn’t stop today.
Be independent but collaborate and work together with your colleagues in your new settings. Take time, be passionate about your work and your workplace and stay warmly professional amongst your fellow personnel – all in the name of well-being and safety. Take time with decisions and have a humorous and calming effect in all you do – for the good of your company, corporation, organization, family and business place. And always be a lifeline of support, backing and positive reinforcement.”
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