The Thrill of 2020

Hi, my name is Sumita, and I am currently in Gr. 12 at Markville Secondary School. Today, I had the pleasure of attending the second segment of the Illuminate National High School Leadership Conference with over 170 students globally.

Some key takeaways I gained from attending this conference is that there is not only one pathway to do something. For example, Laveen Jose talked about how he was able to gain a Marketing degree, and still complete a CPA designation, despite not initially going into that route. The same thing happened with Iliana Valiente, who initially went into world issues, but later transferred to a business program to achieve her dreams. The same happened with Alina Huang, who despite not having a degree in accounting or finance, was able to get jobs at IBM and Deloitte.

I'm very passionate to relay my interests into a career that best represents my interests, and to have confidence in my decisions no matter what!

If I had to give one piece of advice about leadership, it would be that anyone is a leader; it doesn't take a fancy degree, or a certain certificate to be a leader in yours and others lives.