The Global Student Leadership Day (GSLD) was an incredible experience. It consisted of 32 amazingly talented speakers from around the world. Although it wasn’t possible for the conference to take place in London, the speakers still managed to connect with the students watching online. Personally, I felt very connected to the speakers because it was as if they were speaking to me face to face. The fact that the conference took place online did not take anything away from the overall experience. I was very grateful to attend the conference because it helped me a lot with my current state of mind. As a grade 11 student, I will inevitably have to make a few big decisions in the next upcoming years. What will I study? Where will I go? What will I do? With the guidance of the GSLD speakers, I was able to engage in some self-reflection. I started to think about what is important to me and what’s not. In consequence, I am now making much better use of my time in quarantine. Now, I feel like everything I do is with a purpose. I consider myself lucky to have attended some very inspirational, motivational, engaging and persuading presentations by exemplary people. I learned a lot about the fundamentals of being a leader.

One of my favourite presentations was from by Vinh Giang. I have never been so captivated by a speaker in my life. Funny enough, Mr. Giang opened his presentation with a magic trick. What does magic have to do with leadership? I had no clue, but I was very interested. It turns out Vinh Giang’s presentation was about voice articulation. He mentioned that it is probably the most underrated and powerful tool that a human has. Likewise, Giang stated that with proper voice articulation, you demonstrate confidence and professionalism (which are leaders’ qualities). All in all, this was a very eye-opening experience and I really enjoyed it. – Maxwell Kaspy ’20