Young Leaders Return

“THERE is not one of these kids you wouldn’t claim, they are just amazing in every way,” said Pauline Carrigan, founder of the Where There’s A Will Foundation.

Mrs Carrigan said the Upper Hunter should be really proud of the 18 young people who represented local schools at the  National Student Leadership Summit in Adelaide on the weekend.

Young leaders from the Upper Hunter at St Peter’s College in Adelaide for the National Student Leadership Summit.

Harrison Kennedy a 16 year old from St Joseph’s Aberdeen said the experience was ‘incredible’.

“The conference really opened my eyes about the variety of different traits for leaders, you learn about what qualities are your own strengths and how to recognise strengths in other types of leaders,” said Mr Kennedy.

“The activities throughout the conference highlighted leadership diversity and I hope that coming back to my school I can better understand and help other people develop their own style of leadership,” he said.

“It was an incredible experience and meeting so many other students from around the country was great inspiring,” Harrison Kennedy said.

Pauline Carrigan was one of the chaperones on the trip and said she could not be prouder to watch them develop during the weekend.

“It was wonderful to see the students start out being from five different schools and come back as one student group of young leaders and how quickly they bonded,” said Mrs Carrigan.

“We hope that this helps them find their own voice to identify what will help our youth and we have said to them as a charity we are here to support their ideas for programs and things they want at their level at their schools and then they can approach us with a plan for how we can support them,” she said.

“We want them to develop as leaders and tell us what they need, to own that process, instead of us telling them which would defeat the purpose,” she said.

“It was just such a pleasure to go away with such wonderful young people,” she said.

“On the Saturday night they wrote a card and they shouted Hilton and I to dinner together; it was a bit of a tear jerking moment, they were just so wonderful,” Pauline Carrigan said.

Young leaders from the Upper Hunter joined their peers from throughout Australia at the National Student Leadership Summit in Adelaide this weekend.

Related Story:

• Leaders Bound for Adelaide, February 17, 2017.

Other stories about Where There’s A Will:

• Bounce Back at Belltrees, February 21, 2017.
• Starting the Discussion, February 16, 2017.
• Where There’s A Will Online Tonight, February 15, 2017.
• Meeting of the Minds, February 9, 2017.
• Mental Health Conference, February 7, 2017.
• Called to Canberra, January 18, 2017.
• New Innings for Where There’s A Will, January 17, 2017.
• Where There’s A Will on ABC Tonight, January 4, 2017.
• Australian First Well-Being Study, December 12, 2016.
• Community Education Session Tonight, November 28, 2016.
• Will Brings Batyr to Town, August 31, 2016.
• Will’s Legacy Grows, August 26, 2016.