On Friday 26th March, a group of year 11 students attended the SheLeads conference at ANU in Canberra. The theme of the day was Wild: Harnessing personal adversity into superpowers. They heard from a variety of speakers including Bec McConnell, a professional mountain biker, and April Hélène-Horton, the first plus size bikini model to appear on Australian billboards. The girls were also present with a panel of 4 passionate young women who spoke on their unique views of adversity and the barriers they had witnessed, this panel included Leah House, Jakita Smith, Jannessa O’Connell and Krishaa Tulsiani. Each of these women are extremely passionate and are all involved in women's rights activism within Canberra. Each speaker had remarkable stories about adversity and resilience. The girls participated in two workshops throughout the day, one facilitated by two youth leaders from the YWCA focusing on unconscious and conscious bias and the other run by Lightbulb Improv which allowed the girls to thrive in stressful situations. Overall, the girls thoroughly enjoyed the day and are working towards implementing similar activities within the College.

Charlotte Doldissen