YLC’11 – What are the Young Leaders saying?

The Young Leaders’ Conference 2011 has come to an end after 6 action packed days of non-stop learning and development. The participants will remember the words “Emman”, “Ittehad”, “Tanzeem”, and “Inqilaab”, the theme of the conference, for a long time to come. After many months of hard struggle for sponsorships and other methods of financing, the participants came to the conference with a lot of excitement and expectations. We talked with a few participants and facilitators about their aspirations and expectations from the YLC’11.

Sagar Malik from Khairpur was one of the participants we got a chance to talk with. Sagar is also the current president of the Rotaract Club of Khairpur.  “YLC is a platform that will enable me to develop into a confident professional, a team player, allow me to make new friends, and will teach me how to deal with tough life situations. I have already made a few friends and looking forward to make many more”, said Sagar when asked about his YLC experience.

Nosherwani Mazari from Sadiqabad expressed his views on Day 1 of the conference: “It has been a great experience so far. We are having a lot of fun and learning new things. I further expect to open up my mind and look at the world in a new way. When I go back home after the conference, I want to take back with me leadership skills. We expect everything to be done by the government, by the president, or the prime minister. But the fact is that we need to play our own individual roles for the betterment of the society”. When asked about the diversity of participants from all over the country, he said, “I have met people from Swabi, from Kohat, and even from Waziristan…it’s truly amazing”.

Another participant we got a chance to catch up with was Hamna Qureshi from Islamabad. “It’s been a great experience so far, I’ve met a lot of people and I’ve made new friends. I’ve interacted with people from places that I didn’t even know existed in Pakistan, so I feel great that I’ve got a chance to learn about the different kinds of people, cultures, and traditions that exist in our country. The diversity I’m witnessing here has opened up my mind” she said. When asked about what she expects to get out of this conference, she said, “I hope to learn leadership skills, gain confidence, and public speaking skills”. About the rest of the participants at the conference, she said, “I have found them to be very cooperative and friendly. They’re easy to talk to, down to earth, be it people from different cities or villages, they’re all very accommodating and helpful”.

The kind of talent we saw at the YLC’11 from all over the country, gives Pakistan great hope for times to come. Witnessing the Young Leaders of 2011 debate on different complex issues that exist in today’s Pakistani society and hear them talk about their hopes and aspirations about their country was truly heartening. Surely, the future of Pakistan is in good hands.

 

Written By: M. Athar Ali Khan

This is How we Do it @ the Young Leaders Conference

Urooj Mazhar

The Youth Icon Award Winner in 2007, Urooj is a key person on the Torque team. A business person by education, she has made her mark in the business of training by interacting with a diverse set of audiences on a variety of subjects. From UNDP to WWF and from Multinational FMCGs to local banks, she has had a taste of all training battles.

Her forte is strategy. Who, why, what & how; who else, why not, what more & how better-these are her basis for designing programs. Energy, joviality, passion, soul, integrity, humor, and flexibility are her values while delivery them.

A marketing graduate, Urooj is always involved with marketing and creativity. She also has a keen mind for the strategic side of things. She brings with her a diverse background that has seen both sides of the training world (that being trainee and trainer). Post recruitment and training at SoL, she has successfully led Beyond Beauty, a residential women empowerment conference. She added to her experience when she switched from SoL to SoLF. As one of the initiators of ExtraCorp, she helped ExtraCorp attain completion from concept. Not only is Urooj responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of ExtraCorp, she is also intricately involved in expanding ExtraCorp through crafting new business initiatives. So far under ExtraCorp, she has launched 4 businesses: Bäckerei, Blaze, Write Away and Pleasures.

At SoL, she has also been a facilitator and advisor at YLC, a conference where 300 participants bring leadership to life, and Talent Fair.

While training Urooj has been around the globe from Srilanka to Thailand and within Pakistan, serving a team and clientele diverse in nationality and stratum. Along with a trainer, Urooj is a student for life, and has learnt from UNDP (United Nation Development Program), SoL (School of Leadership) and a multitude of seminars and short courses. She particularly cherishes training on interpersonal skills, networking, negotiation, cross cultural communication and change management. For her outstanding work at such a young age, Urooj has been acclaimed with ‘Youth Icon’ award in 2007.

Urooj deals with personal and social development as her forte, within and outside of our doors with energy, joviality, passion, soul, integrity, humor, and flexibility. She serves as a source of inspiration/motivation for her colleagues. Urooj is quick to open up with people and even quicker in opening others. She has a rich background in building relationships with clients. Urooj strives to change the way people think about persons with disabilities and MADventurism (Making a Difference).

You can know more about Urooj through her Blog