VICTORIAN YOUNG LEADERS: GLOBAL YOUTH FORUM

Over this last week, myself and seventeen other students have taken part in a three day Victorian Young Leaders Global Youth Forum program. This program was run by Asia Education Foundation staff as well as students from the University of Melbourne. We logged into Zoom along with 150+ students over Victoria and the Asia Pacific and learned about leadership, identity, stereotypes, and globalisation. During this program, we had guest speakers including Aunty Georgina, Jahin Tanvir, and Anna Louey. These speakers discussed a wide range of subjects including culture, getting out of your comfort zone and identity, however, they all had the same underlying message of putting yourself out there and making a change no matter how big or small that will be. During the program we went into breakout rooms with other Year 9 Students from Indonesia and Victoria and were able to discuss what we had learned from the guest speakers, interact with each other and learn about how similar and different our schools are, as well as just having a genuine friendly talk. The last thing we were able to do was present a prototype of something we would be able to change in our school and how we can put it into action. We would like to thank all AEF (Asia Education Foundation) staff, the students from the University of Melbourne and our staff for giving us this opportunity to help us grow as young leaders. It has been an amazing experience.