My Illuminate x Durham Experience

Hi everyone! My name is Maddie Rogers and I am a Grade 9 student at Pickering High School. Today, I had the pleasure to attend Illuminate x Durham’s regional conference. Here are my thoughts highlighting what I learned about Leadership and STEM.

The first thing I really enjoyed learning about was how to have my voice heard and valued as a young person. I thought it was interesting to think about the different strengths we have throughout different stages in our life. I also thought it was very valuable learning about imposter syndrome and how it could affect people. I think that it is something that a lot of people could struggle with and something we should know how to deal with. A third thing I really enjoyed hearing about was the pressures of being a leader and feeling as though you need to be unique and make a name for yourself. I think that it was explained very well how there is a lot of pressure on leaders, and although the right decisions may not be ‘the flashiest’, they are what’s best. It made me feel more confident in myself, as though I could be a leader.

Overall I feel as though I learned a lot today and was inspired by all of the speakers. I am definitely going to use what I learned in my future and am very happy I attended this conference.