You could feel the enthusiasm in the atmosphere as everyone (over 200) lined up, in the foyer, eagerly waiting to get in. After everyone attending the leadership seminar got their party packs and settled onto their seats (where a very informative booklet and a certificate of attendance was placed for them), this incredible day was kicked off with a few words from Mrs Gerber. She warmly welcomed everyone and informed us about what the leadership seminar was all about. She congratulated the Cultural Board on their excellent organisation - term 3 is busy for them with leadership seminar, inter-house plays, cultural assembly, voting procedures, cultural induction party requiring their excellent leadership. Soon after, the organiser and the brains behind this year's leadership seminar, Monique Baile introduced to us the house rules as well as the ice breaker. A group of talented grade 8 and 9 learners in their colourful tutus performed a dance and as the ice breaker - everyone in the hall had to join in the dance. It was so much fun! The girls wore colouful tutus and socks, and it definitely matched their bright attitudes while dancing. This year's leadership seminar theme was Superhero Schoolings.
Our superheroes (the matrics) dressed up in their favourite superhero outfit and shared lessons on how to be a superhero. Omhle Bisset, Octavia Johannes, Sinovuyo Madlavu, Valentina Longari, Aziwe Booi, Mateenah Langford, Phumza Mandla Chulumanco Mayi, Carleen Braun, Lara Naidoo and Ahlumile Nkume all gave great and inspiring speeches. They were nothing short of amazing. Lessons included how anyone can be a superhero by Omhle Bisset whereas she said, "Even if you don't have a superpower, all you need is hard work, determination and the realisation that we all have that spark to be a hero." Lara Naidoo made a speech on how to never give up and said, "If you fall down, then get back up and try again." Sinovuyo Madlavu highlighted how important it is to take responsibility and in her speech she said, "Being a leader means being responsible for what happens under your guidance." . One piece of advice from Valentina Longari was to be humble. She said that we should always always work to serve the greater good and not just yourself. Other lessons that were taught were to always improve, to trust your team and to never give up to failure.
After the last speaker, the members in charge of the technical aspect of the seminar, played an inspirational video about heroes; then it was break. I took this time to talk to some of the people who attended the leadership seminar about how did they feel about it so far and all the responses were positive. Inganathi Konono in 9C said, "It's very informative and very helpful to aspiring committee members." Thimna Mandla in 10G said, "It is very insightful and informs people about the characteristics leaders should have."
Here is an overview of the matric lessons:
Omhle Bisset (Batman) taught us that anyone can be a hero and that superpowers aren't needed all it takes is hard work. Octavia Johannes(Professor X) reminded us to always trust our team as leaders, Sinovuyo Madlavu( Wonder woman) gave an important lesson which was to take responsibility for your actions, Valentina Longari(Thor) reminded us that to be a leader you need to be humble, Aziwe Booi (Captain America) believed in order to be a good leader goals need to be set or you won't achieve success, Mateenah Langford (The Flash) taught us that in order to be a leader you need to be a prompt decision maker. Trusting your gut is a lesson we learnt from Phumza Mandla (Every superhero ever). After our quick break we resumed our lesson from our Matric superheros with Chulumanco Mayi (Hulk) helping us to realise that we can turn our flaws into strengths, Carleen Braun(Iron Man)taught us that a leader always has room for improvement, Lara Naidoo (Spiderman) motivated us to never give up to failure and Ahlumile Nkume (The Avengers) taught us that even a leader needs to call for backup.
Break was over and again, the amazing organiser of this event, Monique Baile was on the mic and told us we were then going to sing. The crowd joyfully sang to Fireworks by Katy Perry, The Climb by Miley Cyrus and This girl is on fire by Alicia Keys with the help of Chulumanco Mayi who sounded amazing. This event was then closed off by Mrs Gerber. She said, "This has been a very inspiring and feel good afternoon..." I couldn't agree with her more. Thank you to the all the Cultural Board members for making the 2018 leadership seminar a success. A special thank you to Mrs Ferreira for taking over the last bits of the clean up, the Balie family for sponsoring the snacks, the matrics who presented, the sound and visuals crew, the Cultural Board who set up at break and took on various roles. Thanks to Robyn Japhta who helped Monique Balie with the organising.