My Experience at The Illuminate x Durham Leadership Conference!

Hi everyone! My name is Jayde and I am a Grade 10 student at Dumbarton Highschool. Today, I had the pleasure to attend Illuminate x Durham's regional conference. Here are my thoughts highlighting what I learned about what is means to be a leader and have leadership, and what the first step is to started a business of my own and what it takes to get into entrepreneurship and be a well, successful business owner!

For what I learned about the professional corporate world on entrepreneurship and leadership from the session, is that the way to a successful and happy future is to having a growing, open minded and and adaptable mindset! What I mean by this is that, as people trying to get into independent industries such as running your own business or learning how to be a leader and lead other people in their own journey's, we have to be able to adapt, react, and have an opened mindset to all opportunities or circumstances that arise. Especially when we're dealing with different people who may need different needs in their own personal lives.

Something's that Alina Huang had taught me is to always get through problems with a sage mindset. She taught me to notice when I am putting myself down or when I have a negative mindset, and to learn how to control it and piece together the puzzle in order to regain that positive mindset! Something that Ms. Huang said that really stood out to me was when she explained, "If you find that you are in a situation or conversation that leads you into a negative mind set, realize your actions and responses to the situation and just think to yourself and say, 'hmm, that's very interesting' and then get back to the matter at a better time." This really stood out to me and really allowed my to have a better perspective on life.

What I must enjoyed about the session was how communicative and passionate Ms. Huang was about using sage to have a positive mindset, and I really liked all of the different slides and examples she had that portray all that she was trying to show us! I liked how she got us all engaged during the session and she took all of our ideas and encouraged them and added onto them in a positive and uplifting way that brought bright smiles to everyone's faces! I think she is an amazing leader with many brilliant ideas, and she really knows how to engage a big crowd of young audiences with relatable advice and get everyone to think and act more positively overall!

I will apply my learning in my future career goals and/or personal development by using sage to develop a better and healthier mindset for myself. I will also listen to my reactions and actions in different situations and determine whether I need to deal with it head on, or if I need to say to myself, "hmm, that's very interesting," and the continue on with it at a better time. I also will learn from the different experiments and activities we did during the session, such as working with different people and coming up with a produced to sell out of two different images. I feel like this will really enhance my creative side and allow me to think more outside of the box for bigger, better and more original ideas for my own personal companies and/or communities!

I feel like all of this will really help me in my leadership and entrepreneur businesses in the future, and I can't wait to see what amazing opportunities the STEM community will open up for me throughout my entire lifetime as a member of the Illuminate x Durham STEM community for young girls!