Alumni

Successful business person and founder of Slingshot.

Roseanne grew up in South Auckland and went to school at St. Josephs Primary and McAuley High School in Otahuhu.  She says her parents always prioritised education for their six children despite the debt that student loans demanded. “In their words, education is the key to success and breaking out of poverty.” She’s proven them right. Today, Roseanne is a qualified Biomedical engineer and General Manager of Quality Systems at Fisher & Paykel Healthcare.

Competed in three Olympic Games and four Commonwealth Games. Gold Medalist at Brisbane Commonwealth Games.

The first-ever Samoan MP is set to be sworn into Victorian parliament

First Pacific woman to be elected to Auckland Council governing body.

Eseta Fonokalafi, an old girl of McAuley High School, was one of the two individuals who won the Lance Leikis Emerging Planner Award for her contribution to the Māori and Pasifika planning space in Auckland.

Dr Julia Ioane is a Samoan clinical psychologist and lecturer in psychology.  South Auckland born and raised, Julia hopes her new research will help inform policy and practice to help our young people and their families going through the youth justice system.

On Sunday 26 th October 2025, our Class of ’95 celebrated 30 years since we left the halls of
McAuley High school to venture out into the real world. We didn’t know how many would turn
up but we put the word out and they came. We began our day giving thanks to our heavenly
Father at the Sunday 10am mass, where Fr Thomas graciously welcomed us as guests to the
parish and in his homily described our group as “old”. He was lucky he said it with a smile.
After the beautiful mass we took group photos at the front of the church and were greeted by
some of the current senior leadership team. Together with Ms Vanessa Langi, we were treated
to a tour of the school, which definitely dug up old memories of our glory days at McAuley.
From sitting in an old third form homeroom to walking through the new Food tech room, stories
were shared freely and laughter amongst the girls was contagious. The competitive spirit
between houses was also relived in an impromptu race in the gym with Carlow and Tullamore
leading the way followed by a close Coolock. The Stormies among us, listened to our bodies
and decided not to create an emergency situation, but we were always the winners back in our
day!
After thanking Ms Langi and her senior students, we made our way to Szimpla at the airport,
where the laughter and the telling of tales continued into the afternoon. Our first high school
reunion was a success, and we give special thanks to our committee who helped make this day
possible. We hope to hold annual get togethers for the Class of ’91 to ’95, so keep an eye out
on Facebook ladies. “Domine in te speravi” – we will always have hope and trust in the Lord.

(As part of our reunion, we had a collection from those who attended and those who did not and
have donated $800 to be shared between two Year 9 students who are just beginning their
journey at McAuley to help with uniform or school fees. Wishing all our students the best for

2026.)

We held it on 4 February on Waiheke. First we all met up at either the city Ferry Building or at the half Moon Bay terminal. We did the sculpture walk and then we had lunch at Mudbrick Restaurant and winery.

It was amazing. Even though most of us had not seen one another since we finished school the rapport between us was still there. Consequently there was an awful lot of talking and laughter.

That evening some of us met up at the Bucklands Beach Yacht Club for dinner and then made plans to meet the next day for brunch before those from out of town had to leave.

It was surprising how many of us actually lived close to each other but never ran into one another. We had girls come from down country and from Brisbane but one came all the way from Panama. We had a BBQ for her with just a few of us able to go before she went back.

I think there were 25 out of the 33 in our class that attended. We had one who had died last year and a few who could not attend due to illness or attending weddings. One we only finally made contact a few days before and so she was unable to arrange to come up from Nelson and one we could not find.

Jan Nelson (Griffin)