The First Osprey club at Stockton University traveled abroad to London for the Student Global Leadership Conference, expanding their leadership skills and navigating through an unfamiliar environment.

The conference, hosted by the London-based Foundation for International Educational, is an annual tradition for the organization, with this year’s theme surrounding leading through uncertainty. Visitors to the conference participated in several breakout sessions throughout the two-day schedule, exchanging professional contacts and insight to help the students network with those outside of their normal environment.

Two keynote speakers were featured during the conference, with entrepreneur Chantelle-Shakila Tiagi presenting on day one speaking to the audience about her experience with leadership in the business world, and navigating a space where they might not know all the answers.

The second speaker, Mike Greene, presented on day two, explaining how the challenges he faced in his early career led to his global business success. The members who attended the speaker event noted how vulnerable Greene was in his presentation, and how that vulnerability gave his experience more weight.

“I remember a book I had read about these students being deemed ‘unteachable’ and how hard that must have been to hear,” treasurer Hannah Binetsky said about her reaction to the speaker, “So when he was deemed a ‘social waste,’ I really resonated with how challenging it was to work past that.”

The second day featured several events and presentations meant to educate students about leadership in specialized fields, such as a health perspective on conflict resolution and a panel of industry professionals speaking about navigating disseminating information and working through a global crisis.

The final event of the conference featured participants breaking into story circles, where each person spoke about a time they overcame a challenge. Once the participants shared their stories, the story circles rejoined, where everyone discussed a common theme in the challenges they had experienced, which many concluded was facing uncertainty.

Secretary of First Ospreys, Jasmine Contreras, recalled her sharing a story about how she was not involved at her high school and the challenges that brought to her education, which led to her changing her perspective and becoming more involved once she went into college.

Four members from the executive board and the faculty advisor of First Ospreys attended the conference, which was the first time the club had gone international for a conference. With the lack of domestic leadership conferences for the club to attend, they took the opportunity to visit the London conference, as the executive board members spoke about the limited opportunities first-generation students get to travel abroad.

The trip was also the first time many of the members of the club had been outside the United States, with a common sentiment from the participants that they wished they had more time to prepare for the conference, only having two months to plan the entire event. The executive board of the club suggested they were interested in going outside the US in the future, now that they were more familiar with the process of visiting international conferences.

“I’d love to visit somewhere out of our comfort zones, we’ll get to learn about a new culture and navigate something new,” President Laura Leonel said about where she would like to see the club go next year. She suggested that a conference in Latin America or Africa would be potential options for the club in the future.