Lead On 2019: Student leaders hone their skills

Tagore International School, Vasant Vihar, organised Lead On 2019, a prestigious annual event which brings together heads of student councils of different schools in Delhi and the National Capital Region.

This forum gave an opportunity to young leaders to hone their leadership skills and exchange ideas on challenges faced by society. The theme for this year’s session was Audere Est Facere: To Dare is to Do.

Keynote addresses were delivered by two eminent personalities: Salman Khurshid, well known politician, designated senior advocate, author and a law teacher; and Mohit Chauhan, two times Filmfare awardee and thrice Zee Cine awardee in the best playback singer category, known for his work for Bollywood and Tollywood movies. The ace stand-up comedian, Papa CJ, mediated the keynote speakers, lending a spark to the event, with his scintillating wit and joie de vivre. More than 40 schools from Delhi and the NCR took part in the twelfth edition of Lead On. The morning session began with the icebreaker activity “How the tables turned.” This was followed by the main event of the day, Biohazard, a 3 hour crisis solving activity. The school heads were divided into teams, and were required to think, negotiate and take on roles of leadership, compete with other teams and win the event. Finally, the challenging, fun filled treasure hunt around the school left the participants excited but exhausted. In the afternoon session Khurshid shared his personal experiences, spoke about nepotism in the political structure and about the political parties in India. He said a leader is one who pushes a group forward and is not solely on the front page himself. According to him, a leader is a person who understands others and respects their ideas. The speech was followed by a question and answer session in which participants interacted with Khurshid.

In an interactive session, Chauhan too spoke about his beginnings as well as his personal life, his music career, the importance of creativity and its indirect impact on leadership. He also spoke about the importance of classical and folk music over the lucrative, filmy songs. He ended his session with performances of his songs Tum Se Hi and Nadaan Parindey. The positive feedback received by the student council bore testimony to the organisational skills of the school cabinet. Students participated in different activities from 8 am to 5.30 pm. Leadership is not a position or a title, it is action and example. A true leader inspires and works towards cooperation, not intimidation and domination.

The heads of student councils of over 40 schools participated in activities aimed at inculcating leadership qualities.