The International Student Leadership Conference was held at the James Madison University. This year, the main focus of the conference was “Passion.” At the conference, we were welcomed by host Sahir, who talked about the hardships of his life and how passion and communication helped him surpass most of the obstacles in his life.
Following that, the participants were also vigorously engaged in to activities that would help them understand their passion better and help them look within themselves for the desires they have for their future. This activity made me explore a whole new aspect of my personality that had wanted to learn and advertise photography more than ever. I learned by doing this activity that I had lost my one most loved activity and had failed to carry it on in college life. It was delightful to have several participants take interest in my passion and suggest me ways to explore it, while I did the same for them for their respective passions.
Another main highlight for me was thinking conceptually about networking and doing lots of it too. Sahir, too, focus highly on how networking too can help you attain your long term goals and that knowing people can pay off a lot. So, I took complete advantage of this conference to meet new people, especially who shared my love for photography or otherwise, and began new relationships with them in anticipation that I would be a help to their goals and they might be a help to mine. So it was an enriching, community-building experience at the ISLC.
I do plan to apply both of these aspects to the Richmond community. First, how can one find his or her passion? And, how important networking can be at times in helping you achieve your goals. I believe PAM already does a tremendous job in bringing more students close to each other, and in helping us develop a concept of “family” within. As for myself, I plan to engage in more such activities and help people understand the importance of networking, and most importantly–how to aid them in exploring their respective interests.
Thank you for giving me this opportunity to be a part of PAM and benefit from its services.
– Faizan
