Hi everyone, we hope you’re doing well during these crazy times. We know this is a challenging period and it is hard to keep busy but we’d like to give you an insight into what we’ve been partaking in this week. Yvie has tried her best to keep leadership running by putting on an exceptional programme which has given us the opportunity to learn various life skills and lessons by speaking to lots of inspirational people via zoom calling. We have both taken part in 4 out of 7 ‘Chats & Snacks’. Here are some tips we’ve learnt from listening and interacting:
The first motivating speaker was Joel, he has a rich history working with charities and is the Senior fundraiser for OnSide Youth Zones. He taught us how we could make a difference through charity and help those in need who aren’t as fortunate as us, even at our age. He highlighted that for him making money was far from the most important aspect of life and self-fulfilment overpowers materialistic aspects. From this, we learnt that giving back can be more gratifying than having a high income.
The next speaker was Shoshanna Davis who currently works as a Product Marketing Manager at Intel. Her talk focused on the time off we’ve been given due to the pandemic and how to maximise our time productively. She gave us helpful tips on how to navigate around the business world virtually. The first piece of advice she gave us was to sign up to LinkedIn and reach out to individuals who have jobs that we aspire to have, or interesting people we want to know more about in order to receive guidance from. The second suggestion she gave us was that we should take online courses, especially during this time where we have little to do so that in future interviews we can show off what we’ve accomplished during the pandemic which will set us apart, along with learning great skills from these courses.
The following speaker was Eli Sebbag. He spoke about his IDF experience. He was born in Amsterdam and after making Aliyah served as a Paratrooper for nearly 3 years. He learnt many skills from being in the army including discipline, courage and structure; which are important and transferable skills needed for any leader. He also made an important decision at a young age, to make Aliyah, which taught us that taking risks and making bold decisions is a positive rather than something to fear.
Finally, we heard from Priya Shah. She started her career with a degree in Finance and Accounting whilst having a vision of success using her passion for art and creativity. She founded ‘The Simple Good,’ a non-profit organisation with the mission to connect the meaning of good from around the world, empowering the youth to become positive activists through art and discussion so that people everywhere will use art to create cross-cultural understanding, break societal barriers and promote positive activism in communities. The charity sells merchandise based on stories from the individuals they've helped through difficult times, so every product has a story behind it. She inspired us to understand that success is relative to each individual and doing something you enjoy is far more rewarding than only having a career with the aim to solely make money. The skills she said she valued the most in the business world were communication and being approachable. Priya is proud of the fact she has managed to pursue a career in modelling with top brands like Zara and succeed in the workplace whilst having one hand and her confidence is admirable.
We are fortunate enough to have been given the opportunity of ‘Chats and Snacks’ organised by Yvie which we have taken huge amounts from. We want to thank all of the amazing speakers who gave up their time and we hope we’ve passed on the skills and tips we’ve gained from them, so you can benefit too!
Stay Safe,
Eden Cohen – H1 & Louis Deacon – H2