Jordan of Saxony Address: Boys, you have a bright future ahead of you

The Jordan of Saxony School Spirit Award recognises the Blackfriars student who most aptly demonstrates attitudes and behaviours that promote the Four Pillars of Dominican life – Prayer, Study, Community and Service. It is the pinnacle of all school awards.

Today, we are pleased to share the 2024 Jordan of Saxony recipient Michael Ward’s address to the annual Laureate Assembly.

As I prepared for this speech, I reflected on the previous Jordan of Saxony winners – their words encouraging each young man to pursue his dreams and excel, all while grounding himself in the four Dominican pillars of Prayer, Study, Community and Service. Each of them, in their own way, conveyed a simple message; boys, you have a bright future ahead of you.

Blackfriars has given you, and will continue to give you, incredible opportunities to grow. Today, I want to highlight three of those opportunities:

Life and social skills

As you progress through school, I encourage you to seize every opportunity to step out of your comfort zone and be selfless. In my experience, the more I engaged in the co-curricular program, the more friendships I built – not just at Blackfriars, but beyond it. These connections led to incredible opportunities, such as founding a thriving youth group. Just this past weekend, we ran a three-day retreat, and now we’re expanding into in-school events across Adelaide.

This is just one example of the amazing things that can happen when you take a leap of faith – when you dare to swim in the deep end rather than staying in the shallows of comfort.

Leadership

Over the years, I’ve heard many people say they never saw themselves as “natural leaders”, but they took the opportunity anyway and achieved remarkable results. Personally, I have always enjoyed the thrill of leading an excellent team under pressure. But leadership is not about collecting titles, trophies or personal success.

A true leader does not chase individual merit at the expense of others. When success is treated as a prize for oneself alone, someone wins, but everyone else is burned out. That is not leadership.

Through my experiences, I’ve come to realise that leadership is not about smashing results – that’s the team’s job. Leadership is about showing others that, though life can be burdensome, there is always a path forward.

A great leader is a dealer in hope. If you can inspire hope in your peers, then you are a leader.

A strong foundation

The most valuable thing Blackfriars has provided each of you is a firm foundation for life – one rooted in the four pillars of Dominican life: Prayer, Study, Community and Service.

Psychologist Jordan Peterson makes an interesting observation: For someone to thrive, they need one foot in order and one in chaos.

Order is the foundation, the thing that keeps you grounded when life makes no sense. Chaos is the thrill of life, the creative potential, the new relationships, the jobs and opportunities we aren’t certain of.

Many people struggle to find order. But our school and our faith have provided us with a rock-solid foundation.

Through Prayer, we find peace, understanding, love and an unearthly joy.

Through Study, we grow, by engaging with new ideas, debating different perspectives and learning to see life through a measured and balanced lens.

Through Community, we find people who will build us up and sustain us.

Through Service, we find meaning, so remember always be there for each other.

I was recently blessed to help run a conference with YLEAD, a group I first met pursuing an opportunity that Blackfriars gave me at the beginning of Year 12. This group is dedicated to inspiring young leaders to be selfless. The goal was simple; create an environment where it was hard to be selfish.

What I witnessed was extraordinary. Young men and women banded together, raising money for charity, overcoming personal struggles and building a community where they felt valued and supported.

It made me wonder, what would the world look like if everyone chose to build others up rather than focusing on themselves?

Final words

Thank you all for this opportunity to speak. Each of you has an incredible opportunity here at Blackfriars, all you have to do is seize it.

There is a beautiful world waiting for you out there. Trust in God and always move forward. There will be difficult times. You will make mistakes – I certainly did. But nothing good comes from beating yourself up. Learn from it, believe in hope and never stop striving for a better future.

Above all, thank God for every opportunity and remember you’ll always have this community. Once a Blacks boy, always a Blacks boy.