I.L.i.t.e: Intermediate Leaders in Training Event

Name: Anita

Teacher: Ms. Babb

Date: Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Not long ago, there was a trip for the grade 7's and 8's of Cardinal Léger. For what I thought, was that it would probably be boring and I'd get tired. But, it wasn't anything like that. I.L.i.t.e changed my life forever. I wasn't just an ordinary seventh grader going to school, I now am a leader. I am now showing different examples to everyone around me, in different ways.

Many schools were at the i.L.i.t.e event. Also, there were some high school students volunteering to speak, different teachers for each workshop, the nice staff from the high school setting up, and a funny comedian and speaker Stu Saunders. I.L.i.t.e was at mother Teresa catholic high school. Mother Teresa is by the looks of it, a very great school. The school is partially big with lovely classrooms and nice teachers. It was a great school to do the presentations and the workshops. I think i.L.i.t.e took place because it gave intermediate students a chance to make a difference in the world. One of my favourite quotes is, 'one million starts with one.' Which basically means that being a leader doesn't really mean that you have to do something big. Every big accomplishment just starts with a simple plan that you vision in your head.

I.L.i.t.e stands for intermediate leaders in training event. What this basically is, is that the organization takes a bunch of 7's and 8's from different catholic schools in the district, and also some 6's, and shows them how each of them can be leader. Not a leader by bossing people around but by doing small quiet examples. Some more recognized people that told us about it were Diego, the winner from the next star season 3. Also, Starchildx, a rising band that's song superstar, appeared on 99.9 virgin radio. Before we got to meet all these wonderful talents we needed transportation. Our school arrived at i.L.i.t.e at about 8:30 a.m.by bus. We were to be at school by 7:45 because the buses were to leave at around 8:00 in the morning. The bus trip took about 20 minutes because the buses were kind of delayed. We left from i.L.i.t.e at about 2:30 -3:00 in the afternoon, Arriving back safely at Cardinal Leger at about 3:15 p.m.

Some things I learned from this experience were to love who you are inside and out. For my first workshop went to a station called, if I were a boy. This station was basically talking about how the media portrays the ideal girls and boys. We had talked about how we thought how the media showed us about an ideal person through listening to the media and other sources. There turned out to be more ideas and suggestions for the ideal of a girl than a boy. We talked about why there was more, and shared our ideas. Next we did an un ideal boy and girl. Lots of comments were said about it. Once we finished the teacher asked if anyone actually fitted into the ideal girl or boy. There was no one close to it. This showed me that everyone is perfectly imperfect, it was a fantastic workshop.

My second workshop was teens and social justice. This workshop was basically about how we as growing teens can make a change in the world. Our instructor was from India and showed us about his country and how it needs change. He used a recognizable example, Russell Peters, to show us about the Indian culture. Russell peters basically showed us funny yet true ways on how Indians act. Behind all the laughing that came out of our workshop was the truth. The truth that we finally all understand that each and every one of us can all go off and make a big difference in the world. Now, I'm starting to think that this trip is just the starting of a new leader coming in the next few years