How Extra-curricular activities can bring out better leaders?

Sonia Bashir Kabir, Founder, SBK Tech Ventures, actively participated in sports, public speaking and debates from a young age. Recently, she was the keynote speaker at the session, 'How extra-curricular activities can bring out better leaders?' at Midas Financing Presents Campus Club Summit 2020, a two-day event jointly initiated by Midas Financing Limited, The Daily Star and Excellence Bangladesh with Star Youth, The Daily Star, as the youth engagement partner. She gave out some brilliant pointers for the youth. The emcee, Tanjim Ferdous, National Consultant of United Nations in Bangladesh, metaphorically referred to her as a specialist in this subject, and her suggestions as a 'diet-chart of extra-curricular activities (ECAs) for the youth to comply with.

Sonia Bashir Kabir mentioned that the ability to rightly identify one's passion is an art and a science. Extracurricular activities allow us to explore and pursue our passion. Passion is not always academia centric. Similarly, a great leader's energy  to fulfil their vision comes from their passion, not their position.

"There are five generic yet major advantages of ECAs which everybody should know. They give us the opportunity to learn new skills, recharge ourselves besides academics, boost and improve our social skills, manage time, and last but not the least, build a strong resume," she added. While she truly believes these points and humbly claims to owe her success to her own past experiences of ECAs, she referred to some of her  relatable life stories. She pointed out the bitter side of ECAs and how they teach us to accept rejections and defeats, but then again, we muster up the courage to take the plunge and opt for bigger risks and go above and beyond to do things outside of our comfort zones.

She mentioned another unique quality of people who actively participate in ECAs, "They learn to have grace under pressure, even when they know they will lose. They will immediately think of the next game or the next opportunity. They learn to give up on giving up. It teaches how just one single activity or episode is not the end of the world and that encourages them to be resilient."

 "ECAs allowed me to learn diverse structures and new challenges. I took new risks in my own life," she added. "Even after being an arts student in my intermediate in Bangladesh, I enrolled in  a Bachelor of Science programme  from California and even if you take a look at my career, you will find diversity. This courage or this ability to take such decisions, I think  branched out from the confidence I have built over the years from the many ECAs I took part in."

The session also highlighted that ECAs allow people to learn how they should be driven by logic and not emotion and that not everyone will be suited for every ECA. People must explore all the options, but only master in the ones which best fit their set of skills, mentioned Sonia Bashir Kabir. They should go through a breadth of experiences,  pick ther best skills and  dive deep into them. Just participation will never be enough, if students do not portray leadership in their field of ECAs.

 "Mediocrity should never be pursued." We should try to do something that our experiences, personality, physique and skill sets resonate with," Sonia Bashir Kabir further added.

Sadia Tahsin is a final year marketing major at North South University. She believes someday she will become a marketing mastermind, be able to read human minds and  reveal all their secrets to the aliens. To know her secret plan, email her at iloverachelgreenclub@gmail.com.