AES123 Saski’s Young Leadership Program by Harvard Model Congress Experience

This weekend, I participated in a very exciting program, which is the Young Leadership Program by Harvard Model Congress. It was held in Global Jaya School, so I took the train a day before the program to get there. I stayed with Eryn, an old friend of mine who actually used to go to Smipa before she had to move to Jakarta. I think it would be proper to give a little introduction to the program itself. The program spans three days and centers around leadership activities, contextual problem-solving, and group collaboration to generate inventive solutions to some of the most urgent challenges of our era. As part of the program, participants will undertake a hands-on project with measurable outcomes. The curriculum aims to provide a comprehensive and immersive experience for high school students to cultivate their leadership abilities, and connect with other like-minded individuals. Alongside the core curriculum, Harvard college students will provide a glimpse into college life, offer insights and tips on college admissions and applications, and share their personal leadership experiences and stories.

In the beginning, everything just seemed so scary. On the first day, no one sat next to me because most of the ones attending were Global Jaya students and they had their own friend circle. But then two people sat next to me on the first session of the first day, which were Min Seo and Callan, which was very nice of them. The first session was introduction, so we came up front and introduced ourselves to the whole group. I’m very used to doing this so it really felt normal (at least not as embarrassing as when I circled the school 3 times because couldn’t find the multi-purpose hall, in my defense, it is a really big school). 

After that we did a game called a snowball something, I’m not sure it really slipped my mind. But how you play is that you take 3 pieces of paper and on each one, you’ll write one fact about yourself. Then you have to scrunch up the paper, when everyone is gathered in a circle you’ll throw it to the center. After that, you have to take 3 ‘snowballs’ and open it up, then look for the person who wrote it. I thought this was a really interesting method of ice-breaking that I’ve never seen before. The first day was really more about introduction and public speaking, and also I started to get to know the Harvard mentors.

We had two mentors, Mallory and John. Mallory is a junior studying applied math with a focus on government, and John is a senior in Eliot House studying the History of Art Architecture and Economics. Of course, both of them are studying at Harvard University. To be honest, I was scared that they would look down on me because I didn’t go to an IB school, but they were the complete opposite. They were just super sweet and nice, they actually were really interested when I shared the whole concept of Semi Palar with them. 

The second day was more focused on leadership skills and the existing types of leadership. There were a lot of games also on this day, one was a really interesting pattern-solving game called ‘traffic jam’. There is also another game where we are given a scenario in which we are in a plane crash and we can only choose several items from the list to bring for survival. Then the scenario evolved and we had to adapt to that, by narrowing our item list to only 2 things. The hard part with this one was with the first one we were in a small 4-5 people group, but for the next one, we had to agree as a class of 25ish people. Some of us tried to lead the discussion but it didn’t go very well, I suggested a voting system but then my voice was kind of pushed by the others. 

Something interesting actually happened on the second day, while we were having lunch. By the way, they have amazing food and snacks, also very fancy, which makes sense knowing it is a fancy school. So, I was eating at my table with two other girls who were Global Jaya students, and for some reason, they told me that they thought I was cool. I think it’s because I told them I wrote a book. Then after lunch, they showed me around their school, and that’s when I found out they have a swimming pool. We also saw the cafeteria, which according to them isn’t very good, even if it’s good, I assure you ayamgoreng wosika is still so much better. 

On the second day, I also got a private session with Mallory and John, because on the first day, Ms.Vicky (the teacher at Global Jaya) asked me if there was anything extra they could offer me. So for about 15 minutes, they proofread my resume, and to my surprise, they actually thought that it was good. Just gave me a few very constructive criticisms on how to improve the structure of my resume. I did disappoint then though when I told them I’m not applying to Harvard (maybe I appear much smarter than I actually am). But again, that was really sweet of them. 

The third day was the moment we were all waiting for. The curriculum for day 3 focuses more on argumentation and debate, also how that plays a role in leadership and public speaking. We also had a reflection session on how the program changed us, what our strengths are that we found in ourselves, and what we plan to work on ourselves. Oh, I forgot to mention a game that we actually played for all the 3 days, the game is called ‘triple speak’. How you play is that your friends will give you 2 words, you have 30 seconds to talk about each word, and 30 seconds to talk about how those words connect. I think it’s a really fun game to just get used to talking from on top of your head, Also it can be funny when you get a weird word combination. 

For the closing of the program, we did a presentation in groups about the product idea that we made in 3 days. For my group, our idea is to make a children's book that can introduce children to world issues. But there were also other interesting ideas, one that stuck out to me was ‘KosaKita’ which the idea is to create an app that’s like a Duolingo but to learn local Indonesian dialects. For any of you who are interested in watching the presentation, this is the link (https://www.youtube.com/live/TyhjBxkwizc?si=KjBWZJZwfBsuBu50 ) I’m group 7 and the last one to present, my group is in minute 46:42. So yeah, that is probably it for my experience on this program, I really enjoyed it and got to know really cool people during the process!