John Curtin Leadership Academy

Out of 400+ students being nominated for the John Curtin Leadership Academy, I have been selected and I am the only Asian!

A four days introductory workshop marked the starting of the whole course. It was held in a golf course resort - Vine Resort and we rent a house with 5 people staying in it. I stayed one room with an African lady - Helen. I enjoyed myself a lot in this workshop, though I admit wearing formal wear for straight four days can be very tiring. But the worst thing is I gained 3kgs in just that four days, due to all the buffets, especially the dessert buffets, which includes lots of different types of cheese cakes.

We have three modules to go through ($30 each). Kinda expensive, but I learned something throughout, which is that I am brave and confident enough to socialise with the "white people". I used to get very stress and scary when talking english in front of them because all of them speak good and fast english. Fast, in a sense that sometimes I still cannot catch what they mean. Plus, when I get tense, my English can be very broken. That is why I used to be QUITE quiet in class. But not now! I have varieties of friends now - local and international, students to club presidents, young to old.

In JCLA, we have to get involved in one of the three fundraising projects decided upon, which we will be having poster presentation in front of big companies, especially Rio Tinto. I chose the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS). We only have three group members compared to other two groups which have about 6 or 7 members. Thus, we have quite a lot of things to do each person. But I am glad to be in that small group, because we get to exchange different roles and experiencing new things. We are as close too, due to the small number. Our project title is "Raising awareness for the Royal Flying Doctor Service". RFDS, informally known as The Flying Doctors, is an air ambulance service for those living in the remote inland areas of Australia. It is a not-for-profit organization which provides both emergency assistance and primary health care to people who cannot easily access a hospital or general practice due to the prohibitive distances of the Outback. The Service also assists with distance education.

To help RFDS, we work in getting donations of paper from the school of departments which we just did last Monday to print brochures for the RFDS and getting donations of sausage because we are going to have sausage sizzle on the 12th of September to raise money for printing costs and RFDS. So, make sure you come and help out yea! After printing all the brochures, we are going to hand out to the public.

Conference room which we spent four days in it.

Captain o Captain!

Thinking how to solve things out!

JCLA Olympics! Come on, finish the weetbrix quick!

Where is the blindfold Sheron?

Solving puzzle

Thanks Rio Tinto for sponsoring us three small bombs to disarm. This is my first time to disarm a bomb real life. We had to solve the puzzles in order to get the tips and tools to disarm (One puzzle for each tips or tools). Our bomb, is the only bomb out of three bomb, that exploded. Too bad!

Having set dinner in the resort. The Australians really love wine and beer. They must have at least a bottle of wine or a jug of beer for every dinner! I joined them only during the last dinner. Had three glasses of wine. 1 glass from Margaret River and 2 glasses from Hardy's. Prefer Hardy's because it tastes sweeter.

Girls with the German. Oh ya, I got to improve my German as well, speaking to a German. That was cool!

German, American and German.

Picture taken after our last dinner where we chilled out in 38. (Just right isn't it? Where 38 in cantonese means talkative!) 38 is actually one of the guys house. We talked a lot that night and got even closer with each other. Stayed until 3am that night. Had one more wine in the house, offered by ACES president, David Montgomery. So, I just took it though I already had three glasses of wine before hand. Just for social purpose anyway.

Jodi, one of the participants didn't join us that night. Jodi reminded me of how I used to be. I used to miss out all the fun with the reason that I need a good sleep and always being the one going home the earliest. But it is still not late if I know now!

Our conference room full with posters drawn by one of the coordinators.

Maureen and Jarrad, the coordinators. Guess what? Jarrad is only 19 years old and he is able to organise this JCLA. He is married and he is having his final year in commerce this semester.

The other two coordinators.

Taken before we left the resort. Check out my green wear.

That's how I got fat!