COSDU's History

Taken from COSDU's old website.

In The Beginning (1986 - 1991)

The year was 1986. Sister Carol Hogan, a Blessed Sacrament Sister, set out on a journey that will change and enrich hundreds of international students' academic life in Melbourne. During that period of time, there were a very small number of overseas students who studied in Australia. They studied in high schools located across Victoria so were unaware of other overseas students. Sister Carol saw this as an unfortunate matter and she decided to form a support group that will bring them together every year. The group was called Overseas Students Down Under (O.S.D.U.). This was a perfect opportunity for the young people to meet and make friends. Many activities were organised such as annual camps, B.B.Qs, trips and outings.

Soon these young people graduated from high school and continued into tertiary educations. Many went to the University of Melbourne where Sister Carol worked as one of the University's chaplains. And they have maintained the friendship that was developed from the earlier times. Sister Carol became not only their friend and chaplain but she gave spiritual guide for these Catholic students. At that time, the Newman Society was the only Catholic organisation. In the hope of fulfilling their needs from an "overseas" perspective, they decided to form a separate group to further explore and improve their faith.

Catholic Overseas Students Down Under (C.O.S.D.U.) was born on 13th March 1987, the first official meeting took place in St.Mary's College West Hall. Starting with only 20 people coming from a common background proved to be a working formula. Everything was kept informal as students received instructions and learnt the many great facets of the Catholic faith every Friday evening. Eucharistic celebrations (mass), Rosary prayers, speaker talks, retreats were among the many activities organised under the guidance of Sister Carol. One of the earliest highlights was the end-of-year mass where we prepared mass for the public at St.Carthage's Church conducted by Fr. Michael Elligate and followed by dinner in St.Mary's West Hall. This event still continues until today where we marked the end-of-the-year mass as farewell to the graduating students.im grew with members mainly from Malaysia, Hong Kong, Phillipines and Indonesia gathered as one Community of Faith. However, this caused the first major crisis COSDU faced. Informality has evolved into lack of organisation and direction. The need to have a rigid structure then resulted in the formation of a committee, that was led by James Chin and Jennifer King as President and Vice President respectively.


The Wonder Years (1992 - 2000)

As COSDU entered the 1990s, many of the founding members graduated and some returned to their homeland. However, that did not stop the orientation recruitments and events publicity . More students from other parts of the world such as Africa and China became part of the multicultural COSDU. By this time, the students were able to take more responsibilities in organising activities and managing the group. Since then Sister Carol became the spiritual director for COSDU.

Besides offering students with religious guidance, forming friendships became part of the weekly activities. This was celebrated by food provided after the sessions. Since the group received their finances from students' donations, they were unable to cope as the group grew larger. Therefore, COSDU was enlisted into the Melbourne University Student Union Clubs & Society where the group received funds for the activities.

As time passed, there was an increasing number of overseas students in Melbourne. People from other countries such as Singapore, Japan, Korea, Mauritius and other univeristies like Monash and RMIT participated in the activities. New ideas emerged and there were more variety of activities such as Praise & Worship, Prayer sessions, Bible sharing, Group Discussions, Personal explorations.

Social gatherings such as Sports Day and BBQs were organised to maintain contact with other members. One of the main events in COSDU history had to be the collaboration between RMIT and Melbourne University students. They were led by Dominic Wong (RMIT) to put on a musical called "Witness: The Night After The Day Before" It was performed at Prince Philip Theatre, Melbourne University on 27th September 1997.

In September 1998, COSDU was to learn a worthwhile lesson. Sister Carol, inspired by a Marist Brother, Mick Sexton, started "Being There Program" to increase international students awareness of social justice. Brother Mick coordinated the program with Australian students. Lynda Suryadi organised the first "Being There". Students were given choices of places to visit and volunteer in old folks home, community centers, soup kitchens, religious communities and others for one day. Some COSDU members even continued their generosity by becoming a regular volunteer after the day was over.


The New Generation (2001 - Now)

The main highlight of a COSDU year had to be and still is The Annual Easter Retreat. Sister Carol started this as a way of bringing the students together for 3 days where they are able to relax and learn more about the importance of faith in life. The retreat was always successful in helping students with their troubles or just to unwind from the daily student life. These are the venues where COSDU members had been privileged in : Mercy Convent , Mornington, Silver Creek, Marist Brothers, Drusilla Mount Macedon, Passionist Fathers Retreat Centre, Templestowe, ‘Greyfriars’, Mornington, Christian Brothers, “Amberley” Lower Plenty.

Ever since COSDU started, we had been using and moving through many venues located on campus. Some venues became too small for the consistently increasing group and the availability of these venues varied from week to week. This was a crisis for COSDU as there are not many venues on university campus to accomodate a big group. Besides that, COSDU wanted to choose one venue that can be used for all sessions throughout the year.

Through the kindness and help from Sister Carol and Newman College, COSDU has found a new home. Since July 2001, Kenny Lounge became the new venue for COSDU sessions and St.Mary's Chapel for the monthly mass. More new ideas were included in the sessions too such as Stations of the Cross, weekly Church Tour, Meditations, Biblical Quiz, Nature Walks.

Sadly after 16 fruitful years, Sister Carol decided to retire. On 27th July 2002, COSDU celebrated for one last time the commitment, generosity, kindness and chaplain life of Sister Carol Hogan. In August 2002, Sister Theresa Ryan, a Franciscan Sister, was personally chosen by Sister Carol to continue her work with international students in Melbourne. At the same year, another history making event was marked in COSDU calendar ; Alison Lee was elected as COSDU President after the absence of women presidents in many years.

Today, COSDU has attracted many new incoming students in Melbourne. Our members come from different institutions (Melbourne Uni, RMIT, Trinity, MUFY, Swinburne) and different countries (Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong and more). As we continue to serve students, working adults, Catholic or non-Catholics, COSDU will always be remembered simply as a 'FAMILY AWAY FROM HOME GROWING TOGETHER IN CHRIST'.