Early in the morning, the protégés excitedly walked to King’s College with a representative from the college leading the way. The protégés were anticipating what they would be up to on the first day. They arrived at a large building, known as Strand campus, after crossing Waterloo bridge that overviews the London skyline. The protégés were welcomed by their King’s College leadership academic Mr. Michael Bedward. After everyone was settled in, they were briefed by Shalman Al Bahar about their expectations for the program, and welcomed by a KIPCO representative, Ms. Abeer Al Omar. She gave a short speech about the reasons behind KIPCO’s sponsorship for The Protégés program and their high hopes for the program.
King’s College manual for The Protégés
Mr. Michael started off the lecture by introducing the content of the program of King’s College for the coming days, which aim to help the protégés evolve our leadership skills. They were careful not to reveal anything to keep an element of surprise for the protégés.
Mr. Michael announced the first two assignments – write an individual journal of one thousand words by the end of the week and present with a group a 10-minute presentation on your personal leadership journey, even though the assignments are not be graded, he highly encouraged the protégés to commit to them to maximise their benefits. Mr. Michael started to explain the learning capabilities and traits of different people. He asked the protégés to complete a mini test to reveal their learning style. Then, they were divided into different groups according to the results from the learning style tests. There were the reflectors, the theorists, activists, and pragmatists.
The protégés during the session
After a much needed lunch break, the protégés sat on chairs surrounding the next two lecturers, Mr. Leon Conrad and Mr. Giles Abbott, professional vocal coaches. They began by letting the protégés do an exercise that helped them loosen up a bit. They made them breath in and out really loud while sitting up straight. They said, “There is no right or wrong, only appropriateness to a specific situation”. After that, they had to hum while breathing out their noses out loud. This exercise was a steppingstone for the next exercise, which was to present a speech depending on their memory. They were asked to remember six rooms in their houses or any familiar building to help them remember the topic, problem, solution and so on. Each group presented and received feedback from their coaches.
Mentors and counselors practicing the sound exercise with the protégés
Group picture with Mr. Michael Bedward
Later in the afternoon, the protégés got to go on a guided walk in central London, encountering traces of leadership in all walks of life. They witnessed historical monuments, statues, and places related to leadership. The day ended with a fulfilling dinner of burgers and fries from Byron.
Getting ready for the tour around London
The Protégés 