Marine Yamada ‘17 will begin a four-day conference on Jan. 5 hosted by The Alliance of Girls’ Schools Australasia, along with young leaders like herself from around the world who also attend all-girls’ schools.

The conference will be held at Bond University on the Gold Coast of Queensland, Australia, and will serve as a leadership intensive as well as an opportunity to network and connect with diverse high school leaders.

Yamada is one of two representatives chosen from the United States to attend the annual conference for juniors from global girls’ schools.

“Dr. Nesbitt told me, ‘I think you should apply to this, because Archer wants to nominate you’,” she said.

According to Yamada, the other United States representative chosen as one of 160 delegates comes from Maryland.

The organization’s website outlines the goals of the conference, stating it “provides unparalleled opportunities for girls to explore leadership styles and strategies, reflect on their own leadership aspirations and build meaningful life-long connections with other young leaders.”

In addition to the conference itself, Yamada said she looks forward to visiting a beautiful part of Australia.

“I really want to see what’s out there in Australia,” she said. 

Yamada is also interested in a home-stay program with an Australian family that she hopes will allow her to make the most out of her visit.

“I want to actively participate in their culture and their society,” she said.

Yamada hopes to bring aspects of the conference’s diverse environment and communal spirit back to Archer.

“One thing I really want to gain from this conference is seeing girls work together, because while Archer is diverse, it’s not diverse in the same way, where there are girls coming from really everywhere,” she said. “I want to see a really diverse group of people work together and on top of that have it be all girls.”

“I’m also really interested to get to know the girls who are coming to this conference. I feel like they’re sort of like Archer girls, except from all different countries,” she said.

Because the schedule for the conference has not yet been released, Yamada is still figuring out what to expect from the experience, but she’s excited to learn about female leadership in Australia.

“I want to know what they have planned for us because right now it’s all a mystery,” she said. “I’m really interested in learning how Australian society teaches girls to be leaders versus [how] an American society that does that. We’ve done that kind of thing [at Archer], especially with NOLS, but I want to see how what they teach is different from what we do.”

Yamada is most looking forward to meeting the other girls attending and forming lifelong friendships.

“I talked to Rita [Shrestha ’14], who went to this conference a few years ago, and she said that she had an amazing experience there, especially because of the people that she was around and the environment,” she said.

“I think that’s something that I’ll take away for the rest of my life.”