John Monash Leadership Forum

Two weeks ago, on Thursday the 5th of September, Caleb Wright, Freya Hellstrom and I, Reza Jafari, were chosen to go on a little trip to Scotch College. We went to the John Monash Leadership Forum for year 10’s around Melbourne. We were chosen by our coordinator to go, as she believed that we would make fantastic future leaders. There were students from about 11 schools (including us) there at the event, totalling to 60+ future leader year 10’s. We got there quite early, and were greeted by Michael Bennett, the director of Spirit of Australia Foundation. He was the MC for the event, and interestingly enough, he is John Monash’s great grandson. The event started off with a bingo icebreaker, and some welcoming words from Matthew Callaghan, Scotch College’s school captain. After that, we split up into tables, with unfamiliar faces from other schools. They were all aspiring and inspiring leaders, and it was a pleasure talking to them, as it was very interesting hearing everyone else’s thoughts and beliefs on what it means to be a leader. We had a very in depth discussion, followed by some banter between us to get more comfortable. After that though, it was done for our speaking, and it was time to listen to some current fantastic leaders, and what it means for them to lead. There were many perspectives and lots fantastic points to take into the future. They had a civil engineer, a law and arts student and even a mathematician and 2024 John Monash scholar. However the speaker that stood out to me the most was Jeffrey Rosenfeld, who was a neurosurgeon. It was great hearing from an older model about what it means to lead, and it was clear to see that he had lots of stories to tell, and him, along with everyone else, loved talking to future leaders. They also provided refreshments and top notch hospitality, which made us feel all the more welcome. We left the event with a greater knowledge on leadership, and more in depth understanding. Overall, it was a fantastic experience speaking and hearing from some brilliant minds and would 100% go again.

By Reza J.