National Young Leaders Day

On the 9th June 2014 a group of year 7 and year 8 students from Te Awamutu Intermediate drove to the Rotorua Events Centre at about 7:30am. Once we arrived there we received small booklets to write down some notes about what each speaker there said to us. The first speaker of the 5 that day was Allison Mooney, a professional motivational speaker. She told us about significance and how every leader was different type of leader, but still a good one. For example, there are the talkative, funny and playful type, the active,powerful and brave type, the organised, thoughtful, very precise and often musical or artistic kind and the peaceful, quiet, and often shy type. All of these types could make very adequate leaders. Our second speaker was a widely known NZ celebrity, Tamati Coffey, who you might know from his previous jobs in ‘What Now’, a weatherman on ‘ Breakfast’ news, and a introducer on New Zealand Got Talent. He spoke to us about dreaming big, and achieving big. Some of my favourite quotes from his speech were “The possibilities are endless” “Self-doubt will make you miss out” and  “Dreaming big only works if you work hard, because a  thousand mile journey, starts with just one step. The next speaker was Paula Fakalata, who told us to reach our dreams, no matter what, and to reach your dreams you need to 1- have great, supportive, encouraging friends 2- have positive thoughts, absolutely NO self-doubt and 3- have a go, reach your dream by trying. Our fourth speaker was Alison Shanks, a professional NZ cyclist. She has participated in the 2012 London Olympics. She has won a large amount of competitions so far and has now moved to Cambridge. She told us that if we work hard enough, we will make it. “Someone has to be a gold medal winner,” she says “why couldn’t it be me? Why can’t it be you?” Aim high- dream big. Before our last speaker we had a special person tell us about being a singer/songwriter. Her name is Nakita Turner and she is 15 years old!!! The main quote in her speech was never give up. Our last speaker for the day was another professional motivational speaker, Cam Calkoen, who suffers from Cerebral Palsy, which makes him speak slightly differently, and walk differently from other people. He told us that no matter what the conditions are, strive to reach your dreams. He told us that no matter what people think about you or say about you, you are the only person who can really judge yourself. He says that instead of being upset when people laugh at him and think he is strange, he lets them laugh, in fact, he makes them laugh at him, because when you can laugh at yourself with other people, it doesn’t feel like they are teasing you. Cam Calkoen was one of the most loved speakers of the day. Not only did we listen to motivational speeches but we also watched short 3D movie clips that had something to do with leadership and not giving up. The leaders day was a huge success and helpful to young striving leaders. I’m sure that this experience was helpful to everyone who participated.