ALUMNI INTERVIEW: Brittany Darvas (née West) – Class of 2006

At the ripe old age of 11, Brittany first stumbled into St Philip’s on an out-of-uniform day, and wondered why everyone was dressed as Princesses and Princes – she felt seriously under-dressed in her Hawaiian shirt, cargo shorts and bucket hat (which by the way were totally fashionable back then and have now come back into fashion!).

Alumni Brittany West (now Brittany Darvas) attended SPCC Waratah from Year 5 until graduation in 2006. Her journey with SPCC has come full circle, as her children are now in Junior School at Waratah, and she has started doing some work for the Foundation Office in the area of Global Partnerships (mission trips, fundraisers, support for schools in partner countries). After working alongside Mr Evans as Middle School Captain in 2002, 20 years later she is again working with him on this special project (although she still struggles to call him ‘Graeme’ instead of Mr Evans).

I’m currently… a wife, a Mum to 3 precious kids who keep me on my toes, a Pastor at The Grainery Church and an ongoing part of the SPCC community!

Favourite School Memories: This would include the Yr. 6 Coachwood trip ‘teabag’ experience (IYKYK), Year 12 muck-up day where we carried Mr Hinchey’s car into the cricket nets and locked it up, and being on the first ever SPCC Mission trip to India.

When I left school I wanted to… Never step foot in school again! And now I can’t get enough of it - I’m that annoying parent that emails the teachers asking when parents are allowed to go on excursions and come into the classroom for reading groups!

The best piece of advice I received as a student was… to ENJOY your school years! Don’t take it too seriously, don’t worry so much what everyone else thinks about you, just enjoy all the fun experiences, because one day you will look back and realise that they were really fun years of your life! And they were!

One of the biggest influences on my life was… the first trip I took to India with SPCC in 2006. It really was a completely life-changing experience, where my eyes were opened to the wider world, and my heart was broken for those who live in very different circumstances to the ‘privilege’ I’d grown up with. It truly shaped my future and the direction I decided to point my life in! I chose to do a degree in Development Studies and Masters in Development, and then my husband and I lived in Nepal for a number of years working in Aid and Development. My role at The Grainery continues on this path as the ‘Mission and Justice Pastor’.

In the future I’d like to… see every SPCC student experience and be impacted by a school trip, whether it be a domestic trip to Boggabilla, or an overseas trip to Vanuatu, India, Malawi… Students have so much to give and so much to learn through these trips!