Building Self-Confidence: A Journey to Discovering a Better Sense of Self

Building Self-Confidence:
A Journey to Discovering a Better Sense of Self

Engage in an interactive session and connect with your peers

As part of the Light of Learning Programme youth administrative co-coordinator Jessica Franey
and colleague Zainab Soje lead an inspiring youth event at the University of Guelph on November 23rd. The event was an opportunity for youth to network, interact and have conversations surrounding the topic of “Building Self-Confidence: A Journey to Discovering a Better Sense of Self”.

The event was held at Peter Clark Hall in affiliation with the African Student Association.

The day consisted of a presentation on our organization’s initiatives, an Intuitive Meditation demonstration, a workshop with an icebreaker, letter writing session and as well as trivia Kahoot! game with the opportunity to win prizes.

Throughout the workshop we guided the conversation with a set of questions:

1. What does self confidence mean to you personally? Can you identify a recent moment
where you felt confident? What contributed to that feeling?

2. How does comparison with others affect your self-confidence? What can you do to shift
your focus to self-growth instead?

3. How does your internal dialogue impact your self-confidence? What are some common
negative thoughts you experience, and how do they affect you?

4. Imagine your most confident self. What does that version of you do differently? How
can you start to take steps toward that vision?

5. In what ways do you celebrate your successes, even the small ones? How can this impact your confidence?

Youth were able to actively engage and use workshops space as a safe space to share ideas and insightful discourse.

Srinivas Arka recorded a brief video addressing youth questions:

1. What is the true nature of self-confidence?

2. Is it something we build within ourselves, or is it influenced more by external validation?

3. How do we know if our self-confidence is genuine or just a projection of who we think we “should” be?

Here is a quote from the talk: “The self cannot be interpreted merely in physical terms; the self is something one is to experience”.

We enjoyed wonderful music performances by The Sedges:
Fiona James, Imaad Naved Khan, Carlos Mauricio Lara Samano and Gabriel.
A special thank you to volunteers and support staff who helped make the event run so smoothly:
Sarah Dentinger, Abby Lauwerier, Alysha Ferris, Samrath Singh, Somtochukwu Ihekuna, Alexa Drury, and Matt Watson.
Event concluded with delicious pizza party, coffee and tea.