Delegates Chosen for 2007 Leadership Conference in Australia

"A Multi-Layered Journey of Self-Exploration"

10/25/2006

Congratulations to the winning delegates chosen to represent NCGS at the 2007 Girls' Leadership Conference in Perth, Australia! Priya Kvam of The Holton-Arms School and Rachel Bland of The Louise S. McGehee School were selected from a field of 16 talented and highly-qualified entrants to represent the U.S. girls' school community at the conference.

The event, bringing together more than 100 young women from around the world, takes place January 17-21, 2007, and is presented by our International Affiliate The Alliance of Girls' Schools Australasia. We look forward to our delegates' reports when they return! In the meantime, here are excerpts from their winning essays:

Rachel Bland, Louise S. McGehee School, New Orleans, Louisiana

In August of 2005, I was excited about my sophomore year and very proud to haw been elected Class President of a group of strong, smart, diverse girls. We were ready for a big agenda. This was our year. We left school on Friday, August 27 with the expectation of returning on Monday, but were not united as a class majority for over four months. Hurricane Katrina and the engineering disaster that ruined 180,000 homes had forever changed the lives of every New Orleanian. Each of us had a life-changing experience and an unexpected autumn while we were virtual strangers in new schools and communities across the United States: anonymous and homeless, welcomed and yet apart. Many girls only just returned this fall.

In January, our initial euphoria of returning to our beloved McGehee was replaced by the realization that my classmates and I were forever changed; in the space of four months, our world tilted and spilled out so much of what we loved. I remember the day the magnitude of the task before us hit me. How does a group pull together to lead age-old traditions for our school when our hearts are heavy and our spirits low? Many of the people I counted onto help bridge differences between groups and build consensus were not there. For my class -- always one of the most diverse classes -- devastation was the great equalizer.

Our differences had been leveled and we learned to put them aside We realized that whatever they had been, they no longer mattered. Through good listening, empathy and wisdom we healed and righted ourselves. We are stronger, closer, more appreciative, less entitled and more poised than ever to lead.

Here in New Orleans, we have all focused on failed leadership: within our city, within our state and within our country. The world has reached out to us in many ways to sustain our hope as we help rebuild New Orleans. We know now, more than before Katrina, that who you elect really matters. I predict many of us will emerge as future leaders of our cities, states and country.

The Perth conference would be a valuable experience to me because I believe it will make me a more effective leader. As a member of a class of forty-two girls, I have led and served on our student honor council as part of a team. During the election processes for positions held, I was elected by people who have known me for years. I think it would be a valuable experience learning how to lead and work as a team with people who do not know me.

I want to reach beyond the boundaries of my school and the small community that is New Orleans and have the opportunity to understand worldly aspects of leadership; I want to focus on different models of leadership to bring back to McGehee a richer perspective. The most effective leaders in the world today understand and respect other cultures and appreciate their roles as global citizens.

Please consider me as a participant in the 2007 Student Leadership Conference. I would embrace all aspects of the conference and do my utmost to impart understanding of the unique challenges McGehee girls have faced due to the destruction of New Orleans. Our work at rebuilding our city will continue over the next decade. Many challenges lie ahead; the lessons I could bring back would help us all.

Priya Kvam, Holton-Arms School, Bethesda, Maryland

This past summer I traveled to Paraguay for 2 weeks with a community service/ cultural exchange program called LearnServe. Because I speak Spanish, I could form stronger connections with individuals with whom we worked. I learned about the problems their communities faced, the ongoing efforts to improve living conditions and educational facilities, and the ways the LearnServe team could help. Because I have lived in countries such as India and Bangladesh, I have become familiar with extreme poverty, and understand the reality of impoverished people's lives. I was therefore able to immerse myself in the communities and actively engage with people and participate in group activities and development projects.

My involvement in the LearnServe trip, the Global Awareness Committee at my school, and the 2006-2007 International Fellows Education (IFE) program on poverty and social entrepreneurship, has helped me learn to lead and negotiate, consider others' perspectives, and work towards common goals. On my own, I have raised awareness about global poverty by sending mass emails prior to the G8 summit last summer, and by mobilizing the student body in this year's global STAND UP on October 15 for the eradication of poverty and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. Last year, to commemorate women's achievements and acknowledge I the challenges that still remain in the struggle for equitable treatment and opportunities, I took the initiative because I felt, as a girls' school, we ought to give greater recognition to International Women's Day. I am a passionate advocate of women's rights and in the Global Awareness Committee this year I will discuss women's experiences related to our three sub-themes of poverty.

I believe my global perspective and understanding of the reality of world issues will make me a valuable contributor to discussions in the Student Leadership Conference. I would also benefit from the opportunity to learn from the experiences of others from around the world. I am half Indian, half Norwegian, but in the past few years have attended a suburban independent school in the United States and would love the exchange of ideas in a more international environment. In addition, my involvement in the International Fellows program will continue throughout this school year, so I could apply my learning from the conference and my strengthened leadership skills to our team's endeavors in the succeeding months. By establishing relationships with students around the world with similar interests, I could bring back resources to the school to expand our global perspectives and leadership initiatives.

The successful work of other student leaders could inspire individuals in my own school to address world issues in a similar manner, and I hope our successes, such as Holton-Arms' Poverty Week, could inspire students in other schools as well. By attending the conference, I would gain a greater understanding of what it means to be a leader and how to catalyze change effectively. I believe the Student Leadership Conference would be an invaluable experience for me, and I hope you will give me the opportunity to participate.