TESTIMONIALS

For me, STeLA was one of the most inspiring, exciting and memorable experience in my life.
    When I applied to STeLA, I imagined of learning useful leadership skills through lecture-based session with some individual tasks. Actually, the forum involved many group works with brainstorming, discussions and presentation, which was more interactive than I had expected though some tasks during the forum was very tough, tackling it with people from different cultural background was very exciting and I learned so many things.We shared our ideas, life experiences and our future dreams. Every story were fascinating and inspiring, and in the end, we beacame great friends like we've been together for a long time. STeLA experience was totally different from what I've learned in university and if it weren't for STeLA, I could've never met such a wonderful friends and learned fundamental skills. . Thanks to all participants, facilitators.

The STeLA leadership forum was truly a life changing experience. Each day felt like a lifetime had passed with all of the skills that we learned, cultures we were exposed to, and strength of the relationships being built. Going into the forum I wasn’t sure what to expect. Leadership was a vague word and notion expressed in impact and action. The forum really helped to define what being a leader within a team meant while bridging a culture gap that barely seemed existent between us. The lectures and exercises were insightful and excellent. They challenged us to think outside of our comfort zones and usual roles within a team to identify and implement objectives effectively. As excellent as the content was, the people are what make STeLA really amazing. The STeLA environment supports us all to learn and have fun. Every person I interacted with was eager to share with me about their experiences and hear about mine. By the end of the 9 days, STeLA felt like a comfortable, humble, international community. I came back home with a different outlook on how to live my life, lessons that make me a more productive member of society, and friends from around the world that truly care about me and my progress. The STeLA experience is truly a unique one that I’d recommend to anyone with a drive to improve themselves and better understand the diversity and potential of people.

"Why I joined STeLA? - STeLA EU President 2015/2016"

There were originally two reasons for me to join STeLA: challenge and professional environment. I'm often looking for new ways to challenge myself and to learn in the process, which is something STeLA can help me do. It also offers the multicultural professional environment I'd like to experience working in, as it is really a worldwide organization.

These two reasons have certainly proven to be true. However, after being with STeLA for two years, I could probably come up with a thousand more!

It was my first year in STeLA Leadership Forum, and the forum really left me a deep impression. STeLA was a rare opportunity for me to meet excellent peers from all over the world with different backgrounds and cultures and work with them. No matter us participants or staffs are from Asia, Europe, or America, we are a big family at STeLA during these 9 days. I am the youngest member in my group, and I am the only girl in it as well. It was quite interesting to work with all the male participants and facilitators. I found it really inspiring to get used to their ways of thinking. And our team was really dynamic. There was a guy from Jordan who was a truly provocative driver, encouraging the whole team to do our best. He stimulated me to become an active opposer and devote myself to the team with no holding back, which also shaped me into a better version. And we also had a great Japanese bystander, who was very prudent and was always there to remind us to look at the big picture. Others were dedicated followers at most of the time, which really made our team more united and high efficient. Besides, our two handsome and patient facilitators also taught me a lot. They were always there to encourage us and give us feedback. Through their work I understood how much strength that group reflection could have on individuals. What’s more, the theme of this forum—Era of IT—was really close to life and highly technical. I had little background about IT, so I just took all the sessions as some science courses. Some viewpoints given by those speakers were so eye-opening to me such as the prospect of IoT and some trouble we had on cyber security. And final group project based on a dramatic background relating to IoT was the most interesting and technical thing among the forum, which was challenging enough to arouse my enthusiasm. As for the leadership sessions, those sessions did give me a better understanding of leadership, which was to find your most appropriate role you could play in the team and give you all to the team in order to make better teamwork. It kind of surprised me when I found out that I could be a pretty good opposer in a team and see things from a comprehensive angle. Nine days were obviously short, though, I still had deep friendship with many people in this forum. We Chinese branch were like old friends after those days we went through together. I also promised my cute Dutch roommate to call her once I visited Netherlands. And I will never forget those touching and beautiful memories we shared together, which may be an incentive for me to join next year’s forum as a staff. After experiencing the enchantment of this forum, I feel like creating precious memories for others and helping them become a better version of themselves. STeLA gives you strength to reconsider what kind of person you are going to be and it helps you to see your goal, your future clearer. It also reminds you of having so many excellent, similar yet different people all over the world who are working hard to be better and are willing to shape you into a better you.