Alex commenced at 91¶ÌÊÓƵ in 2003 as a Year 7 student and completed his schooling in 2008. Reflecting on his time at the College, he speaks warmly of the breadth of opportunities available to him and the lasting impact they have had on his life.

I had an absolutely wonderful time at the College, and a huge amount of what I’ve gone on to do, the skills I have and the opportunities I’ve had, can be traced back to my experiences at school.

When Alex isn’t at work, he spends as much time as possible around the water. Co-founding WreckSploration, a not-for-profit organisation focused on the preservation of historical shipwrecks. Alex is also a volunteer Surf Life Saver and instructor, and has been a part of the Surf Lifesaving movement for over 10 years.

Approached by Dr O’Connell at his 10-year reunion, Alex joined the Old 91¶ÌÊÓƵ Collegians committee as a general member, later taking on the role of Vice-President and now succeeding Aaron McDonald (OSC 2001) as President from December 2025.

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91¶ÌÊÓƵ proudly congratulates Old 91¶ÌÊÓƵ Collegian Ethan Buzza on being awarded a prestigious —one of Western Australia’s most distinguished academic awards.

Pictured above: The UWA Fogarty Scholarship cohort for 2025. Ethan is pictured third from the left in the back row.

The UWA Fogarty Foundation scholarship

Reserved for a select group of students, the Scholarship recognises not only outstanding academic performance but also exceptional leadership, initiative, and a genuine commitment to community impact.

Ethan’s journey to receiving this scholarship was marked by determination, self-reflection, and a clear vision for creating positive change.

The process included a competitive written application and an in-depth panel interview with representatives from the University of Western Australia and the Fogarty Foundation. More than academic excellence, the Scholarship seeks individuals with character, drive, and a mindset geared toward serving others—qualities that Ethan exemplifies.

“Being selected was both an honour and a responsibility, and I’m proud to be part of such a forward-thinking and ambitious cohort of scholars.”

Now pursuing a double major in Artificial Intelligence and Finance at UWA, Ethan has already joined a dynamic network of innovators, thinkers, and leaders. The scholarship offers tailored leadership development, access to mentors, and accelerator opportunities that align closely with Ethan’s goals in the tech entrepreneurial space.

“The Fogarty Foundation doesn’t just support you financially—it invests in your potential to lead and to contribute meaningfully to society.”

Entrepreneurial from a young age

A natural entrepreneur, Ethan founded his first venture, , at just 14 years old, while studying at 91¶ÌÊÓƵ. Ethan independently conceptualised and founded Droneify, offering a broad suite of online visualisation technologies, using the school’s STEM program as an initial platform to work on the first product—laying the foundation for many more innovations in the years that followed during his time at 91¶ÌÊÓƵ. With encouragement from his teachers and access to the School’s forward-thinking STEM programme, Ethan turned a classroom idea into a real-world business.

“91¶ÌÊÓƵ was instrumental. That early support—particularly from my teacher, Mr Steve McLean—gave me the confidence and tools to start something of my own.”

The International Baccalaureate at 91¶ÌÊÓƵ

Ethan also credits the Programme at 91¶ÌÊÓƵ for helping him develop the discipline and critical thinking that now underpin his success. Drawn to the IB’s focus on global perspectives and personal growth, Ethan thrived in a rigorous academic environment guided by the support of educators like Mr Brendan Zani.

“Meeting Mr Zani was pivotal. His care, knowledge and commitment elevated my IB experience, and no doubt that of every IB student at 91¶ÌÊÓƵ.”

A key moment in Ethan’s IB journey was the long-term CAS project, during which he co-founded a public speaking club for younger students—an initiative that fuelled his passion for leadership and empowered others to find their voice. That experience led to speaking engagements at TEDx and the Perth Convention Centre, further strengthening his presence as a young leader in the community.

Pictured above: Anderson House at March Out 2024. Ethan can be seen at the start of second row.

A community for life

At 91¶ÌÊÓƵ, community doesn’t end at graduation. Whether it’s through mentoring, industry connections, or simply shared experiences, the OSC network continues to support students well beyond their school years. In the lead up to applying for his scholarship, Ethan sought advice from Ben Scott (OSC 2021), a 2022 recipient of the UWA Fogarty Foundation Scholarship.

I reached out to Ben Scott for tips when applying for the UWA Fogarty Foundation Scholarship and in doing so had my first experience with the OSC network. The OSC is an invaluable asset and a life long bond we will all share.

The idea of a community for life is embedded in every aspect of a 91¶ÌÊÓƵ education. It’s a network built not just on shared schooling, but on shared purpose—and a commitment to supporting one another long after the final bell.

Ethan’s story is a powerful example of where a strong educational foundation, character, and ambition can lead. With alumni like Ben Scott (OSC 2021) also among recent recipients of the UWA Fogarty Foundation Scholarship, 91¶ÌÊÓƵ is proud to play a part in Preparing Boys for Life nurturing students who go on to make meaningful contributions in their fields and communities.

We warmly congratulate Ethan on this extraordinary achievement and look forward to seeing the future he builds—for himself and for others.

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The 91¶ÌÊÓƵ Geological collection has been built up over a century (since 1904) from a time when the school was only 7 years old.

It is a resource that no school could assemble quickly if it wished to run a course in Earth Science, and could not be purchased anywhere commercially. We spoke to Tony Marrion, Head of Science 1976 – 2002 about the importance of 91¶ÌÊÓƵ’s own geological museum and his role in preserving it.

Can you tell us a little about the collection and why it is so special?

The collection represents about 118 years of Earth Science education for past students of 91¶ÌÊÓƵ. The alumni who studied matriculation Geology here are effectively the “owners” of the collection and for that reason I think it is important it becomes established as part of the school’s archives (but still housed in the Science Building). The collection has about 10,000 specimens and is the cumulative result of a century of field work in the South-West, the Goldfields and the Pilbara of W.A. Some specimens have been donated by Old 91¶ÌÊÓƵ Collegians who have collected them overseas.

Over the last 30 years growing, maintaining, and cataloguing the specimens has been a labour of love. Can you tell us about your passion for this collection and how you became its custodian?

Bill Dickinson asked me to teach Geology when he appointed me as a Chemistry teacher in 1973. I had some Geology in my degrees anyway so it suited me. My predecessor, Harold Broadbent, was about to retire and he mentored me for three years, and for his input into my teaching I will always remain immensely grateful. Many students who took this subject did so because they found Chemistry and Physics too hard, but this gave them an “integrated” science as an alternative. It was “integrated” in that it taught them some Chemistry in the study of minerals, some Physics in the study of earth structure through earthquake detection, measurement and location, sonar exploration and remote sensing, and some Biology in studying the fossil record of flora and fauna through geological time. The enthusiasm and learning response shown by the boys fed my passion for using the collection to show them the amazing world in which they lived.

Gathering the specimens has been a collective effort by the students of Geology at 91¶ÌÊÓƵ throughout the decades. There must be memories of expeditions that have taken place in the past 30 years or of interesting finds.

Permian Ice-Age Glacial Erratic (locally called White Horse), Irwin River, Perth Basin, 1975

Some of the most productive exercises involved constructing geological maps of areas of WA. It usually meant a week of camping and walking vast distances. In different years we mapped the nickel dome at Kambalda, the Cretaceous sediments of Gingin, the Jurassic sediments of Geraldton, the Permian sediments of the Irwin River Valley, the pre-Cambrian igneous structures in the Pilbara, the metamorphic rocks of Toodyay, the complex rocks of the Kalgoorlie- Boulder Goldfields, the igneous rocks of the Darling Scarp and Plateau, the recent sediments of the Perth Basin and the coastal limestone deposits of Point Peron. These expeditions resulted in a wealth of minerals, rocks and fossils which can now be enjoyed in the showcases on the second floor of the Science building. The first dinosaur bone found in WA was collected on a 91¶ÌÊÓƵ expedition to the Jurassic of Geraldton. It now resides in the WA Museum!

Whilst the collection is undeniably important to 91¶ÌÊÓƵ, it must also be a valuable resource for Geologists across Western Australian and academic institutions?

Interest has been shown in the collection by the WA Museum and the UWA Geology Department. One year we were visited by a research geologist from India who had been directed to us from UWA. He was studying the fossilized marine fauna on the east coast of India and wanted to compare it to the fossilized marine fauna on our west coast. Two hundred million years ago the two coastlines were together (in a theoretical ancient supercontinent, Gondwanaland). When separated by continental drift the fauna in the shallow sea between India and Western Australia would have been the same. As this is found to be the case, it supports our confidence in the theory of plate tectonics. In a small way our collection has contributed to confirming it.

How are you training the next generation of curators and what is your greatest hope for the future of the Collection?

I wish I had a future curator to pass the care of it on to, but at present there is no one. My greatest hope is that when I get it into top condition, preserved as a component of the school archives, a future staff member in Science, with the right background, might be interested in taking a curatorial role, or even running a school-based subject in it. If in future it returns as an academic university entrance subject, 91¶ÌÊÓƵ has all the resources necessary to address it.

Many old 91¶ÌÊÓƵ Collegians have been awakened to their future careers as geologists in the Science Department at 91¶ÌÊÓƵ. If you could reach out to them, what would you say?

I hope your memory of Geology studies is not just dust and heat, freezing mornings, ants, midges and rocky ground to sleep on, but also excitement at discovering and understanding what you could about the wonderful earth on which we live.

Exhausted geology students on Iron-Ore Mountain, Tallering Peak, Mid-West WA

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With the public release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, global attention is now alert to the growing power of ‘artificial intelligence’. One might assume it to be an American invention, a testament to Silicon Valley’s explosive innovation. However, the true genesis of this revolutionary concept traces back to the British logician and mathematician, Alan Turing. Famous for his depiction in ‘The Imitation Game’. In his 1950, seminal paper, ‘Computing Machinery and Intelligence’, Turing dared to imagine a “thinking machine,” laying the groundwork for what we now know as artificial intelligence.

Pictured above: 91¶ÌÊÓƵ staff were treated to a lecture with Stirling and Rose AI expert Ty Haberland (OSC 2016)

As the years progressed, so did the ambition of AI pioneers. From Parry the Paranoid program, created in an attempt to better understand psychiatric illness to Eliza the Psychotherapist (70’s), these early experiments sought to mimic human cognition with varying degrees of success.

Yet, by the 1980s, the field encountered formidable obstacles. As Hubert Dreyfus quite rightly pointed out, computer system based on traditional symbolic rules-based coding were simply unable to meet the threshold for intuitive understanding inherent to human thought. Intuition underpins expertise, mastery and skill acquisition. Consider the grand chess master who intuitively makes moves in approximately 5-10 seconds. Or the expert driver who intuitively knows how to coordinate the brake, accelerator and steering wheel simultaneously… intuitively. No computer system at the time could come close to this and funding for AI research began to dry up.

However, the 1990s heralded a renaissance, marked by the convergence of neuroscience and computer science. Enter artificial neural networks, models inspired by the intricate web of neurons in the human brain. These networks, capable of learning from data, unlocked unprecedented possibilities, from ChatGPT powered robots to self-driving cars. Even mimicking behaviour akin to intuitive thinking.

Fast forward to 2024 and as we stand on the verge of a true technological revolution, the conversation has shifted. The ‘Singularity’ looms on the horizon and no longer a science fiction fantasy, a hypothetical event where machine intelligence surpasses our own. The great Australian AI philosopher David Chalmers and the godfather of AI, Geoffrey Hinton, both once envisioned this event as a distant dream but have now joined a chorus of AI expert researchers agreeing this may well be just around the corner.

AI and Education

The future implications of AI in education are clearly staggering. But what about the reality right now for a 91¶ÌÊÓƵ teacher? Well…we are at an early experimental phase.

Under the direction of Director of Teaching and Learning, Richard Spence, the College’s Enrichment Leadership Team decided to underpin our new experiments into AI integration with Rosenshine’s tried and tested Principles of Instruction. Developed by educational psychologist Barak Rosenshine, these globally recognised principles outline evidence-based strategies for effective teaching.

Let’s consider one principle: “Provide for practice and review.”

Traditionally, practice and review sessions rely on standardised exercises, offering limited engagement and feedback. However, with AI, these sessions can evolve into dynamic, adaptive experiences designed for far greater memory retention, not to mention, more fun for students!

So what does this look like in a 91¶ÌÊÓƵ classroom?

Stay tuned for the upcoming series of AI Teacher Hacks from the Enrichment Leadership Team.

As we embrace the dawn of this AI-enabled era of education at 91¶ÌÊÓƵ, it’s not all helpful hacks and time-saving techniques. In February, 91¶ÌÊÓƵ staff were treated to a lecture with Stirling and Rose AI expert Ty Haberland (OSC, 2016), who presented on some of the profound legal implications of AI for the future of the workforce. There are imminent threats we must take seriously and striking new EU laws may be a sign of things to come in Australia. The EU now imposes legally binding rules requiring tech companies to notify users when they are interacting with a chatbot or emotion recognition systems.

The birth of AI heralds not just a technological revolution but a reimagining of education itself. As a school with a globally outward looking approach and a long-standing tradition of progressive education, 91¶ÌÊÓƵ is well placed to continue to provide our boys with a global standard of excellence, turbo charged by the best AI has to offer.

Mr Sam Sterrett
Head of Enrichment

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