ABCN Program

Focus Female Leadership Program

Over the course of 3 sessions, the ABCN ran a virtual female leadership program where a few year 11 students were given the privilege to work with a range of successful female mentors from the company Ernst & Young. 

During the first session, we were introduced to the Focus program by host Catherine, who encouraged us to set a group goal for building our confidence and striving for success as young females. This was followed by familiarising ourselves with the mentors who shared their experiences as females working in predominantly male occupied career fields. Through this discussion we explored the positive qualities of female leaders including perseverance and resilience which both our mentors and us have, which allow for us to excel in any career choice. 

Moreover, the second session further looked into the positive qualities of leaders and expanded upon them by looking into the strengths associated with them. By splitting into small groups with two mentors and 2-4 students per group, we were encouraged to identify strengths we may or may not have known we had and discussed how while each of us had different strengths, were able to utilise them in our daily lives. Continuing the session, we looked into the skill of time management and had our mentors share their own experiences and tips they developed throughout the span of their successful careers, while also setting individual time management goals that we were to work on prior to our last session.

Concluding the program, our final session began with reflecting on the goals set in the previous session and looked into the failures female leaders experienced throughout their life. While discussing common failures, our mentors shared their strategies on coping with them and encouraged us to change perspectives on how we view failures by using them as learning opportunities. 

Overall, the ABCN program provided us, year 11 females, with the chance to explore our potential as future leaders, inspiring us to take on challenges that allow the skills learnt throughout each session to further our knowledge and pursue any career path we aspire to.

Maria Tomevska 

11H