Hold your breath: we are on our way to be LEADERS!! (Written By Nabiha Ben Ghorbel

family spirit

 November 22nd, it’s our 2nd session in the American corner leadership club. This 2 hours meeting was very exciting; we had too much fun and learned at the same time.
Feeling at ease, was the most important aspect witnessed during this session. Having been in touch through the club’s Facebook group, we found it easier this time to get along with each other. The session started with the welcoming of three new members, to  whom we introduced the club’s rules and what we did last session .After that, Ahlem  asked us to stand up and do some exercises; and not any kind of exercise of course; they were some simple steps though, related to our main goal: how to become a leader. Having released all the tension from our bodies, we were ready to answer Ahlem’s question: What is the first thing you do when you wake up? The answers were different and very impressing;  Some start their day with a smile, others check their e-mails and messages. One girl said that the first thing she does is opening the window, breathing some air and thanking God for this chance to live another new day. Isn't it great to hear such things!!

American Corner Leadership Club

  Following this interesting answers, Ahlem introduced us to the different components of a society; in first place comes the government, then the Famous 1.5, followed by media , the civil society and last but not least grassroots. The most exciting activity in this session was the eggs game, for that we were divided into groups according to our answers of the Leadership Case Studies (nothing is done by chance in our club). Through these case studies we came out with a new conception to being a leader. Coming to our famous activity; its aims was to protect the egg when it’s dropped. For that, we were given 70$ and asked to buy certain items from the material offered, each item has a prize of course; which made it more complex for the groups. The atmosphere of the game was really incredible.
We had too much fun, especially with those small but impulsive details, like for instance hiding an amount of money or a joker, and “tadaah” everyone is trying to find it first, seeking for it in every corner .At last we had only  one winner; it was the Queen’s group that succeeded to protect their egg. This activity may seem weird for some people; but sure not for Leadership Club members. In fact, we realized that we've learned way too much only after speaking about what we did exactly in order to avoid failure. It is true that not all of us won, though, what is interesting, is that we saw failure as a step towards success and we already started thinking about what we missed this time in order to fix it in the upcoming activities.

The Egg team work competition

We learned also how to forget about our ego when we are working in a team. What was important is that we experienced, maybe for the first time for some, how to act cooperatively in a group.
After this great experience, it’s Wiem Boubakri’s turn to speak about her application as a US Thomas Jefferson Program Alumni and to give some tips for the members in order to succeed their applications too. She was of a great help for those who are still doubtful concerning some sections. With the intervention of Wiem our session was ended. In a word, the atmosphere this time was too good to be true.

Wiem Boubaker

Looking forward to seeing how this experience will lead us to, and I’m very optimistic after seeing how great this session was.





*Nabiha Ben Ghorbel :a Member of The American Coroner leadership Club and a master's degree student in Applied Linguistics in the Higher Insititute of Languages Tunis