My experience at NHLC!

Hey everyone! My name is Angela and I am a Grade 11 student at St.Robert Catholic High School. Today, I had the pleasure to attend the Illuminate x North York Regional Conference. Here is my blog which strives to highlight what I learned about collaboration and choosing careers.

"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much." - Helen Keller

The morning activity hosted by Dan Kiernan was extremely insightful for me on choosing a career path. I was interested in the recount of his career path and how he transferred between many job posts. I learned that there are three key steps in finding a career:

1. Reflect

2. Discover

3. Activate

This is definitely a key takeaway for me as I have always struggled on identifying which career path to pursue.

The workshop from Dan Kiernan entailed learning how to compose an elevator pitch. He outlined the steps or tips:

1. Context

2. Credibility

3. Call to action

These steps helped me in becoming more confident if I am ever faced with a question asking me to introduce myself. I think this can help in collaborative efforts in allowing us to become more comfortable with one another and thus work together more effectively.

The keynote from Swish Goswami was particularly interesting to me as he took a pathway that would not be considered conventional. I was fascinated by his pathway, and his tips about networking and interviewing people were extremely helpful for me. I also liked how he mentioned the importance of celebrating small successes as a way to motivate oneself for a task.

If I only had $5, I would try to use it to gain more income before starting a business which will most likely be centred around animal welfare. I think that the entrepreneurial mindset gives a lot more space to innovation and creativity which can be applied to everyday tasks or projects in the future.

I am looking forward to applying the skills and knowledge I gained from this conference to real-life situations! A piece of advice that I would like to share is that it is always a good idea to try stepping out of your comfort zone and participate in conferences like NHLC! Overall, this was an incredible experience and I am glad I decided to join my group in participating in NHLC. :)