Photo Credit: SLC website- www. slc.ubc.ca
If any of you fellow UBC students were able to attend UBC’s Student Leadership Conference last Saturday (Jan 8), I’m sure many of you found it a very insightful and humbling experience. The presentations given by the opening and closing speakers were humorous and engaging, and the keynote speakers gave fantastic talks revolving around the topic of rethinking leadership.
Amongst all of the amazing presentations I was fortunate enough to attend, I found the speech given by Donovan Tildesley to be particularly impactful. Growing up in Vancouver, Donovan was involved in all of the typical activities of a young Vancourverite – he swam in the UBC pool, skied up in Whistler during winter, and studied at UBC. However, he stood out from his peers – he was blind.
Although Donovan was born without the ability to see, he never viewed his condition as a “disability.” However, he was faced with adversity and discrimination early in his life: during Donovan’s speech, he reflected on how other people used to doubt his abilities to succeed in sports, particularly competitive swimming due to his condition. However, with the support of his family, he was able to continue training, and is the current world record holder for the 800m freestyle and 1500m freestyle.
To those of you that were not able to attend the SLC and hear Donovan’s inspirational story, I hope my short summary gives you a glimpse into what individuals can achieve with passion, determination, and a strong will to succeed.
-Lingsa J.