Newsroom

On Friday 11 March, six Year 12 Prefects attended the 2022 National Student Leadership Summit hosted by St Peter’s College. Over 113 students attended from 30 schools around Australia. The day was facilitated by Ms Nicole Dyson, CEO of Future Anything; a company which supports youth entrepreneurship. It was also hosted by two St Peter’s College School Captains, Aidan and Chirath.

The summit was structured around the VIA Character Strengths (Values in Action) and the day was split into three sessions; Connect, Communicate and Create. Early in the day, each student was given a phrase saying ‘hello’ in a range of languages. During the Connect session, students were asked to form groups of five and perform a check-in with those who responded to hello in the same language as them, then share their fears and hopes for the day. They were then asked to draw a map of their lives in the booklets given and discuss it with their group members. In between this, Ms Dyson taught the importance of ‘Ikigai’; a Japanese concept of finding the balance between what you are good at, and what you can be paid for. 

The Communicate session was largely based on the VIA Character Strengths. Students were encouraged to form a range of groups based on their top character strength and its virtue group. In these groups, students explored different perspectives on good leadership qualities, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of their virtue groups. The students were then divided into another group based on the ‘scissor, paper, rock,’ concept of leadership and asked to create and fly paper planes. There were many innovative ideas, ranging from paper balls to upside-down planes.

During the last session of the day, Create, students were put back into their school groups and tasked with creating solutions for problems in their school. Our Prefects came up with some brilliant ideas, including a school mural highlighting diversity and fundraisers for local issues. These ideas were shared and exchanged with other school groups. At the end of the seminar, Ms Dyson encouraged the students to keep in touch with each other and the opportunity was taken to exchange emails.

Overall, the National Student Leadership Summit was eye-opening and provided the students with the opportunity to meet others from a range of backgrounds, allowing them to view the world from a different and more creative perspective.

Intisaar Ofori | Year 12 Prefect