Lessons from NHLC

Hey everyone, my name’s Jerry Wu, and I’m a Grade 11 student at Markville Secondary School. Today, I had the pleasure to attend the Illuminate National High School Leadership Conference with over 170 students globally. Here is my blog which strives to highlight what I learned about consulting, leadership, and collaboration.

My favourite leadership quote is: "If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." -John Quincy Adams

In the first keynote, I learned all about CPA Ontario. The job and life of a CPA is totally different from my expectations, and I’m very interested in possibly pursuing a special university program to become a CPA. In my first workshop, I learned about leadership and mental fitness, and the importance of eliminating saboteur thinking and adopting sage thinking. I’ll be sure to catch myself in a saboteur's mindset from now on and look at my problems from a different perspective. And in my second workshop with Paul, I learned all about market sizing and applications of TAM SAM SOM. Consulting seems like a really dynamic and interesting profession, one that I’m definitely considering in the future as well.

From the Deloitte Keynote Speaker, I learned that in being an inclusive leader, it’s not enough to be aware of bias and think that you’re being unbiased, you need to actively make an effort to include others and show humility and empathy.

Given $5, I’d start a business dedicated towards helping high schooler students gain a clearer understanding of what university life is like. Applying the entrepreneurial mindset in all areas of my life means being adventurous, taking risks, and not being afraid of failures/learning from them.

I’m super pumped to hear from more industry experts about their valuable experiences. If there's one piece of advice I'd like to share, it would be: Don’t be afraid to take risks, and travel outside your comfort zone!