2022 She Leads High series: Five quick questions with Emily Hyde
4 March 2022
Here at the Y, we are so excited to host our She Leads High Conference after a long 2-year hiatus.
Taking place on Thursday 7 April, at the Kambri Cultural Centre, we’re inviting girls and non-binary youths in years 9 and 10, to come to our conference that will help them to understand and activate their leadership potential and start their own leadership journeys.
This week, we would like to introduce to you one of our She Leads High Conference panellists, Emily Hyde.
Emily is passionate about working with people to set and achieve goals. As a year 10 student at Canberra High she was selected for the LEAD program, where a group of year 10 students provide guidance and support for year 7 students. In 2020 she was a recipient of the Audrey Fagan Enrichment grant to support establishing a girls STEM club at school. Emily has been active in scouting for six years and has held various leadership positions, all voted by her peers. In the scouting section she led groups in scouting activities and has mentored her peers to develop their own leadership skills. She has also worked with a small team to coordinate an ACT-wide scouting activity.
We asked Emily, five quick questions to share with us a little info about herself and her thoughts on gender equality and leadership.
Describe yourself in 30 words or less.
I asked my brother and he said I was BREAD! I am Brave, Resilient, Eager to achieve my best, Adventurous and Determined. I guess I am BREAD.
Tell us about a moment in your life that kick-started your leadership journey.
My leadership journey started when I was 10, this was when I was in Cubs and was inspired to become a Patrol Leader where I was responsible for leading 6 Cub Scouts with activities.
What questions are you tired of hearing about gender equality or women in leadership?
I’m tired of when women are having a discussion about something and talk about the subject passionately they are asked if it’s “that time of the month” or that some major issues are over shadowed and blurred. For example the alleged sexual assault victims in parliament is swept under the rug because it’s around election time and rather than deal with it they want to make sure their party looks good.
What personal challenge have you had to overcome for your leadership goals?
For me it was learning how to teach others to be able to look at a sticky situation and find an answer around it. Because when you know how to do something like that and it comes easy to you, you start to wonder how everyone else doesn’t see it. So standing back and only helping them if they need it, was my leadership goal.
Imagine yourself in your 40s. What leadership advice would your 40-year-old self give to you right now?
Having people to advocate for you, support you, and guide you is so important to your development and achievement. Don’t worry about making a mistake, stay confident. If you stay confident odds are they won’t even realise. You are in this position because you earned it so don’t let anyone convince you of anything different. You deserve a voice and so does everyone else. But most importantly, trust yourself, you know more than you think you do.
Want to hear more from Emily? If you’re a young woman or nonbinary person in years 9 or 10, ask your school to register you for the She Leads High Conference on Thursday 7 April – visit the event page for more information.