Illuminate x Markham - My memorable experience

Hi everyone! My name is Sydney Hong and I am a Grade 10 student at École Dr. Charles Best Secondary. Today, I had the pleasure to attend Illuminate x Markham’s regional conference. Here are my thoughts highlighting what I learned about. During the conference and as I listened to the keynote speakers, I have learnt a lot of about the thoughts of post-secondary and how there will be times where doubts, struggles and trial and success will happen, but it won't impact negatively on us as much as we think it will. I have always struggled and worried a lot about post-secondary activities and what job I wanted to be committed to, but listening to the stories and history of what the keynote speakers had gone through during university and post graduation, has made me ease my way of thinking, hoping that I get to experience as much as opportunities as they have. Switching jobs and curiously picking up on new ideas is something I had learned about and how it is never too late to take on that idea.

The idea of social impact that drove the topic of the conference has intrigued me to take on social issue-related opportunities in the future. Learning ways to create an idea to make an impactful difference for high-rated/common struggles in the world makes me want to take on the initiative and be a part of the community and continue to leverage my skills.

I am so grateful to have been a part of the Illuminate x Markham conference as I had an amazing and fun time while consuming many informative topics. I would like to thank all the Regional leads and the keynote speakers for preparing such an insightful conference.