Current student leaders in Year 11 & 12 from Catholic secondary schools across Catholic Education South Australia have come together for the Leaders for the World God Desires: Senior Student Leaders Gathering.
80 senior students gathered at the Cathedral Hall, Wakefield Street on March 5, hosted by the Catholic Office for Youth and Young Adults (COYYA).
The Archdiocesan agency and Catholic Education SA team gathers senior student leaders to provide unique leadership formation, build community between student leaders, and develop relationships between COYYA and the students.
Peter Bierer, Coordinator for COYYA, said the gatherings are very inspiring. “Students are motivated by the inspirational talks from other young people and people in leadership positions. They have fun meeting new people and working on projects and challenges with their peers”.
This event was the first Student Leaders Gathering of the year, with students exploring the meaning of the phrase ‘leaders for the world God desires’, and how this not only applies to leadership here and now in schools, but also leadership for life beyond school.
2020 student leaders drew from and shared their experiences of Catholic leadership thus far and gained inspiration and skills for the year ahead, to then connect ideas back to their school communities.
The gathering was addressed by Dr. Neil McGoran, Director, Catholic Education South Australia. Neil spoke to the student leaders about the importance of leading for the world God desires.
“Leadership is about having confidence in who you are and how you relate to yourself and others”, said Neil.
“Education is not just a personal commodity. You are being educated not just for yourself, but for the world, and so you have a responsibility to the world to engage with your education and to let that go out into making things different and hopefully better”.
The day was led by Holly Roberts and Jean-Marie Nguyen of COYYA. Holly ran a session that allowed students to explore their own leadership styles, based on Pope Francis’ call for young people to be ‘protagonists for change’ and how it connects to CESA’s vision for students to be leaders for the world God desires.
“The time for us to be protagonists of change is now, because if not now, then when?”, said student Chiara Tanatswa from St. Mary’s College.
Keynote presenter Clare Peterson, Social Justice Coordinator from St Aloysius College, presented ‘My Place in the World God Desires’ – her personal testimony of finding her call to work for justice in the world.
The student gathering is part of the Student Leaders Program, and initiative of COYAA, which includes student meetings, workshops and talks, aiming to support schools in building the leadership capacity of young people.
COYYA are currently developing a new Student Leaders Program planned for launch in 2021.
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