Have you ever wondered what a Youth Opportunities’ trainer’s day looked like? We asked our amazing trainer, Tarsh Turner, to capture what she did on Day 2 of delivering the Personal Leadership Program to young people from a school in the northern suburbs this term. No one day of training is the same – with so much content to deliver – but here is a snapshot!
Day 2 of delivering our Personal Leadership Program
8.30am I arrived at the venue nice and early with my training partner, Shelley, and there were already some students waiting eagerly outside – and they kindly helped us carry our training gear in to the venue– awesome start! Once inside, we set up our laptops, took out our notes and wrote up an outline for the day on the whiteboard. More students started to roll in including two new students who were starting that week!
8.45am Shelley began the day running through Day 2 themes with the students – about defining your own success and looking at your self-image. Day 1 of the program was focused around introductions and getting to know each other, while Day 2 we can really get stuck into program content and hold one-on-one interviews with our students.
After introducing the content for the day, the students reflected on how they went with last week’s challenge that we assigned to them: sending stars (communicating positively with those around you) to friends and family. They shared their experiences of sending stars, which included small positive actions like taking the bins out without being asked, telling a parent why you admire them, and giving a friend a surprise chocolate treat.
11.00am Shelley got stuck into helping the group define what success means to them: is it having a big house or their dream career? She explained to them success really is just finding happiness, and that can mean different things for different people.
While Shelley was holding her ‘success’ session, I was holding interviews with some other students. In the first interviews we do with students on the program, we identify their main goals, and what they are hoping to get out of the training. Goals I heard about today included getting more motivation for schoolwork, figuring out a career goal and getting better at communicating. Each student is given a few challenges towards their personal goal – I assigned things like doing a career quiz, making a pros and cons list for some career ideas, and researching conversation starters.
1.00pm After lunch, Shelley held interviews with some more students, while I taught the rest of the group about self-image. I covered the effects positive and negative feedback can have on someone’s self-image, and the challenges of choosing long-term success over short-term happiness.
2.00pm To finish up the day, we always hold a ‘star round.’ A star round is when the group take turns using positive communication to tell an assigned person something, they like about them as an individual or something they noticed they did well today. One of our students ran the activity to practice speaking in front of group and chose who each person would send and receive a star from.
The students had a go at nominating each other for the merit award; who had stepped out of their comfort zone or contributed to our group discussions? Hands shot up around the room, and we got three nominations for the award. The student with the most votes will be presented with a certificate next week.
3.00pm Everyone says their goodbyes at the end of the day, but not before they told us the one thing they are going to practice during the week – like sending more stars, thinking about increasing their self-image aura and doing their personal challenges.