At the conclusion of every Personal Leadership Program, our graduates are asked to write a reflection on their time in the program. These reflections are then presented at their program graduation to an audience of family, friends, school staff and other supporters, which builds their public speaking skills and confidence. These events are always incredibly empowering and are a phenomenal credit to the success of the program.
We’d love to share one of these testimonials from Term 3, 2022 with you.
“Don’t look back, you’re not going that way!”
“When I started Youth Opportunities, I was a very big ‘want’ person, and not a ‘do’ person. I had my goals like everyone does, but I never tried to achieve them because of my excuse: “I’ll do it later”. This was to do with my lack of motivation.
“When we were interviewed, I decided a massive thing I wanted to work on was motivation to do things I enjoy, go to school, and to get the grades I wanted. For the past two years, my grades and attendance had plummeted, I hated school, I’d skip classes every day and never hand in any work. The improvement from when I joined this program was almost instant. Using things like focus blocks and goal planning helped me get excited to work for my goals, and get excited for life and future opportunities. My grades have majorly improved, I’m passing all my classes, I enjoy school, and I have better communication with my teachers.
“Because of my grades & lack of motivation, I was beginning to become very unhappy. Although I’ve always been a person who believes that who you are is more than just your grades in school, getting Ds and Es still doesn’t feel good. The massive topic in the programs is the 4 big decisions. One of these decisions was “Decide to be Happy”. At first, I thought it was a little silly – because if it was that easy, I would have done it already.
“Over the past 8 weeks I’ve learnt that it really can be that easy!
“Everything I’ve learnt in this program I will bring with me for the rest of my life. I’ve learnt to love myself, improve my motivation and always be proud of myself no matter what. This program taught me so many things and helped me talk to so many people I wouldn’t have talked to otherwise, and has been the best experience in my time at school. There are a few more things I want to work on, but I feel confident that I have the tools to reach my goals. Thank you so much to my trainers, you have no clue how much you’ve helped me.”