Five days plus 48 teenagers equals a whole lot of fun!

Schools

Moushmi Fa’amate and Brooke Price
10 February 2010

On December 12, 2009, 48 aspiring leaders from colleges around the Wellington Archdiocese gathered at Palm Grove Christian Camp to be a part of YoungCatholicLeader (YCL) – a programme to bring out and develop out leadership skills. 

After arriving and settling into our cabins, we were welcomed and split into six groups – our small groups for all five days of the live-in camp – The Start, The Passion, The Courage, The Vision, The Teamwork and The Perseverance.
Little did we know that these six principles would be the attributes we would all need in order to be successful leaders in 2010.

Through 12 sessions over the five days we learnt that to execute a goal we must make a start and risk plunging headlong beyond the thinking and planning stage.

Next, we must be principle-centered with a Vision and put our values and principles into action through our choices, relationships and commitments.
We must have a passion for excellence and set simple, achievable goals which will gradually take us to the top.

As effective leaders, we set out to create a team, community and relationships by encouraging shared understanding.

In session 10 we were encouraged to write a Mission Statement and this will be a helpful tool to help us persevere in what we believe we have been called to do.
Lastly, as a Christian leader who looks to Jesus and his actions as a model of leadership we must have the courage to follow his example.

Camp was anything but boring!  Our days were filled with sessions, group work, high ropes course, role playing scenarios, team challenges and plenty of fun.
It was awesome meeting new people and testing our leadership skills through these activities – not to mention the pool, waterslide, trampoline and pool table that kept us entertained during free time.

Small groups had daily responsibilities that included organising the evening social, lunch and dinner environment, meal preparation and prayer preparation. All of these aspects of camp kept us busy and motivated making our five days at YCL go by too quickly.
YCL offered us plenty of leadership strategies that we could implement in our own college communities.

We had a great time and look forward to catching up with all the friends we made around the archdiocese throughout 2010. 

Moushmi Fa’amate and Brooke Price are students at Sacred Heart College, Lower Hutt.