Time to Lead: Student Leadership Conference
By Jessica Z & Aylin H, Year 12
On January 14th, we as the Head Prefects attended the EiM Leadership Conference online with student leaders across the network of Dulwich schools, alongside Green School Bali. The theme of this year’s conference was ‘Time to Lead’; based around that, we explored ourselves individually as leaders, how to bring positive changes to our community, and how to encourage and empower others to act. The conference was facilitated by the ‘Jump!’ foundation and took place over zoom, lasting a total of 8 hours across two days. Not only did the conference give us the opportunity to connect with other student leaders and exchange experiences, but it also allowed us to evaluate key aspects of our identities and its interplay with our leadership philosophies.
The conference commenced with an introduction from each of the Jump! facilitators and was followed by guest Keynote speaker John Hardy, the founder of ‘Green School Bali’. He shared with us his experience and what had led him to establish the school based on an ethos of holistic education and sustainability. It reminded us that, as leaders, we always want to keep in mind the impacts of our actions on the environment, and model being a responsible member of the community, both local and global.
As an introductory activity, we were all instructed to switch our cameras off while the facilitators read a statement and switch them back on if we agreed with that statement. Some of the statements were related to schoolwork, friendship, cultural identity, and even stress and anxiety management. It was surprising to see that a lot of us struggled with similar issues as well as the diversity among us, highlighting that connecting through our differences may be just as valuable as bonding over our similarities. Since the idea of empathy was a prominent focus of the conference, we felt that this was very useful in letting us become more aware of the importance of understanding others in any leadership or social situation.
The following day, we deepened our understanding of our own identities through various activities and discussions, demonstrating to us how individuals may view different aspects of their identities. We also examined specific leadership practices and how to apply them in specific scenarios in breakout rooms. It was invaluable to hear other’s experiences and approaches to tackling problems, particularly as our diverse backgrounds allow for us to be exposed to a variety of different situations and ways of thinking. Although we were all connecting from different parts of the world, we were brought together by our passion, commitment, and dedication to each of our school communities, as well as Dulwich International as a whole.
Overall, the experiences we gained through this conference have primarily emphasised to us that everyone’s perception of leadership is different, and that the important thing is to understand what our values are as student leaders, how they intersect with the values of our communities, and how we can ensure we embody and advocate for these values as much as possible. In many ways, the conference inspired us to become more committed in leading and seeking out positive changes to help integrate and unify our community. We hope to apply the practices we learnt in the conference in order to further refine our leadership styles and do justice to our title.
