Perth, Australia 2007: Journey to Inspire

A Report from the Student Leadership Conference

01/22/2007

Many thanks to the delegates chosen to represent NCGS at the 2007 Girls' Leadership Conference in Australia! Priya Kvam of The Holton-Arms School and Rachel Bland of The Louise S. McGehee School were among the more than 100 young women from the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand attending the event presented by our International Affiliate The Alliance of Girls' Schools Australasia.

Below is their report from the Conference. Also, be sure to check out the Leadership Tips they developed, as well as the winning essays they wrote in order to secure their roles as delegates.

We think the National Coalition of Girl's Schools' objective for having Americans at the 2007 Student leadership Conference was diversity of viewpoints, giving all of us a truly global learning experience in how the world works and how one can rightfully and ethically lead it. We went to Perth with open minds, expecting to be enlightened. Our expectations were met to the fullest measure possible.

Everyone was so willing to learn from one another. No matter where we had ventured from -- the next town over or the next continent over -- everyone offered their experiences in case studies for the delegates. For our part, we offered a case study in how leadership can fail. In America, and in New Orleans in particular, failure of leadership has hopefully inspired greater citizen participation and the beginning of something new (and old!) that will not fail: government by the people, for the people and of the people.

The support and insights of our fellow delegates continues to inspire us. One simple thing that we learned about leaders while in Australia was that a good leader never loses sight of her values. We also became convinced that to be a good leader of the twenty-first century, one must first be a global citizen, equipped with knowledge of other beliefs, politics, history, environments and cultures. As leaders of the future, we must also respect our counterparts across the globe and build bridges that connect to them. The Student Leadership Conference engaged us in exercises to do just that.

We will never forget our last day in Australia. The Outward Bound crew gave us one last task and it was to make a mandella. All one hundred and twelve of us put something in, took something out, and altered the creation so it was all of ours. After we had finished, it was destroyed, for that is the purpose of a mandella: a thing of temporary beauty...then it's gone. The mandella we made will now only exist in our memories. The Journey to Leadership is like the mandella: a creation of shared beauty that lives on in our collective memory.

We are very grateful for the opportunity to participate in the conference; it has shaped our thinking and framed leadership in terms of a worldly view we had not really appreciated before. Thank you for giving us this chance.

Rachel Bland
Priya Kvam
January, 2007