Young Leaders Day Conference

The 2024 School Captains attended the Halogen National Young Leaders Day Conference. Halogen gathers together prominent leaders from all walks of life to be part of The National Young Leaders Day.

Harry, Lily, Luka and Heer arrived at school super early to catch the train from Murrumbeena to Southern Cross. From there we walked to South Wharf and went to the Melbourne Convention Centre. When  inside we saw so many other school leadership teams.  We got in our seats and we participated in a sensational dance performance and some fun games to get us ready for the excitement of the day. We had the privilege of listening to 4 guest speakers. We are going to tell you about how they inspired and motivated us.

Anastasia Woolmer

By Luka Jeffriess

The most inspirational person for me was Anastasia Woolmer. She presented first, and I was fascinated by the fact that she has an incredible memory. When Anastasia was young, her memory wasn’t very good. She was always amazed by people who had a really good memory. Her passion was ballet dancing, and after high school she went to pursue a professional ballet career. Anastasia retired at a young age, as do many dances.  She wanted to pursue another career, and had to go back to school. She studied at  university. She was very dedicated, and stayed up for hours of the night studying. She wasn’t very good at studying, and it would take her a very long time to learn new things. Due to this, she decided to work on her memory. Since then, Anastasia has become the memory champion of Australia. Her strategy for memorising things is by trying to make non exciting things seem exciting.What I love about Anastasia is her amazing dedication and also the fact that she can put in the effort to improve her abilities.

Bryson Klein

by Heer Patel

Bryson Klein was an Australian Ninja Warrior winner, he competed in many seasons before winning. He loved rock climbing when he was little. One time he got stuck whilst doing rock climbing and he had to do a huge jump to get down. He was scared at first and then he pushed through the fear and did it. He always dreamed of being a Ninja Warrior star since he was little. As he got older he trained harder and harder and finally achieved his dreams. He was my favourite speaker because he showed passion, dedication and courage.

Jane Bunn

By Harry Brennan

Jane Bunn is the much loved and exciting weather presenter for 7-News. She is a very successful meteorologist. Every night she presents in front of the whole of Australia. She teaches people about the impact and dangers of weather, such as storms and heatwaves. Jane is one of the only weather presenters that are actually a meteorologist, so she is confident in her theories and a great speaker.

When she was at the end of high school, Jane still didn’t know what she wanted to do. Jane always loved the weather, so off she went to the USA where that had a whole building dedicated to meteorologist studies. Since then, Jane has travelled the world, teaching people about what she loves. She taught the students and teachers at the conference about what her daily schedule includes. Jane has written a book called Storm, all about a younger Jane who learns about the weather. The book is all about her passing on her knowledge. Although Jane often gets nervous while delivering her speeches, she knows she can, if she puts in the necessary preparation, can confidently deliver to the people of Australia.

Melissa Barbeiri

By Lily Zhang

The final presenter was Melissa Barbeiri. She was a former Matildas captain and is currently the goalkeeper for her team. Even through failure she kept persevering and kept pushing through because she was doing what she loved. When she was a child she was told that girls couldn’t do what boys did, which was  play soccer. Melissa was a tomboy, she wanted to do what boys did and she loved soccer. She played at school and was better than most of the boys. Melissa joined a club and she played under 10s. She was chosen to play internationally but she didn’t have a passport. Her mum tried to get her a passport but it declined many times and that seemed to be the end of soccer career. She started playing tennis and played at a national level but she wanted something that included teamwork not an individual sport. Her mum told her to play soccer, Melissa said,  “Mum, I thought soccer was for boys! Not girls!”  

Melissa gave it a try  and when she went to her club there were three teams of girls! She loved it and trained very hard. She was given the chance to go to a Matildas camp but she didn't try very hard and wasn’t accepted in the Matildas team but her friends were. She saw her friends at the Olympics and she realised that she had to train harder. Melissa started training twice a day but then she got injured. She was told by the physio that she could never run again and so she decided that she was going to be goalkeeper. Because of all her experience playing tennis and basketball she was good at catching and throwing. She was invited to the Olympics but she didn't get to play because she wasn’t the best goalkeeper! Then 4 years later she was the best goalkeeper but the Matildas didn't make it! She decided that she would be captain.  She decided to become a Mum and when she came back she wasn’t allowed in the team again! So she joined another team and is still playing today. Even though she had lots of failures and rejection in life she still kept going.

I love the way Melissa kept going and persevering to achieve her dream.