Rethinking, Social Media, and Eye of the Tiger: My SLC Experience

The UBC Student Leadership Conference is a signature event of UBC, bringing together over 1300 students to a day filled with leadership opportunities and the chance to meet with industry professionals and UBC student leaders. I had the lucky chance to dedicate 9 months of my life for this year’s conference and had a fantastic, fun, memorable, laugh-out-loud time with a group of the best people around.

SLC has definitely been my favourite volunteer experience ever. I’ve met great people, learned a lot of great skills, and had an experience of a lifetime. I sometimes can’t fathom that it was over 2 months ago that all our blood (literally for me), sweat and tears came together on one Saturday in January. SLC 2011 had great reviews from everyone and I’m extremely happy they had a great time.

But what was most memorable for me was the process of making the conference happen. At our midterm retreat, one of our advisors, Shannon, said that she could pull off SLC by herself and that it would be a lot less trouble. Well, Shannon, if SLC was like that it would have been a lot less fun and I bet she doesn’t regret putting up with us

Call me an oldie, but there’s no way in hell I’m going to remember everything that’s happened in a span of 9 months. So in honour of the UBC SLC 2011 and the planning committee, I’ve written everything down that was most memorable for me because, really, if I included everything, it’ll be a few thousand words. So I’ll focus on the most memorable aspects during my time at SLC and cap it off at (I won’t tell you the number because you might not reading it )

Joining or not – yeah, I’m joining.

The idea of not joining the SLC crossed my mind for a few minutes back in May when I was offered my position. I had originally applied for Volunteer Coordinator because I wanted to work with volunteers and I’ve had that kind of experience before. But I had been offered Media Coordinator, not that it was a bad position (it ended up being awesome). I wanted to step out my comfort zone a bit, which in hindsight was actually the opposite because I’ve done more volunteer-related extracurriculars, so I didn’t accept the position right away. At the end of the day, literally, I accepted the job the next day because it was on my mind for months after the 2010 conference and I would have regretted it incredibly if I did not join.

Sometimes things don’t go your way and it turns out to be for the best. Sometimes, silver linings do exist. And they turn out to be bright pink and blue and a whole lot of awesome.

Wiggio

Oh god, Wiggio. For those who don’t know, Wiggio is an online application meant to make group collaboration more efficient and easier, and a lot of student development programs use it. Think of it as an upgrade to the Facebook Group with calendars, ability to conduct polls and file sharing. Well, it didn’t live up to the hype, the thing caused more frustration than without it. People would upload files, but no one could find it. We had profiles which everyone was supposed to upload their photo, which of course 5 people of our 25-person group did.  We would get notifications that the calendar changed, but no idea which part of it did. We were supposed to upload timelines in May, which only a few people did again (less of Wiggio’s fault I guess). Polls would be conducted, but not everyone would/could vote. Updates would be posted on Wiggio, but we have our SLC e-mail accounts, which are with Google so we have Google calendars, docs, and everything, so why couldn’t we send a full-team update there? Everyone ended up casually ignoring Wiggio by the end.

UBC Student Leadership Conference 2010

The Student Leadership Conference (SLC) is an annual conference that invites over 1100 delegates to expand their leadership qualities through workshops and networking with future and current leaders. This year, I had the opportunity to attend the largest student-led conference in all of North America (as the spokespersons gladly reminded us several times) and it was a truly inspiring experience!

I had initially never planned on going to SLC 2010. Although I had heard about it since September, I had no general interest in it. I have attended conferences before and was extremely bored by them. It wasn’t until a friend of mine wanted to attend but could not because of prior commitments that I looked into the SLC program. I discovered that there were many workshops and aspects that I am very interested in and want to explore, and signed myself up immediately.

My day started at 5:45 am. Due to the fact that I am part of the VP Students Emerging Leaders Program, everyone attending SLC 2010 met at 7:30 am at the Centre for Student Involvement (CSI: I think the name was on purpose) for breakfast and to pick up our schedules. The night before I was contemplating whether to go to SLC or not, mostly influenced by the 7:30 am meeting, on a Saturday no less! In the end, I decided it was worth it (and boy was it!) and woke up at said 5:45 am to catch the 6:15 am Skytrain. Surprisingly, I wasn’t very tired, even with the 4 hours sleep I had.

When I got to CSI, the second surprise of the day occurred: there was a lot of people there! I didn’t think there would be a huge turnout due to the early breakfast and I was wrong (again, for anyone’s counting). The breakfast was very good: pancakes, fruit, yogurt, muffins, and even whip cream for the pancakes. Because I registered for SLC only 3 days before the conference, my name tag and schedule were not at the CSI, but at Chan Centre. This caused some problems with comparing schedules with other delegates. We did some socializing until 8:30ish and headed to Chan Centre for the opening ceremony.

I had been to the Chan Centre before to attend some concerts, but Chan Centre looked very different from what I remembered. Perhaps it’s because the times I went there was forced and so I could not appreciate just how awesome Chan Centre actually is. Although the exterior is grey and mundane, the interior is modern and very beautiful, something I had never noticed before. A Third Year Arts student told me Chan Centre is in the shape of a cello which was an interesting fact (but I don’t see the shape myself).

The opening ceremony was a great way to start the conference. The main reason was because of Shane Koyczan! Who is he? I wondered that myself. Shane Koyczan is an award-winning Canadian slam poet from the Northwest Territories and he is damn funny. He performed several of his hilarious poetry for us and he caused uproar of laughter and cheer. An extremely enjoyable presentation and I certainly want to hear more of his poetry.

The first presenter I attended was a Canadian author (forgot his name). He is very well accomplished, having published many books and also a baby book that all 2009 newborns in BC receive. Like Boyczan, he was raised in the Northwest Territories and the culture of the First Nations is a key part in his writing. It was interesting to hear him speak, but it was not inspiring I’d have to say.

The next part of SLC is the concurrent workshop. It was here that I became inspired. The workshop was called Community Wellness and the main topic of the workshop is the start of a new club at UBC called Students for Mental Wellness (SFMWUBC). The purpose of the club is to promote mental wellness in UBC students. Physical health, such as healthy diets and sufficient exercise, is important, but many do not pay attention to mental health which is the same if not more important than physical health. I have always been very interested in mental health, I’m going into psychology after all, and this club was the first club I was genuinely inspired to join. The club has not officially started yet and is in its planning stage. I have already signed up myself to organize this club and I encourage everyone to too! I am very excited with what this club can bring to UBC. More information (although the current site has no information except for contact information) can be found here.

Next up was a Quick Fire Case Competition. Basically, small teams are given a case study (problem) and must come up with the best solution and present it. The mini-competition was about a charity program and we had to solve the problem of funding and/or lack of committed volunteers. My group decided to tackle the problem of funding and came up with some ideas, such as getting sponsorships and joining other UBC clubs. The game was pretty fun and something I haven’t done before. The situation we had to deal with is very common with clubs, I’ve seen it in clubs I have been in. A solution is easy to come up with, but a solution that is the most efficient and can produce the best results is difficult.

Lunch was provided (a friend I met at the breakfast forgot to sign up for a session to have lunch, but got it in the end) and there were volunteer booths for us to look at.

Then came the perhaps the most surprisingly important session I attended. It was called Purpose and Passion, and the goal of the workshop was to help us find what we are most passionate about and in doing so, discover what career we would best fit in, or purpose. Nobody likes doing something they don’t like, and a career is something very important and is a long-term job. Through a variety of exercises, I think I have discovered what I want to do in life. I say ‘think’ because at this point nothing is ever for certain. The career field I realized is something I have thought about before and it definitely connects to psychology. Psychology is my favourite course. Although the current psychology course I am taking is not the most interesting because I have learned the material already from Psych AP, but I have a real passion for psychology. Everything from mental health to therapy, I am interested. Coupled with the mental wellness workshop, I see myself as being in the therapeutic field, whether its counseling or as a clinical psychologist, I do not know for the moment. But I definitely know therapy, psychology and helping others is what I want to do with my life.

After the workshop came the second presenter of the day. The presenter was a recent UBC graduate (at only 18 years old) and had already started his own company. He talked about the importance of networking, hard work, and getting little sleep to maximize the day. Although I am not interested in being an entrepreneur, I am very impressed with the presenter and wish to one day have a one-on-one talk with this very interesting person.

The closing ceremony was the end of the conference, obviously. The closing speaker was Lieutenant-General Roméo A. Dallaire, a retired soldier, best known for being commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda and current politician.  After hearing who he was, I started to fall asleep. It wasn’t that the speech was boring, in fact it was extremely inspirational, but the 4 hours of sleep was finally taking a toll on me. Through the in-between-sleep-attacks, I heard and remembered, he talked about what a leader is, humanitarianism, the invisible leader within all of us and to tell us to take initiative in solving problems of the world. Then came some final words of recognition to the organizers of the event and SLC 2010 came to a close.

Deciding and ending up attending SLC 2010 is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I have found that after going to conferences about volunteerism, I always feel a wave of energy to get involved and volunteer. SLC 2010 had the same impact. First Term was too hectic for me to actually become involved in UBC activities. I had signed up for many clubs and had no time to attend their events. Through SLC, I have renewed, for however long, my passion to volunteer. Perhaps the thought of getting recognition is a reason for my refueled passion, but the joy of working with people for a common goal for the benefit of others is my biggest motivator.

The biggest reward I have gotten from SLC 2010 is realizing what I want to do with my life: helping others. I thank SLC and all the members that have made this year’s conference such a success. I am sure I will take the opportunity to organize this fantastic event next year and encourage everyone to attend it if they haven’t this year and to come back for next year again! This will not be the last time I’ll be at SLC. SLC 2011: I can’t wait!