River Creed
Junior, Orchard View High School
At the 2022 Life Leadership Conference I made many new friends, memories, and gained an immense amount of knowledge about leadership and myself. One of the main leadership skills I took away from the conference was confidence in many different ways. One way was having the confidence to introduce myself to people I hadn’t ever met. Another way my confidence increased was in terms of speaking in front of a crowd of people. Finally, I have learned more self confidence and I am now able to be more confident in my ideas and my strategies as a leader.
I also learned that I am a complete "South" in terms of our Compass Points leadership style activity. That was very beneficial because before I thought I was not a good leader, or I was unable to properly lead. That’s because I didn’t necessarily want to make decisions alone and tell people what to do. However, the Compass Points activity showed me that there are different styles of leading and that all can be effective and important. While each style has its strengths and weaknesses, they are all able to achieve the end goal of successfully leading a team.
Overall I don’t think LLC could have been any better. The staff was beyond amazing. They truly cared about all of the students there, ..which is crazy, because they just met 102 students and they each cared about us like they knew us our whole lives. Also, the students there were the best. Everyone was kind, respectful, and fun. We were also able to listen to many speeches that were inspiring and motivational, while also being entertaining and engaging. I feel that the more engaging a speech is the longer it will stay with you. That is why I will always remember the speeches from LLC.
I would like to thank the Muskegon Rotary Club for sending me to this amazing Life Leadership Conference, and as well, District 6290 for putting on such a great event.
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Chloe Wilson
Junior, Reeths-Puffer High School
During my time at LLC, I was able to learn about things I never knew existed. Choosing to change my paradigm ("flipping my twenty", as speaker Molly Kennedy shared with us), learning that I don’t need a corner office to be considered successful in life, and discovering that a bowling ball can magically appear out of thin air (Ben Whiting) were some of the many things that impacted me personally at the conference.
One of the coolest things about the LLC for me was getting to listen to all of the amazing speakers that Rotary was able to bring in for us. Although sometimes I wish that there was a little more activity and more variety throughout our stay, I am appreciative of everything we were able to experience. One thing that really stuck with me was when speaker Howard Oesterling recited three great poems from memory. One of my favorites was called “It Couldn’t Be Done” By Edgar Albert Guest, about how you can do anything even if people tell you that you cannot. As a RYE Outbound, this resonated with my thoughts and has stuck by me since. Rotary has helped me in so many ways and the LLC was just one more to add. I wish that it was longer so that we had more time to meet people and to study the principles of leadership. It truly was an amazing experience that I would totally recommend. Thank you for inviting me and sponsoring me to be in this life changing organization.
Abby Silvis, PresidentMona Shores High School Rotary Interact
Molly Kennedy's presentation was one of the best messages of LLC. Her main talk was "Creating the Champion Within." It really made me think through my daily life and what I can do to make it better. Molly's message changed how I think of things as a leader and how I can create a better place for anyone, including friends, family, and others.
Raj Grewalquickly when I saw the enthusiasm within students and staff. The agenda let me know how everything would work in an organized fashion and the staff was very helpful throughout the experience.
The speakers were the highlight of my experience, as was the case for most people. They were all different in their endeavors, but had common themes in overcoming certain circumstances. The different messages were motivating, intriguing, and impactful. It didn’t feel like a boring assembly at school, as some may suggest, but rather like the person is talking directly to you and knows your own hardships. The inclusive environment was evident in the nightly volleyball matches, group lunches, and Family Time.
The application to my life from LLC was automatic and became habitual quickly. I still think of the quotes and stories I heard from that very weekend. I feel motivated to make the same impact I felt throughout the whole conference. I would recommend this experience to everyone I know and even the people I don’t know. I still talk with the friends I made during my stay there and relationships were built that should last a long time. Thank you to everyone who made this experience possible in the best way possible!
C'Mya Jackson, Junior
Beymi Tapia Fernandez, Junior
West Michigan Christian High School
I would like to begin by saying thank you for the opportunity to participate in the Life Leadership Conference of 2022 and to the people who made it possible. The conference had such an impact on me and it was an experience that I will always cherish. To be honest, before I was approached for the conference, I had no idea what Rotary was or what to expect. However, I can confidently say that I have learned so many new things that I for sure will use in the future.
It is surprising how spending 3 days in such an environment can provide us with so much knowledge. Each of the speakers did an excellent job and I took something from each one of them. Still, the one that stood out to me the most was Molly Kennedy's "Flip Your 20". It is easy to focus on the negative aspects of our life and allow small things to ruin our mood, but Molly taught us that there is so much more in life. We all go through rough times but that does not mean that there are no good things, we just have to look for those moments rather than the bad ones. Like Molly said, "where your focus goes, your energy flows".
Through the conference, I had the chance to meet so many new people, all of whom have amazing personalities and talents. The activities and the family time allowed me to meet new people every day and connect with them. I enjoyed how the Dangerous Parallel activity allowed us to put to use our communication skills and teamwork with other people. It was also very exciting to learn about the Rotary projects around the world and to learn about the Rotary Youth Exchange program from the perspective of the students.
I hope that I can implement the skills I have learned in my community and have an impact on those around me. Rotary has given me the courage to act like a leader and to try new things. It is okay to be nervous about new things but that shouldn't stop us from doing it, like speaker and Assistant Director Anne Bonney said, we have to jump into the unknown.
It is a privilege to say that I was able to attend LLC and learn so much from it. It is an experience that I highly encourage and would recommend to anyone. The Life Leadership Conference has such a great environment in which everyone is eager to learn and have fun. The speakers and leaders were so motivational and encouraging as well as the other conferees. Again, Thank You for such a wonderful opportunity and for helping each of us learn something new.
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Bo Larabee
Junior, Holton High School
I never thought that I would be able to have the opportunity to be invited to something like the Life Leadership Conference. It was such an astounding experience that has caused me to make friendships that I hope will last a lifetime, learn a ton about myself as a person, and grow my leadership skills. I also took a lot of pleasure in the activities we did as teams that brought everyone closer and showed us how to use our leadership skills in real-world situations.
I never knew how much I overlooked other people's ideas to solve issues. It took working in big groups with these other students that were wiser than me to see the mistake I'd been making all along. They taught me that being a leader is more than just telling people what to do to get the project done. Being a leader is letting everyone be able to have their say in the project so we have all types of ideas to get the problem at hand done swiftly and precisely.
The activities for this year's LLC were perfect for teaching us how to be better leaders. It brought people out of their shells, made us communicate more, and had us build relationships to get the activity at hand done. The Dangerous Parallel simulation we did presented this perfectly. It caused us to try and create world peace among countries that didn't exactly want it. We had to bring our minds together to find a point where we all agreed and were all on good terms.
As far as bringing this into the future with me, I think I will be bringing it back to the sports teams that I am on. Our baseball team has a hard time working together sometimes and it really causes a gap in the ideas that we have as a team. I am also going to hopefully bring it into the workplace, because I hope to run my own business at some point in the future. Lastly, I will be bringing it to my school's Student Council group to help us better plan and execute activities that we have planned for the school year.
I am so glad I had the opportunity to be a part of this year's LLC and wish to thank the Muskegon Rotary Club for sending me. The conference was executed perfectly and really taught everyone about how to be a better leader. I am very excited to see where LLC goes in the years ahead and see the leaders that come out of it. I can't thank you again for this experience and I hope to be able to do more things through Rotary.
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Bryce Thompson, Senior
Senior, Muskegon High School Rotary Interact Club
Poppen Program Art Student
For the few days that I spent at Ferris, I thoroughly enjoyed myself and genuinely learned a lot. The things that contributed to this were the environment, staff, other conferees, and activities. With all of those factors in place, there were almost no points during the experience that I felt bored or like things were dragging on. To top it everyone had this friendly, community-like vibe that left no one excluded. The whole trip allowed us all to be ourselves without fear of judgment.
The environment felt like a safe-space throughout the conference. Other conferees were agreeable, happy to interact with others, encouraging, and showed hospitality with each other, the family leaders, and anyone else. There was mutual respect from everyone all around. Also, during activities where there were designated teams, the mood was competitive, but still welcoming. The conference was overall, mediated very well.
The speaker that impacted me the most was Ms.Molly. Her speech offered everyone in the conference hall the option to choose how they view adversity. She also seemed like the most open to talk about herself while making it engaging. Her message of “flipping your 20” was very powerful and easily sticks with people. She was a great speaker in general and a phenomenal pick for being a part of the conference as a whole.
In the coming weeks and months I'll take what I've learned to take on challenges that seem almost impossible to challenge myself to grow as much as I can. For example, I’ll shift my view of a hard assignment to encourage myself to keep moving forward when I don’t have the drive to anymore. I’ll also be more apt to traveling and getting a better perspective on how different people around the world function and live. Being more aware of the world as a whole would give me a broader reach of values and an expanded mindset.
The people that showed up to the conference were just as good. The diversity in preferences, opportunities, and perspective made the trip very worthwhile. Even without the family groups, you got a good chance to meet and mingle with people from other schools. Most of the people I met didn’t live anywhere near Muskegon, yet we bonded in such a short amount of time. Some of those people I still keep in contact with. I think that anyone who gets the option to take part in Life Leadership should definitely take it. It will put you in a space that you may not be used to and open your eyes to global issues as well as opportunities to combat them while experiencing a different corner of the world.
I would like to thank the Muskegon Rotary Club and the MHS Class of 1965 Advised Fund for making this experience possible for me. Not only would this not be possible without your backing, but I can guarantee that every person that attended learned something new. Thank you, and I hope to have inspired others to take part in the Life Leadership Conference in the future.
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