“I am pleased to advise that your college’s nominee, Ms Lola Tracey, has been selected for Gosford RSL Club’s 2018 Kokoda Youth Leadership Challenge. Congratulations to the college on submitting such an excellent nominee.” Maureen Horne – Kokoda Challenge Co-ordinator.
Lola has been selected as one of three students on the coast to complete an all expenses paid, 10 day leadership trek on the Kokoda trail later this year.
The Kokoda Youth Leadership Challenge (KYLC) is a peer group leadership program established by the RSL and Services Clubs Association in 2004.
It is designed for young community leaders, young people with strong family military connections and management staff with leadership potential in the NSW club industry or suppliers to that industry with a view to strengthening their skills and attitudes to the challenges of management.
The program involves an arduous 10 day trek across the original Kokoda Trail in Papua New Guinea, presentations at significant battle sites and discussions on sacrifice, courage, mateship, endurance and leadership. It provides participants with practical leadership experience based on the achievements and sacrifice of our diggers during the Kokoda campaign. It instils in participants a commitment to community service, enhancing their personal development by providing an opportunity to experience the same conditions under which our diggers fought and hopefully transform them into future leaders in the community.
The learning outcomes from the program include:
• A practical understanding of the theory of leadership within a team environment.
• An appreciation of the aspirations and fears of other members of the group.
• A practical understanding of the effectiveness of interdependency within a team environment.
• A detailed strategic and tactical understanding of the Kokoda campaign.
• The limitations of leadership at the political/strategic level. The relationship between Prime Minister Curtin, General Douglas MacArthur and General Thomas Blamey, and the effects of this relationship on the leadership of the battlefield commanders on the Kokoda Trail.
• Case studies of leadership and sacrifice at the battles of Brigade Hill, Eora Creek and Isurava.
• The culture of the Koiari and Orokaiva people who live along the trail.
• An increase in personal fitness, a loss of fat from the body, a hardening of the muscles, a toughening of the attitudes and an improvement in grit and determination!
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