During the last school holidays, three Varsity College future leaders attended the University of Queensland Global Competence through Leadership Student Workshop. Lina McCoy, of Year 11, gave an insight into her attendance at this wonderful opportunity.
Why Did You Want to Attend the Workshop?
I wanted to attend this workshop because in a world with so many global interactions, I think it is important to have the skills to be able to communicate with and understand people with differing backgrounds and opposing views. This workshop taught me to take other people’s experiences and upbringings into consideration when making decisions that affect others, which has been so beneficial in not only being able to make more considered judgements, but has also provided me with the ability to see issues from the perspective of others.
I also thought this workshop would be worth attending due to the leadership experience it would provide me. Not only were we learning about how to be better leaders, we were practicing the skill by working with completely new groups of students. We got to talk to others about issues that are affecting our own local communities, and it was interesting to see what different lives looked like depending on which part of Queensland they were from.
Highlights of the Day
Aside from the extraordinary guest speakers, a couple of highlights from the day include being able to use the facilities and explore the campus at UQ, be served with a delicious lunch and most importantly, having the opportunity to meet a group of like-minded students who I enjoyed having interesting discussions with.
Key Take-Aways From the Experience
One of the speakers from the workshop had their presentation focussed on leadership in regards to different personalities. We all took a personality quiz prior to the workshop, and learnt about how our personality traits affected our leadership abilities, and a key take away from this, was that leaders do not necessarily require specific personality traits, but rather, they need to know how their personality affects their ability to lead, and be able to utilise their strengths and weaknesses effectively. So ultimately, everyone has the capacity to be a leader, as long as they learn how to embrace their qualities.
Each year, Varsity College nominates future leaders to attend this conference and it was great to see such enthusiastic young people are going to be leading our futures, both here at school and in our local communities.
Congratulations to Blake Atkins, Ryan Salle and Lina McCoy on their fantastic achievement and giving up their holidays to engage with global competence.
