The Global Social Leaders programme is taking place right now at Wellington College. Lavender – one of the 2013 alumni – writes about her experiences so far this year.
When I first received the email from Valerie offering the chance to come back this year, I decided I would apply no matter what, right away. The reason is simple: after what happened last year, everything in my life has changed. I still keep in touch with my teammates from team ECSTACY. Having decided which course I am going to take for university after Steph’s inspiring talk about city planning in one of the special topics from last year, I finally found my passion and decided what kind of experiences I would love to have in my life.
After both the 50k miles of journey in total from four continents and the welcoming package tour to London, we finally got everyone together for the very first time at Wellington College, in Great School. Day 1 began and I started my incredible journey of GSL 2014! Following the brief introduction of the (amazing!) staff team, we got to know each other and started bonding with our own groups. In the evening, we put on our traditional costumes to present our countries to our diverse group and it ignited my interests to attend a Jordanian wedding one day.
In Day 2, we had discussions with each other about specific leadership styles in different countries. We were introduced to leadership styles by coaches and then put it into practice. After meeting the passionate UK future leaders from NCS programme, we welcomed Brian McBride, the CEO of ASOS, to give us a talk on leadership and his experiences.
Last year, I experienced the London Factor. This year however, the challenges were set in Oxford which gave us the perfect opportunity to explore the city and learn to work as a team. It was great to visit such a prestigious university which is so renowned for academic excellence. Some of us who were initially reluctant to step up were given the chance to lead the team and did a fabulous job.