By Chandrasnata Mohanty
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Omayma Cherkaoui is a high school freshman who truly believes that anyone who works on improving their leadership skills and knowledge, undoubtedly has the potential to be a competent and successful leader. Throughout her high school years, she has embarked on a long leadership journey to find out answers to the different questions about leadership that she has always wanted to find out. In her workshop, she talks about her journey as a leader, how she pushed herself out her “comfort – zone “, skills that can be acquired from Model United Nations and her learning experiences, with special emphasis on SDG 11. Her inspiring words left all the participants in awe and with a desire to better themselves as future leaders.
Omayma was a naturally ambitious and inquisitive individual from quite a young age. She was always interested in all sorts of activities and would always try to put her best in it. The fact that she was Generation Z has a strong influence on her and she was inspired by leaders and eminent personalities, about whom she read online. She had a flame ignited in her heart as she always asked herself “why can’t I be there?” or “if they can be there, why can’t it be ME?” This attitude drove her to grab all the leadership opportunities in her way and potential risks. She was a dreamer, but at a point she realised that dreaming without action is pointless and felt the need of change.
She categorises her leadership journey into 3 categories, namely, school leadership, MUN leadership and online leadership.
She was a member of the student council of her school, and though there were trials, it truly opened her eyes and gave her very important required experience, which she calls an important aspect in leadership. She also went on to become the head girl of her school in the last year of her high school. She served as the vice-president of her MUN Club of her school, before which she was a communication officer and this was where the ambition kicked in, teaching her the power of mentorship. She describes online leadership as very important as many initiatives require proper guidance and even though one may not have the desired opportunities in their school or community, they can always turn to the internet. Again, perks of being Gen Z!
As a lover of literature, she was inspired by the poem “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost and that is how she names her workshop “The road less travelled by”. She explains the meaning of the road less traveled by as our own unique journey as an individual when we push ourselves out of our comfort-zones, in spite of all the doubts we have, and test our true limits and view life through a creative lens which is none other our own perspective rather than the world’s methods.
“I would highly advise everyone to go for the road less traveled by, but on your own terms and your definition”.
She reiterates SDG 11 as the most important SDG which is Sustainable Cities and Communities. She justifies her statement by sharing related statistics and discusses the problems that would follow including climate change and congestion, unemployment, education and housing.
She conducts an activity among the participants to prove how all the SDGs are related and by achieving one the remaining would follow.
This interests all our participants and the next moment the chat box was flooded with responses!
“To advance our progress in SDG 11 we need competent and emotionally intelligent leaders in every sector!”, she quotes and explains that just getting the job done and we’ll need to be empathetic. “Empathy is a very prized quality”.
She shares valuable tips with us on how to plan, make teams and be prepared for every thing that comes in our way. She exemplifies the idea of ‘Think Global, Act Local’, while starting an organisation or initiative. After all, it starts with small steps! “MUN Impact is a great example, we have representatives, who act local, making an impact in their own communities and we have people from different countries all doing that and together, it becomes global.” She asks the participants to make good use of the internet in the process. “There are different strategies like marketing and logistics, but make sure you first start local and eventually it becomes global.”
She introduces the concept of ‘Ikigai ‘ which means a ‘reason for being’ and in order to reach that, passion, profession, vocation and mission are the essential elements. She also entreats to identify strengths and work on enhancing them. One way to do so would be taking the VIA Test which is a free test introduced by the VIA Institute led by Psychologists and Researchers. Capitalising strengths and working on the “C” strengths; which stand for creativity, communication and critical thinking; from Model United Nations would be the most valuable qualities on your leadership journey.
As we come to the end of the session, Omayma quotes Simon Sinek, “Infinite-minded leaders understand that “best” is not a permanent state. Instead, they strive to be “better.” “Better” suggests a journey of constant improvement and makes us feel like we are being invited to contribute our talents and energies to make progress in that journey” and leaves the audience motivated to walk their unique leadership journey helping the community.
Missed the session? No problem! Watch the complete session on YouTube by clicking here.