Monthly Archives: January 2013

Looking for your “ah ha” moment? Wondering where and how you can tackle the first step of getting involved on such a huge campus? Want to become a part of something bigger? UBC’s Student Leadership Conference (SLC) has got a remedy for you! An incredibly designed student run conference tailored to inspire, motivate and engage the campus community. The SLC’s vision is all about “expanding individual leadership potential” as well as “providing valuable peer-to-peer learning experiences”.

Whether your experience at the SLC ends up sparking those inner thoughts that keep you up late at night, encourages you to finally START that project you’ve meaning too, or simply causes a paradigm shift in the way that you view and perceive the world, I guarantee one thing: you will not leave, the same way that you came.

For some logistics on how the conference is designed and executed, I definitely encourage all to check out the SLC website and Facebook page for this years highlights. Below, you’ll find a video to get a better sense.

And here’s a breakdown of MY wonderful day at the SLC:

At one my first sessions of the day, Richard Loat, an entrepreneur and founder of Five Holes for Food, asked: how many times have you wanted to do something and been shot down with the answer “because”? (hence the title of this post). Maybe it was your mom who told you you couldn’t go out this weekend just, because (many of us can probably relate to this one). Maybe you were debating a future career path, potentially your dream job, and someone again told you you couldn’t do it. Well guess what, don’t listen. That was one of the things that Richard emphasized in his panel. Just go for it. He encouraged everyone to start thinking about what they wanted to do and the change they wanted to impact. At such a young age Richard was able to combine the 2 things he loved most, hockey and social activism, to create his own organization geared towards raising food for local food banks across Canada and North America. Through Richard’s seminar I learned the importance of finding the things that you are passionate about in order to spark that social change, as well as the significance of creating genuine connections with people along the way, so others can see your vision too.

Next up was a student lead workshop about marketing transferable skills. Don’t know what that means? Neither did I…until I learned how to breakdown job descriptions and apply the skills I had already acquired to different jobs. Very useful stuff!

And then it happened.

My sustainable, locally grown lunch provided by the SLC

Mmmm, probably ranted about the food I ate for the next 2 days following the conference. Typical me…

After finishing up the day with a final student run workshop, I had the pleasure of attending the closing ceremonies with Postsecret’s very own Frank Warren.  Postsecret is a collaborative project, if you will, where hundreds of thousands of people across the world send anonymous postcards full of their secrets to his PO box. Some are funny, some are heartbreaking, and some a little in-between, but the greatest part about Postsecret is the truth found in many of the secrets. Traditionally people associate secrets negatively, as something that drives people apart, but they also have the capacity to bring people together. Through his inspirational stories and display of postcards, Frank Warren single handedly had that auditorium in tears. Nonetheless, I couldn’t have asked for a better way to end off the best day I have had during my time here at UBC.

Frank Warren on stage

Inspiration is truly invaluable and raw and exhilarating. Keep your eyes peeled next January for the 2014 Student Leadership Conference and write your own story. I promise you will not regret it.