A Leadership Seminar for the ARCIES students (Association of the Roman Catholic Educational Institutions of Sikkim) was held at St Mary’s School Geyzing West Sikkim from 20 – 21 February 2015. Hundred and eleven students from eight schools participated in it from North, South, East and West Sikkim. The resource person for the programme was Rev. Fr.Patrick Lepcha SDB from Salesian, College Sonada.

At 4.30 pm the programme started with a warm welcome to Rev. Fr.Patrick as well as all the participants by the Principal. Then Fr.Patrick conducted a thrilling ice breaking session to know each other.

 The first session was well displayed through PowerPoint to drive home the meaning of being a leader. “Leader” means ‘trustworthy’, ‘remains cheerful’ and ‘aims higher’. After a short break, second session continued based on the ‘fake’ and ‘good’ leader. In order to make them understand more, short stories were narrated vividly. After dinner the leaders gathered again at 9.00 pm for viewing the picture ‘Chillar Party’, which had a special message to every young leader, who can bring about change in the society through team work.

The next day began with a peaceful gesture of prayer and meditation animated by Fr.Patrck himself, which made the leaders reflect on the importance of giving priority to the matters of the soul and not to one’s body, friends and wealth. The session which followed after the breakfast, made the leaders understand clearly the difference between character and reputation. Character is what we are and reputation is what other people think of us. Some qualities that a leader should cultivate were highlighted like ‘Never give up’ Look ahead’, ‘Stay positive’ and ‘do all you can’ etc. To make the session more interesting games, action songs and different exercises were part of the programme.

The last but not the least leaders were taught the ten Hall Mark of an educated person and were asked to keep in mind the values they want to live by. Father encouraged us to have great dreams for our schools.

In his parting message Fr. Patrick quoted “some people are born great, some people have greatness trusted upon them and some people become great”, and wished them to become 100% good leaders for this year and in future. On behalf of all the leaders present one of the students thanked animator for the wonderful, inspiring and thought provoking leadership programme and the students appreciated with a thunderous applause. The students also expressed their gratitude to the ARCIES and the Host school for making the leadership programmes a reality for them. They set out to their respective schools carrying happy memories of the days, determined to be good leaders.

Renuka Chettri, student

St. Mary’s Convent School

Geyzing