What are you doing now?

Project Coordinator - Inclusion & Sport at Youth Sport Trust

How did being a Team Leader help you grow as a person?

Being a Team Leader helped me grow by challenging me to lead with purpose. It strengthened my confidence in advocating for inclusive and collaborative environments for young people in sport. It has deepened my empathy for young people facing barriers and made me more passionate about working to improve their experiences. It has taught me that making an impact doesn’t always require big gestures and is, more often than not, about how you make people feel rather than what you say.

What skills did you develop as a Team Leader that you use now, or feel will support you in the future?

Definitely resilience. It became less about getting through the day and more about adapting and changing to fit the needs of the young people. Sometimes things wouldn’t go to plan, and it was a learning curve in knowing that that was okay! Resilience now underpins a lot of what I do; it helps me navigate my work with confidence and flexibility. It allows me to hold difficult conversations with empathy, advocate for inclusion consistently and work on long-term projects without losing sight of the bigger picture.

Can you share a standout moment from your time as a Team Leader that you’re proud of?

I think for me it would have to be going to parliament. If you had told 16-year-old me that she would be able to join a round table talking about the barriers school-aged girls face when participating in physical activity, she would’ve never believed you. Especially to be sat in a room with some incredible Women who were from different backgrounds and world-renowned organisations. Big Fan girl moment!

Describe a time you saw your impact on a young person. What happened and why did it matter?

Youth Leadership Camp - May 2025 - Megan and I decided to write handwritten notes for all the young people in our team containing something that we’d each noticed about them over the three days that they were with us. Either their humour or their enthusiasm- it was something that made them stand out and something that we thought they deserved to know. It was seeing all of their faces light up when reading those notes, and that truly put into perspective how much they all needed that to feel seen. Off the back of that, we also had a young person say that the highlight of their time was speaking to me and Megan, which just goes to show that making someone feel heard can make a world of difference.

If you had to sum up the impact of being a Team Leader in one sentence, what would you say?

It changed how I see myself and what I’m capable of.

What would you say to someone thinking of being a Team Leader?

Do it. The memories, the friends and the opportunities you get out of it are honestly so so invaluable. I would do it all again a million times over!