Together We Can

Amulya Bisaria

Early in March 2023, I had the honor of attending the 2023 Youth Leadership Conference sponsored by the Lions International along with many community organizations like Rotary International, Friends of Nepal-NJ and many more at the Special Olympics village in Lawrenceville, NJ .

This experience taught me lessons on the importance of strong leadership and visionary thought in creating a better world. The conference featured several prominent speakers, including NJ Senator and many community leaders, each drawing from their illustrious careers in their respective fields to impart upon us the most important teachings from their lives.

The conference was inaugurated by a speech by Former Lieutenant Governor of New Jersey, Kim Guadagno. She spoke on the importance of a strong education as a foundation for chasing our ambitions, as well as her experiences as a minority in a male-dominated field. She taught us that we should never be afraid to defy the norms and expectations of society in
chasing our ambitions.

Next, Colonel Alan R. Smith provided several points on strong leadership, advice that he had gathered from his years of service in the Marine Corps. He described the importance of having a team and the role of an ideal leader as one who listens to and engages with their people.

Nazanin Ash, the CEO of Welcome.US spoke about her experiences and struggles assimilating to American culture, which inspired her to create a nonprofit organization that coordinates the support of refugees. The Welcome.US program admitted more than twenty times the number of refugees in 2022 than the US government did.

At this point, I was eagerly dreaming up ideas of the next big idea to change the world, but I was a little intimidated by the daunting prospect of embarking on an ambitious endeavor, especially with the relatively few resources I had as a high-schooler.

Thankfully, Ashton Burrell reassured us that one doesn’t need money to make a difference in the world, just passion and simple kindness can make a difference. It takes many small steps to reach a bigger goal. No matter how ambitious our goals may be and how passionate we are for achieving them, we must never abandon our mental health, especially in today’s time.

John Schweska spoke on the importance of mental health, especially in teenagers. Over the span of the conference, I noticed one recurring theme amongst all of the speeches: the importance of working both for and with your team.

With the experiences of all of these leaders tucked in my head, I felt a little more confident in my ability to change the world. If ever I feel overwhelmed in trying to realize my ambitions, I can always think back to the agenda of the conference: “Together We Can.”