Learning to Lead

28 June 2016Caitlin C, Hope ‘17

On Friday May 27th I had packed my bags and rushed to the ferry so that I could partake in the 2016 Learning to Lead program in Vancouver. A month prior, all the girls in the boarding houses were invited to submit an application to the program hosted by the Minerva foundation, a program aimed at helping girls build their leadership skills and creating networks that will benefit them in the future. One girl was then selected from each house; then one girl was selected to represent the entire school and her name was submitted to Minerva. Out of 200 applications submitted to Minerva, I was honoured to be one of 50 girls chosen to partake in their Learning to Lead program. Once I got to Vancouver I met two other girls from the Island and, as we were driven to UBC where the conference was being held, we got to know each other. These girls would become my closest friends during the conference, girls that I still text even though the conference has ended. Once we got to UBC we signed in, dropped our luggage off in our rooms and went into the dining hall (where we would also have our workshops). During dinner we were introduced to the speakers who would lead us through the workshops. Then we heard from our keynote speaker, Anna Stukas, a carbon engineer, about her journey becoming a successful leader in her profession, one dominated by men. We girls could not stop talking about how we wanted to be just like her when her speech ended. After the dinner program finished, we went into a side room and introduced ourselves to each other: saying our name, school, and ancestry. Then we split into smaller groups and did an exercise called cracker barrel storytelling; we got 10 minutes to tell our life story with no interruptions. Some girls went full out sharing deep personal stories while others just said the basics. Regardless of what was shared, in the debrief we all said that it made us feel so much closer to each other. With our first day over, we headed to our rooms for some much-needed sleep. The second day of the conference was my favourite, filled with workshops I felt helped me not only learn more about myself but also give me confidence. The first workshop we did was the Strengths workshop. For four hours we discovered what defines a strength (something that make you feel excited and energized before, during,and after) as well as learning that if we were good at something but didn’t enjoy it then it wasn’t our strength. We also did exercises that helped us realise our individual strengths and how to play to them, something that was incredibly eye-opening for me. Our second workshop was our value workshop. We spent some time defining what a value was and how it different from beliefs and morals. We also distinguished that there are core value (values that dictates all your actions) and surface values (values that are determined by generation, peers, parent etc.). We then did an exercise that helped us discover our three core values and what they meant to us. It was amazing being able to put a name to and understand what drove my internal motivator, what essentials drove all the actions and decisions I make. The third workshop was Mentorship. We were introduced to a panel of female leaders, women who were at the peak in their field. In this panel was the COO of Aritzia, the CEO of a huge insurance company in Vancouver, two pilots and the founder and CEO of a company that worked on helping high schoolers reach their full academic potential. We were able to ask these women questions about mentorship and what it was like for them to run a company. After the Q&A we split off into groups of 3 or 4 and were each paired with a mentor (more mentors came after the panel was finished). I was paired with the two girls I had met on the ferry and our mentor was the COO of Aritzia. We worked together to answer given questions on Mentorship and then put together a presentation to summarize what we discovered. After we said goodbye to the mentors we went back into the side room and participated in an amazing African drum workshop that had the girls laughing and dancing by the end. Again, with a exhausting but amazing day over, we headed back to our rooms for bedtime. On the final day of the program we went through a closing circle ceremony where we said goodbye to each other and told stories of our favourite memories from that program. With lots of tears and hugs we said goodbye (but not before exchanging numbers) and headed back home. The Learning to Lead program was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I not only learned more about myself, but I learned how my individuality could aid me in being a leader. I gained more confidence, got out of my comfort zone and met some amazing girls who I know I will stay in touch with in the coming years. It’s a program I recommend to any girl and something I really think next year’s Grade 11 girls would really benefit from. Have a look: https://theminervafoundation.com/ Caitlin C, Hope ‘17

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