Round Square Leadership Conference

On Thursday the 8 April, we went to the Round Square Leadership conference by Chadwick School International in South Korea. The conference theme was ‘Leadership in the Pandemic’ and, reflecting on these ideas, what we hope to see in future leaders.

Before the conference, we had to prepare a 15-minute presentation on our experiences of leadership in the pandemic; the key ideas that we tried to convey in our presentation were that leaders should be trustworthy, good communicators, and have a clear vision. Once everyone had submitted their presentations, three keynote speakers were chosen to present at the conference, and we were one of those selected. The zoom call had over 160 participants, aged 16-18, from all over the world.

Chadwick International started the conference by introducing themselves and the keynote speakers. We were the first keynote speakers and had to present to everyone on the call; it was both a new and exciting experience. We were followed by two more presentations – one from a school in Armenia and another from a school in India. After each keynote presentation, we went into breakout rooms of six to discuss our thoughts from the presentations; in these discussions, many valuable thoughts and ideas came up from the variety of cultures and countries that were represented. Throughout the conference, we experienced South Korean culture including things like K-pop (a genre of pop music that originated in South Korea).

The conference was concluded with a short inspirational summary by the Headmaster of the school where he finished with an overview of the ideas covered in the conference. Overall, we both found it a very valuable and insightful experience and a great opportunity. Many thanks to Mrs. Cotarelo for making this possible.

– By Tom and Milly