Jemima Montag’s presentation to Year 11 Students:
Achieving Goals and Overcoming Adversity
Jemima Montag, a distinguished athlete with an impressive list of accolades including two World Championships silver medals, two Olympic Games bronze medals, and two Commonwealth Games victories, recently presented to our Year 11 students with her inspirational presentation. As part of the IOC Young Leaders 2021-24 cohort, Jemima has channeled her passion for health, physical activity, and gender equality into “Play On,” an initiative aimed at empowering adolescent girls across Australia through sport and recreation.
Jemima is a professional full time athlete whilst also studying medicine. She has proven how to get the best out of herself whilst balancing sport, study and life. We are extremely fortunate to have a long standing relationship with Jemima – as she returned to our college for the 6th straight year to share her learnings and to motivate our students.
Jemima’s presentation was divided into two compelling parts: Realising Goals and Overcoming Adversity. In these sessions, she delved into insights she has learnt over the journey that resonated deeply with our students:
Part 1: Realising Goals
- Wants vs Needs: Jemima emphasised the importance of wanting success but not needing it.
- Identity Exploration: She challenged students to explore their own identities – who they are not what they do or what they achieve.
- Achieving Balance: Jemima discussed the significance of balancing all priorities during VCE and that at times students will need to focus on areas of their life – such as studying and preparing for assessments/exams, but not let go of everything else but instead “tone” them down.
- Fear vs Values-Based Motivation: Jemima encouraged students to align their actions with their core values and to seek motivation from what is important to them rather than chasing results based on fear – such as not wanting to disappoint others.
- Intentional vs Passive: She highlighted the importance of when to be intentional with effort – not to sit back and wait for results to manifest but to put all your energy into it and be intentional about the results you want.
- Disappointment vs Regret: Jemima shared her perspective on disappointment versus regret, emphasising to students to be ok with disappointment as there are things out of our control – but you want to avoid having regret (so ensure they do everything they can to get the best out of themselves)
Part 2: Overcoming Adversity
- Cognitive Expansion: She highlighted the need for students to make way for discomfort and she shares stories on how she has use a positive mindset to push through some of her races.
- Acceptance and commitment: She also highlighted the need for students to embrace their thoughts, especially if its around self doubt – then focus on being present and then do something that matters to gain a sense of perspective.
It was an empowering session delivered by Jemima, which left a positive impact on many students. Jemima stayed back after the presentation to take photos with students and to provide individual advice to many. We are extremely lucky to have Jemima make time in her busy schedule to speak with our Year 11’s.
Here is a video interview of Jemima after she won bronze at the Paris Olympics. This shows the character of the person and the life lessons she has learnt that we can all benefit from.
Mr Paul Graham
Student Support and Resources Manager