Nearly 40 years of Trish Cornish
- 8 hours ago
- 2 min read
Despite entering her 40th year at Avondale College this week, receptionist Trish Cornish still remembers coming through the school gates for her job interview in 1987.
“It reminded me of documentaries I’d seen from the Second World War,” she recalls. “There were these army-type hut buildings either side of the gate, built for the original hospital. The ones on the left were the doctors’ quarters and the ones on the right were the nurses’.”
The site had been designed in such a way that it could be repurposed as a school after the war. Though its use as a US Naval hospital was shortlived, its presence shaped the early character of the campus.
Just a few years into her role, Trish experienced one of the most defining moments in the school’s history: the Great Fire of 1990. The blaze destroyed a significant portion of the campus, leaving students and staff in shock.
“It was dreadful," she says, “I remember students standing there, weeping over what was left, grieving that what they knew was gone.”
Yet in the aftermath of that devastation came tenacity. Then-principal Phil Raffills spoke of the school as a “phoenix rising from the ashes” - a sentiment that Trish says proved to be profoundly true.
“Although it was traumatic, it was wonderful to see everyone pull together,” she reflects. “People became passionate about getting Avondale up and running again. We were the Avondale family,” she says.
That same spirit has carried the school through decades of change - technological advancements, a major campus refurbishment, and even a global pandemic. Through each shift, Trish has remained a constant, offering a smile and plenty of practical assistance to generations of students, staff, and families, even her two daughters who attended the school in the 90s.
She puts her longevity in the role down to two factors. Primarily, it's been the support of her colleagues in Administration, who have stood by one another through sadnesses, joys, weddings, births and bereavements throughout the years. Secondly, it was the fact the College supported her to have time off to perform as a singer in the New Zealand Opera Company - skills she also brought back to Avondale when she served as a vocal coach for the school Show.
Trish says she still finds fulfilment seeing each new cohort start at the school and grow into young men and women, pursuing excellence in the classroom, the sports fields and the performing arts stages: "I almost feel like I'm the school's nana!"
As she enters her 40th year at the College, we wholeheartedly thank Trish for her service, humour and atawhai!
