Illuminated Experience
Hello everyone! My name is Arrad Mostafa and I am a Grade 11 student at Sir Wilfrid CI. Yesterday, I had the pleasure to attend Illuminate x Markham’s regional conference. Here are my thoughts highlighting what I learned.

Throughout the conference, we had multiple guest speakers share their experiences in post-secondary and work-life. This helped me clear many doubts that I have been building up to this point with the fear of asking someone for help. Our first keynote speaker was Christal Wang. Through her presentation, I learned the concept of TOC which in essence is a backward mapping strategy to achieve a certain goal.
Our second guest speaker was Mash Chowdhury. He shared his experience with cybersecurity with a mix of consulting your clients. He shared his personal struggles that he faced throughout post-secondary to where he is now. I found his presentation inspirational and encouraging.
I am grateful to be able to take part in the Illuminate x Markham Conference. I had a fun yet productive time while learning many different concepts. I want to thank all the Regional leads for making this event possible and for the keynote speakers who went out of their way to help us plan for our future.