National Young Leaders Day
Elsternwick campus Years 5 and 6 leaders, along with the Year 9 captains and vice captains, recently attended the National Young Leaders Day. This annual event is hosted by the Halogen Foundation and is specifically for young people who aspire to lead themselves and others well. It’s about exploring leadership potential and thinking about the role that individuals play in a school community and beyond.
The theme of the day was I Am Somebody and it was emphasised that, as leaders, we can all make a real difference. For each of the speakers there was a chance to pose questions and respond to the question. “What does this mean for me?”
Inspiring speakers included well-known Australian author, John Marsden, who communicated the power and influence language can have in leadership, X Factor band, The Royce Twins, entertained with their rendition of I Won’t Give Up and young entrepreneur, Daniel Flynn, shared his goal alongside a team of friends, to make a difference to the less privileged in Africa by marketing a bottled water called Thank You. The other speakers were Jess Fox, Olympian and silver medallist from London 2012 and Kevin Sheedy, former coach of the Essendon Football Club.
Our young leaders returned form the day energised and inspired to lead through example. One parent communicated the impact the experience had on her child stating that "[he] came home from this experience bursting with enthusiasm and eagerness to become a better person in general. He really linked in with the themes of empathy and sympathy as a leader and particularly loved the whole format of the day with the learning and entertaining experiences, along with the opportunity to be involved in something on a larger scale. Inspired by one of the speakers, he too started thinking about possibilities of small businesses working locally to make a profit and therefore assist with underprivileged people. The conversations I had with him after his day were incredible. This was a great initiative for our young leaders at Elsternwick."
