On Monday 29th May 20 Year 9 Student Leaders attended the YLead conference - Altitude Day. This an annual one-day event created to empower Year 9 students through a blend of inspirational talks and energising group activities, students learn how to become active and inspiring leaders of their school and community. Altitude Day provided an environment where students can step outside the classroom to truly understand what it means to be a leader. Students engaged in:

• Identifying ways to have a positive impact at school.
• Being challenged to step outside their comfort zone in several ways in a safe and supportive environment.
• Identifying their current capacities and future opportunities.
• Reflecting on the kind of leader they would like to be.

This is what some of the boys said about the event.

“Today was an amazing experience to be a part of, that I wish to do again. Y lead has taught me some valuable lessons, which I look to put into my life and society today. I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with other schools and learning what leadership means to them. I now want to inspire others around me to take risks in life and to not back down from your dreams, and your gifts that have been given to you. Laura Byrnes has taught me to not back down from your passion, whether it takes time or not and to do what you love in life.”

Max Johnson

“Today was a great experience for us year 9 students at Aquinas college to learn about leadership. We were lucky to have 3 guest speakers, Laura, Tara, Jack talk to us about their life experiences, and how they have shown the important values in their life. One of the values we learnt about was courage. Courage is building up strength to do something out of your comfort zone. Potential was also a focus, as we learnt that reaching our potential needed hard work. We also learnt the importance of reaching out to friends, family and even teachers, if we even feel alone or left out. Remember it’s ok to not be ok, but not ok to suffer in silence. In conclusion, we thoroughly enjoyed learning about different people, and get to know new faces. I learnt a lot from attending altitude day, and I would definitely go again if I get the experience.”

Sami Boufajreldin

To start the day, we had a little icebreaker where we had to meet people from another school and share a thing about themselves. We had lots of fun games and exercises that we participated in throughout the conference but my favourite was the small dance we did with the song, ain’t no mountain high enough. We talked about goals and leadership values. We had 3 guest speakers, Jake Anderson, Tara Lord and Laura Byrnes. Jake talked about his achievements and strategies in his time of being an entrepreneur. Tara talked about mental health and her dog, Loki. Finally, Laura talked about her experience as a V8 Late model race car driver and her experiences with courage and persistence with a male dominated sport. The day was a really fun and good experience.”

James Harwood

“Attending the YLead Altitude Day gave us a great experience into what it means to become a leader. We engaged in multiple activities during the day, stepping out of our comfort zone and interacting with students from other schools. We also were privileged enough to have 3 guest speakers talking to us about multiple topics, including turning our passions into opportunity, mental wellbeing and chasing our dreams. In conclusion, we were able to understand the importance of leadership and how it isn’t a position, rather who you are, and what you do.”

Gerard Hadianto

“The Ylead Altitude Day was extremely helpful for my leadership improvement and for my knowledge to teach others in the Aquinas community. The excursion provided many valuable life lessons. For example, Tara Lord said that you should have no shame to speak up about your struggles and mental health. The day provided inspiration to visualise succeeding and to face your fears with the day’s MC, George, telling us year 9's, that actions speak louder than words and great leaders are great role models, they think before they act and empower others to do the same. He provided real life context and how we can use our actions to do this. Laura Byrne, a late model car racer provided important skills to learn about leadership. She said don't let anyone or yourself ruin your dreams just because of your build or age. Laura also said that you should always stay fearless, though if you have a gut feeling or too nervous for something, it is alright to pull out. Overall the whole day, I thought it was really fun and the people made the day enjoyable for everyone who went.”

Daniel Delic