Seb takes a sledgehammer to his alma mater
“It’s not often you get to knock down your own school and put it back together.”
With those words Sebastian Papadopoulos (’21) donned his hard hat, rolled up his sleeves, and breezed into his internship on the biggest demolition and construction project in Trinity’s history.
His prized selection on the Renewal Project was the result of an initiative between the Old Trinitarians’ Union and Taylor Constructions to bring an old boy intern on site.
It presented the UNSW student with a chance to get his “foot in the door” of a career in construction as well as a rare opportunity to help smash his old school to smithereens, with the School’s blessing.
“It is fun, definitely – anything to do with smashing things is fun,” he laughed.
“But it is all about replacing the old with the new. Taking down my old classrooms and hang-out spaces is part of the process which will create these new buildings.
“I’ll be able to drive past here in five or 10 years’ time and see this new building that I helped to build. It’s not like other jobs where you have spreadsheets, and you don’t really get to see the result of your work.
“Hopefully, if I have kids one day, I would love to send them to Trinity. Imagine them using facilities that I helped to build. How cool would that be?”
Sebastian, who is completing a Building Construction, Management and Property degree and hopes to become a project manager, said it was nostalgic revisiting Trinity for his six-month internship.
“It was a bit of a throwback walking through the old classrooms, seeing ceilings coming down, and walls getting knocked out. But it’s also encouraging because you know they are being replaced with better facilities for new students – our successors, in a certain sense.”
As the Senior Under Officer (SUO) in Cadets he recalled being in charge of 650 students on Oval No 1 for weekly parades and passing out ceremonies, and playing football there at lunchtimes.
He also recalled the care taken to regrow the grass after rugby season, resulting in the pristine greensward being roped off and out of bounds. The Oval has been temporarily handed over to Taylors as a builders’ yard, minimising construction traffic on the road and impacting Trinity’s neighbours.
“It’s crazy coming back and seeing it completely removed, and seeing what the students call the ‘Harbour Bridge’ (construction walkway) going across the oval. But the oval will be back!”
He said he appreciated the willingness of Trinity teachers to help him during his school days, even when they were busy.
“That made a big impression on me. Even now I will try to do the same thing if someone has a question for me or I can help them with something.”
He is also grateful for the leadership, communications, and time management skills he learned in co-curricular activities such as Cadets and Duke of Edinburgh awards.
“You have a lot of problems that come up in a day on camp and you have to come up with quick solutions. Even now I use those skills every day. I try to communicate with the people supervising me – by keeping it concise, describing exactly what’s happening, and offering a few solutions.”
That’s something he owes to former OC Cadets Richard Bishop, from Trinity’s alumni relations office.
“One of the things he used to say has stuck with me – ‘If you have a problem don’t just give me the problem, give me three solutions and I’ll decide on the best one and work with you on that’. It’s very good advice and I follow it even now.”
He said the internship was humbling. “Not every school reaches out to old boys to help them through their careers. It’s a jump start to my career and gives me experience under my belt. I feel like I owe it to the School to do a good job here.”
It did not take long for Sebastian to discover that one of his new workmates was Trinitarian Daniel Ledonne (‘05), now a senior services engineer with Taylor.
The company hopes to offer four OTU Internships over the life of the Renewal Project. OTU president Jeremy Barrett-Lennard (’99) and committee member Chris Paras (’90) conducted the initial candidate interviews.
“The OTU is thrilled to assist with this initiative,” said Mr Barrett-Lennard. “A special thanks to Old Boy and School Council member, Mr Martin Cook, as well as Taylor Constructions for working together to make this happen.”
