50 Years Reminiscence Visit
On the 7th November 2016 Aquinas was honoured to receive a group of Alumni who had especially planned to visit the College to celebrate 50 years since they had arrived in Australia to reside at Aquinas whilst studying engineering.
Our guests were Mr Sie Hyung Chung & Mrs Chung, Mr Chris (Sau-Shan) Yam & partner, Mr Tuck K Lee & Mrs Lee, Mr Choo K Lim & Mrs Lim and Mr Chan Fai Ng & Mrs Ng.
Mr Tuck Lee kindly provided the following:
- Fifty years ago, we arrived in Adelaide in 1966 and started our student “life” in Aquinas as engineering students in Adelaide University. For most of Asian students at that time, it was a first time away from home
- There was quite a large population of Asian students staying in Aquinas College which was a “boy” college. We had Asian students from Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong. Most of Asians staying in the college studied Engineering, Medicine and Dentistry
- The Rector was Fr Buxton the Dean was Fr Maher and we have good memory of them during our time in the college. The two black dogs were the notable “residents”
- Fifty years on and visiting our old “home” on November 7, 2016, we saw significant changes. Firstly, the college is now “mixed”! Secondly, it has grown bigger. Thirdly, the facilities such as the rooms, dinning etc have been modernized. The list of changes grows bigger as we walked through the college ground. While changes are inevitable, we still could recall “how it was” during our time! We definitely missed the old dining hall, the fish pond, the TV room at the basement, the chapel……
- It was a memorable visit for us and we enjoyed the hospitality and the guided tour extended to us.