Imogen O'Shannesy and Thomas Maguire-Nguyen, two young people and students, present an engaging, in-depth presentation/workshop based upon lived experience of students and how they can effectively represent themselves to decisionmakers and policymakers.
Throughout this experience, Imogen will share her experiences of Advocacy and how she has carved herself a place within the diatribe on quesitons around sexuality, young people's place in society, inclusive education, and the limitations placed upon students.
Thomas will discuss youth engagement, importance of civics in the growth of empowered students, as well as other ways that students can organically engage with politics, with case studies of succesful student voice expression.
This will also include a plethora of resources that students and educators can utilize to drive student involvement in decisionmaking, enabling the next generation of leaders to emerge with a strong and empowered voice.
Thomas Maguire-Nguyen
As a passionate community leader, Thomas founded Per Vocem Vita, an organisation with over 90 volunteers aged 15-19, that offers free public speaking and debating workshops to primary schoolers across Melbourne, where he experiences firsthand the power that students have in their communities. As the youngest ever elected chair of the Monash Youth Committee, Thomas represents the more than 50,000 young people in the City of Monash aged from 12-25 to council. Additionally, he has also worked with Victorian MP Matt Fregon to formulate youth policy. He is currently finishing year 11 and moving into year 12.
Imogen O’Shannessy
Imogen is a 17-year-old passionate Victorian youth and student advocate in various aspects of youth participation and inclusion. Some of her personal focus areas include:
-Improving the youth justice system in Australia
-Increasing LGBTQIA+ acceptance in the community and education sector
-Senior secondary education reforms
-Ending gender-based violence
-Inclusive sex and consent education in schools
Currently, she is a VicSRC Student Executive Advisory Committee Member, and serves as the Ambassadors Liaison for the committee. Imogen was also previously a panelist for the Senior Secondary Pathways Student Advisory Panel with VicSRC, along with being an Ambassador in October 2024. Outside of VicSRC, she was apart of Y Geelong's Victorian Youth Parliament team in 2024, and is returning to the program on the City of Greater Geelong team for 2025. She’s an inaugural Board Member for Young Voices Victoria, and volunteers for Run For It.
Alongside this, Imogen is heavily involved in her local community through the City of Greater Geelong. She was most recently apart of the city’s Rainbow Youth Advisory Group for two years, currently a member of their Youth Hub Reference Group and the FReeZA Committee, and was previously a member of the Geelong Youth Council in 2022.
She regularly attends youth consultations with various organisations where she can, and hopes to continue doing so until she turns 25. Her future aspirations are to study Youth Work and Criminal Justice, and work in the youth work sector.