MEMO: To all students

Thanks for joining us in the Emerging Leaders in Schools Program to be held at your school.

We have asked that your teachers provide us with a level of information about what they want out of the program but we really want you to add in a few thoughts. We ask you to take our words seriously and consider what the implications are for you personally.

The Website

We ask that you go to our website schools.emergingleaders.com.au and have a look at what you can expect during the program and a place to go to look at the results of your work after the event. This website has a pre-program questionnaire we would like you to fill out to tell us a bit more about yourself. Only us at Emerging Leaders see this not the school so don't hold back!!!!!!

The site also shows some of the leaders we might talk about and a couple of the films we are going to see during the program.

The Questionnaire

Before the program we really want you to complete the questionnaire and send it to us. We know it is a pain in the proverbial to fill out. However, what it enables us to do is design the program for you personally rather than give you something off the shelf that a thousand other students have been through exactly. If you are lazy about this, we can't help you they way we would like. If you put all of who you are (in whatever form makes sense to you) into answering the questions, then you have our word, you will be listened to very carefully.

The Program Itself

What the program isn't: a boring lecture, sitting down in rows listening to some old know-it-all (I'll let you be the judge) talk about leadership, personal responsibility, and purpose.

What the program is: this is very hard to explain, because the contents won't and don't explain the experience. Truthfully, it is about inspiring you to have confidence in who you are and what you stand for. Our dream is that we support you to change the world, not just be changed by it. If you are a talker, rebellious, against ‘right ways’ of doing things, you'll love the program. We will support you to use your imagination, your passion, your energy, your capacity to ‘create rules’ in a way which adds value. If you love learning, like doing things out of the ordinary, like to have your personal boundaries pushed a little, care about our world, want to make a difference, dont' want to have a life thats' ordinary, you will be inspired by these two days. If you aim to be different, special, if you have a sense of purpose (‘theres' got to be more to life than this’), then these two days will reinforce your gut feel in a way which you might not now be able to guess.

The Leaders who will facilitate the Program

Every single leader who has committed time to this initiative believes the following:

• To create a better future for all of us, much has to change
• The voice of young people must be heard loud and clear
• The voice of young people is not heard sufficiently at this time
• To create a positive sense of the future, people have to have a sense of ‘why bother’
• To support a positive and inspiring sense of the future, people have to believe in themselves as agents of change

I thought I should let you know I have never been a teacher. I have had a bit of experience in organisations, in business and with the government, but first and foremost have experienced both great success and great failure. I know what it means to try and fail and try again. I care about our world, and most of all, I have a fundamental belief in the power of young people. So much so I started my own company and called it Emerging Leaders.

Other things about the Program

Many of you will be participating because you choose to participate. For you, what you might get out of this program has already engaged you, inspired you to put your name forward, to take on the experience in the best spirit of exploration.

If you are a bit unsure whether this for you consider the following:

• Have you ever done anything in your life that didn't turn out the way you expected (good or bad)?
• Have you noticed that if you approach something as a waste of time, it frequently is?
• Have you noticed that if you approach something by giving it your best shot, you get something out of it?

If you answered maybe, or yes, then this will definitely be a great ‘gig’ for you to come along to.

In this program you will be treated as equals. You will be asked to create your own boundaries of acceptable behaviour, and choose to stick by them. If you try, if you put your best into this Program, we will stand back to back with you, fight to help you, believe in you, support you. We will do everything in our power to see your voice is heard, your needs are met, your issues are covered, your ideas valued.

General

We are sorry that we have set the reading of this letter up in such a formal way, but we really want you to hear a little of our voice before the program commences.

Come in the spirit of adventure and it will be one of the best forty-eight hours you have ever spent.

We look forward to meeting you in person.

The crew at Emerging Leaders