NHBC Reflection

Hey everyone! My name is Vilo (short for Vilohith) and I am a grade 10 student in Garth Webb Secondary School. Today I had the pleasure to attend the National High School Business Conference. Here are my thoughts highlighting what I learned from the open Q&A Panel. During the panel there were many great questions that were asked along with great answers to the tough questions! Although many categories of questions were asked, there was one thing that I took out of it: not everything will go as I plan. I expect that my life will be linear and I will continue to progress, but in reality there will be many ups and downs. Furthermore, I learnt that my grades do not define me, but my personality does. There were many tips and tricks I learnt during this panel that I can write a whole page about, and I personally found this panel very informative as a high school student. Moving on, here are my thoughts highlighting my favourite part: The CPA Ontario Challenge. At the beginning my peers were doing most of the discussion while I was quietly researching. Throughout this challenge I was forced to overcome my fears and voice my opinion and thoughts. This was especially challenging for me because my teammates had different opinions than I did. Although this was out of my comfort zone, it was a lot of fun coordinating and analyzing together. Throughout this event, I learnt many things that I can develop or practice applying in the real world. These include teamwork skills such as co-ordination and communication skills such as voicing my opinion. Additionally, I learnt that I need to work on developing my leadership and communication skills. Employers determine if you are a good fit by looking at your characteristics. This was my big takeaway from this event which I shall continue to develop. I found this event extremely fun and I continue to look forward to future events hosted by Illuminate!