National Student Leadership Forum » Interviews

Podcast: The Greatest Speech that Every Student Should Hear (Jordan Peterson)

Admin — Tue, 17 Apr 2018 03:06:16 +0000

Dr Jordan Peterson is a Canadian Clinical Psychologist and Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto. His main areas of study are in abnormal, social and personality psychology, with a particular interest in the psychology of religious and ideological belief, as well as the assessment and improvement of personality and performance.

In this thought provoking interview, Dr Peterson shares his advice to students on how to make change and what’s after university. If your a student coming to the end of your course saying “Now what?” or are in your final year of school deciding what your next step is, this is an interview you want to listen to. Dr Peterson advice is simple: learn to think, learn to speak and finally learn to read. To be someone that is respected we need to be able to articulate and share our power with others.

At the end of the day, no matter where you are in life, we are constantly asking what’s next or how do I make the changes I want to make.

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WHY I HAVE SYMPATHY FOR STEVE SMITH

Admin — Thu, 05 Apr 2018 06:29:51 +0000

Newspaper article and press conference:

Steve Smith’s message to a heartbroken 9-year-old fan
Jenny Noyes – The Sydney Morning Herald
(30 March 2018)

Most of you would be wondering why I would have chosen to include something about Steven Smith … yes, he admitted to cheating and brought the game of cricket into disrepute, but we all make mistakes and that’s what I believe makes us human.

I am a huge fan of cricket and waking up to the news that Australia had ball-tampered was devastating to hear and see. Even being a South African and supporting South Africa in this series, I have followed and idolised Australian cricket since before I can remember. The greats Ponting, McGrath, Warne, Hussey and Steve Smith. I will admit what made it hard to digest about the news was that it involved and included one of my favourite players, the world’s best batsman Steve Smith.

But anyone who has followed the ongoing crisis would agree that Steve Smith’s leadership is paramount. The way he has taken responsibility for himself and his team’s actions has undeniably been one of the greatest acts of leadership off a cricket field. Many people would have been tempted to throw others “under the bus” but Steve Smith owned up to his mistakes and I believe that it was his characteristics of honesty and integrity (although jeopardised on the field) that really show who he is. His press conference which can be viewed here, was full of true emotion and the way he spoke when opening up to the public was pure vulnerability. Being vulnerable is something that the interns of 2018 are learning to deal with as we explore ourselves in a much deeper perspective and finding out who we are as leaders and people.

Back to a more serious note about why I’m including this in the library. Yes it fits the tags of vulnerability, leadership and courage incredibly well but I think the tag it fits most clearly is “character.”

Steven Smith has apologised to us via press conference but an apology less known was when he personally sent a 9 year kid who was a major fan of his a message saying how sorry he was. That, in my humble opinion, is the character of Steve Smith. Not the label of “cheat” that some people are using but someone who is incredibly apologetic for a mistake they made. We are a society that idolises elite athletes and yes the three players on the team let us down but they are only human and forgiving them should be at the forefront of our minds.

We sometimes forget that our heroes in sport are just like us. They have feelings, they have families and they aren’t as invincible as we believe they all are.

I personally would like to say that I am behind Steve Smith and thank him for his apology to the country. I don’t condone what took place in Cape Town but I also know that all three involved are incredibly sorry for what occurred and apologising and owning up to their mistakes takes courage and vulnerability. Something that I stand for.

*These are the views of Matt Wesley (the writer) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organisation (National Student Leadership Forum)*

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Love in Action – John Lewis

Admin — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 03:10:57 +0000

Love in Action. An interview with John Lewis by Krista Tippet.We take in the extraordinary wisdom of Congressman John Lewis on what happened in Selma, Montgomery USA on Bloody Sunday and beyond — and how it might inform common life today. A rare look inside the civil rights leaders’ spiritual confrontation with themselves — and their intricate art of “love in action.”

John Lewis is a member of the United States House of Representatives from Georgia’s 5th District. He is the author of Walking With the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement, Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change, and March, a three-part graphic novel series.

Title: Love in Action
Author: Krista Tippet On Being
Date: January 26 2017
Publisher: On Being
Format: Audio
Availability: Available via Soundcloud or onbeing.com

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Focus on Leadership – Servant Leadership for the 21st Century – W. Bennis, S. Covey, M.Wheatley, J.Bogle

Admin — Tue, 20 Sep 2016 05:21:50 +0000

‘In this collection of essays, the authors look at the practice of servant leadership in business and organisational settings. The essays explore the way in which servant leadership is at the forefront of the emerging leadership discussion.’

Title: Focus on Leadership – Servant Leadership for the 21st Century
Author: W. Bennis, S. Covey, M.Wheatley, J.Bogle
Date: 2002
Publisher: Wiley Access
Availability: Available to borrow off the shelf from the NSLF library

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NSLF Spotlight – Jess

Admin — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 23:55:08 +0000

NSLF Spotlight: The Interns
Each year we take a group of young men and women to participate in the NSLF Internship program. This is an 8-month commitment to growing relationally, professionally and spiritually whilst helping to build the Forum event. Jess is one of our 2016 Interns. Here’s her story.

• How did you get involved with the Forum?

I sort of stumbled across the forum through a family friend. At the end of last year I was nominated, and tentatively went along… and I am so glad that I did! It ended up being an awesome few days of growth and connection. I was able to meet so many amazing people and make some life long friends.

• What is your favourite thing about the Forum?

Forum is one of those rare occasions when people from all different walks of life are gathered together under one roof, for a singular purpose – servant leadership. That in itself is my favourite thing about Forum. It is an opportunity to go beyond yourself and see into the lives of others. To share each others stories and to grow from one another, is such a unique opportunity. The inspiration from the speakers and from the atmosphere created is totally one of a kind.

• Why are you doing the internship? What is interesting about it?

The internship is a chance to give back. I found the Forum to be pretty life changing, and so to have the opportunity to help put it together for others this year, is pretty awesome. Personal and professional growth is a massive bonus. I have found the internship to be a lot more relational than I had expected. We all really get to know one another, down to what makes us tick. It is a space where we are forcing one another to grow – which is interesting in itself – not only for me, but for everyone involved.

Thanks Jess!
Originally taken from our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/NSLFAustralia/photos/a.243767682310918.59424.147334721954215/1119662838054727/?type=3&theater

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NSLF Spotlight – Nina

Admin — Tue, 31 May 2016 01:54:29 +0000

NSLF Spotlight: The Interns

Each year we take a group of young men and women to participate in the NSLF Internship program. This is an 8-month commitment to growing relationally, professionally and spiritually whilst helping to build the Forum event.

Nina is one of our 2016 Interns. Here’s her story.

• How did you get involved with the Forum?

My Dad is a politician and had been involved in the Forum over a number of years, so I grew up floating in and out of forum activities as a child when we went to visit him in Canberra. It wasn’t really until a little later on though that I became more interested in what the Forum was about and felt the desire to experience it.

• What is your favourite thing about the Forum?

I attended the Forum in 2014 for the first time, and subsequently went to the US forum in Washington, DC. I think it was probably the Forum that begun my journey of coming to understand myself at a deeper level, and stimulated my desire to pursue relationships more intentionally, with the confidence of a purpose to back my decisions. The openness of sharing and discussion, paired with thought-provoking speakers, means that you can’t really not be affected personally by the experience. I loved the way it challenged me to think and live differently, and the strength that can come out of seeking to do that together with the people you meet and form relationships with.

• Why are you doing the internship? What is interesting about it?

The experience of the Forum can’t help but shake you a little. I think the idea of pursuing the purposes of the Forum more intently and deliberately for a year, with a group of new but also intentional and caring people presented a compelling opportunity. In moving to Sydney for the first time, the internship has already provided me with a strong and secure platform from which I can branch out into my new world, make friends, learn about myself in a new environment and seek to realise the potential of myself and others when we devote ourselves to bringing out the best in one another.

Thanks Nina!
Originally published on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/NSLFAustralia/photos/a.243767682310918.59424.147334721954215/1119661198054891/?type=3&theater

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NSLF Spotlight – Georgia

Admin — Tue, 31 May 2016 01:34:44 +0000

NSLF Spotlight: The Interns

Each year we take a group of young men and women to participate in the NSLF Internship program. This is an 8-month commitment to growing relationally, professionally and spiritually whilst helping to build the Forum event.

Georgia is one of our 2016 Interns. Here’s her story.

• How did you get involved with the Forum?

I became involved in the forum through a few of my school friends who insisted year after year that NSLF was a really valuable experience (and it turns out that they were right)!

• What is your favourite thing about the Forum?

My favourite thing about the forum itself… the bush dance. Hands down. The forum is so rich with great conversation, challenging ideas and it certainly doesn’t run short of any opportunity to put yourself out of your comfort zone. So I think it is only right to have a bit of a carefree dance to balance it out.

My favourite thing about the internship is the people I am getting to know and LOVE. The interns, the rest of the team and my fab mentor. I love the challenge of putting together the forum and tackling it with my intern buds. Being part of a team that is co-ordinating an event which we all care about immensely is such a gift.

• Why are you doing the internship? What is interesting about it?

I remember when I filled in my delegate application, I was asked to write about a leader I respected and to explain why. I found myself writing about a close friend of mine which I thought was strange because leaders were people with titles, right? I wrote about my friend, a Mum with three kids, balancing work with the demands of a family. What made her stand out as a leader to me was her integrity, her determination to act with humility and respect. To stand for seemingly simple things in life, like kindness, inclusion and acceptance in the communities she touches everyday.

So in answer to the question, I am doing the internship to learn more about about myself and what it looks like to lead in the communities that I am involved in and hopefully shine some light on the potential each of the delegates holds to lead in their context, whether the pond be big or small.

Thanks Georgia!

https://www.facebook.com/NSLFAustralia/photos/pb.147334721954215.-2207520000.1464657927./1102801553074189/?type=3&theater

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NSLF Spotlight – Matt

Admin — Tue, 31 May 2016 01:29:15 +0000

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Henri Nouwen: A Leadership Profile – Madeleine Jones

Admin — Tue, 01 Dec 2015 05:53:05 +0000

Henri Nouwen, born January 24 1932, was defined by three passions; faith, education and social justice. Henri was ordained a Catholic priest in 1957, however continued studying psychology, as opposed to theology, to explore the human element of faith. From 1966-1981 Henri taught pastoral theology at the University of Notre Dame and Yale Divinity School. After leaving Yale in 1981, Henri travelled through Bolivia and Peru. Upon his return, he was appointed Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School, where he lectured until 1985. In this period, his time was split between teaching at Harvard, authoring Christian books and working with a theological centre in Latin America. For nine months across 1985 and 1986 Henri volunteered as a carer at the L’Arche Daybreak Community, a Canadian housing centre for people with physical and mental disabilities. In 1986, Henri became Daybreak pastor and resided within the community for the last ten years of his life. His relationship with a core member at L’Arche Daybreak, Adam Arnett, who had a profound physical and mental handicap, led Henri to a new understanding of his faith and what it means to be beloved of God. Henri’s final book, titled Adam: God’s Beloved, tells the story of his relationship with Adam and how this unexpected friendship revealed a greater piece of God’s story of Jesus and a broken, yet beloved, creation.

Over the course of his life Henri published 39 books and hundreds of articles. Moreover, he touched the lives of many who were downtrodden, forgotten and pushed to the fringe of society. I believe there are two main reasons for his writing and caring for the least. Firstly, Henri understood the power of words to change hearts when guided by Spiritual truth. He was gifted with intelligence, faith and a desire to express God’s story and his own story, in a way that could resonate with others. When asked about his ability to describe his personal struggles in a relatable manner, Henri responded; ‘I wanted to know how we could integrate the life of Christ in our daily concerns. It was based on the idea that what is more personal might be the more universal’ (Coady, 1986, p.3).

Henri was motivated to write as a way of connecting with others, walking beside them in faith and assuring them they weren’t alone in their struggles. Ultimately, his writing served to remind himself and others of the Spiritual truths of a mysterious, yet loving, God.

Secondly, Henri was motivated to love disabled and disadvantaged people because of the example of Christ. Christ did not turn away from the sinners, the tax collectors, the prostitutes, and the diseased. Jesus loved the least because God loves them, and he came to offer a free gift of eternal life to all of God’s creation. Jesus commands his believers to also love others because the world will know they are his disciples if they continue to bear with and love one another (John 13:35). In Matthew 24:40 Jesus says ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me’. Henri’s love of God, and desire to live following the example of Jesus, motivated him deeply to pursue social justice and to love disabled people.

While these motivations were the starting blocks for Henri’s work, I believe other factors developed which also compelled him to continue. Henri began his work at the L’Arche Community understanding that each individual is made in the image of God and loved by God. However, throughout his time at L’Arche, Henri also learnt that each individual possesses a sacred gift and is sent unto earth to use that gift to fulfill a purpose. As Henri took upon himself the task of caring for Adam he realized Adam was waiting to bless Henri with his own God-given gift of peace. Henri states, ‘I was able to reveal to him that he had a gift and his true gift became a gift when I welcomed it… Caring for Adam was allowing Adam to care for us as we cared for him’ (1997, p. 59).

Henri realized God has given people with disabilities gifts, with a divine mission to impact the lives of those around them in a way that is not a burden, but a blessing. Henri’s understanding that he could help those with disabilities reach their potential, and moreover be blessed and enriched by them, if he would only offer an open hand and heart became the driving factor that compelled him to continue.

Henri’s work did not come without personal cost. Henri wrote about personally suffering from depression, which was partly the result of the conflict between his priestly vows of celibacy and longing for intimacy. He was known to write openly about feelings of great loneliness and struggling to reconcile his depression with his faith. Henri took solace in writing about his experiences and drawing alongside brothers and sisters of the faith. His book Inner Voice of Love, published 1988, details his battle through clinical depression and experience of God’s love and forgiveness through the difficult times.

Henri’s ability to put his faith into practice is the aspect of his character I admire most. Henri viewed the world through the lens of Spiritual truth and the overflow of this was his ability to identify a divine gifting and purpose from those people society frequently expects nothing from. Henri looked at disabled people and saw children created in the image of God, sent to earth to play an important role in God’s story. Within this attitude, resentment, condescension and prejudice cannot exist, but rather love, hope and friendship take hold. I hope that I may learn to look at others through this lens of truth and to love the least, the poor and the disabled. I also believe Henri held an amazing duplicity within his character; on one hand he was strong, steadfast, and persevering while at the same time he was tender, kind and nurturing. It is a rare quality to find within a person, and it inspires me greatly. I hope to lead others and use power, but in a way that nurtures those within my influence and helps them discover their gifting and potential, much as Henri did for the clients he cared for. I hope to hold to my values without swaying, and persevere through any hardship my life with undoubtedly encounter, as Henri clung to his faith and endured through his battle with depression. Henri, I believe, was a complex man but his faithfulness, tenderness and perseverance are qualities of his character I find truly inspiring. Like Henri, I work as a carer for children with disabilities. Until learning his story I was complacently happy with the way our society treats people with disabilities, and those disadvantaged through other means. I reasoned that given we provide sufficient housing, education, medical attention and care we were achieving social justice. What I didn’t realize, even as I went to work, was I saw my clients more as objects entrusted to my care than fellow human beings gifted with a potential and purpose. This is a grave relational injustice. Henri’s story changed by outlook, and the joy and freedom that has followed is almost inexplicable. I go to work to care for friends, who love me and care for me in return, albeit in unconventional or even invisible ways. I have a client, a little boy (I’ll refer to him as John), who has taught me life lessons over and over again. Sometimes it feels like society is only interested in me if I have an achievement to offer up, something to grab their attention and prove I’m worthy of love and friendship. But John doesn’t care what I do or achieve, he’s my friend because of who I am. I can walk up to his door after a miserable week of failing a test, or getting no housework done, or being a lousy conversationalist, and he doesn’t turn me away. He offers friendship freely, rather than measuring me up against the ‘what’ questions of my life. As Henri put it himself, ‘people with handicaps teach me that being is more important than doing, the heart is more important than the mind’ (1997, p. 77). Henri’s story resonates within me deeply, because it opened me to a world of possibilities. Within this new understanding I’ve found perspective, friendship and hope for the promise of a new world, where love will be perfected and the broken will be broken no more.

References

Coady, Mary. (1986). Nouwen finds rest at Daybreak. Catholic New Times. 173, 3-4.

Nouwen, Henri. Adam God’ Beloved. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1997. Print.

Title: Henri Nouwen: A Leadership Profile
Author: Madeleine Jones
Format: Biographical article
Year Published: 2015
Publisher: National Student Leadership Forum
Access: NSLF Online Library

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New things are still emerging… so watch this space

Admin — Thu, 19 Nov 2015 01:56:24 +0000

This is an area still under progress in our new Forum library! We are working with our team and interns to collect and catalogue profiles and interviews with Australians around the country who are creatively putting servant leadership into action! If you have anyone you would like to recommend or interview on our behalf- get in touch! We would love to share their story with the wider NSLF community.

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