Knights Catholic Leadership Academy kick starts faithful youth
Applications are closing soon for the Knights Catholic Leadership Academy. The Academy provides formation and training for aspiring young leaders, impacting more than 60 schools and parishes across the Archdiocese of Perth. Photo: Supplied.
The Academy is about to launch for another year, and applications are closing soon.
For five years, the academy has provided formation and training for aspiring young leaders, impacting over 60 schools and parishes across the Archdiocese of Perth.
The program is offered for high school students in years 10, 11 and 12 and aims to improve the sustainability of youth initiatives by training the next generation of leaders.
Emily Hardbottle, who attended the Academy in 2016, said:
“KCLA impacted my faith journey as a leader by providing opportunities to strengthen my relationship with God, as well as learning how to lead. We had mass together and heard from some amazing speakers. They also taught us how to organise events, work within a team and communicate with different groups of people.’
Emily now studies Nursing and represented Perth as an ACBC Plenary Council Delegate in 2020.
Formation in the Faith is a key objective of the Academy. Formation becomes an enabler for young people when defending their beliefs.
2016 Academy graduate Emily Hardbottle said the KCLA impacted her faith journey as a leader by providing opportunities to strengthen her relationship with God, as well as learning how to lead. Applications are closing soon for 2021. Photo: Supplied.
“It really helped me get more confidence and knowledge to talk about the faith to peers and other young people. I also found that the collaboration with Acts2 helped with becoming more comfortable with my public speaking skills, through the way each speaker spoke with their different styles”
says Mark D’Silva who graduated from the Academy in 2017, before joining the Youth Mission Team in Sydney. For some, meeting other young people with a passion for Christian Leadership is refreshing and motivating. Isaac Bell from Holy Spirit Parish recalls:
“It was a great opportunity to live and learn some aspects of my faith that I hadn’t yet explored, with like-minded people.”
2017 Academy graduate Mark D’Silva, who undertook the program before joining the Youth Mission Team in Sydney, said the program helped him to grow in confidence and knowledge to talk about his faith with his friends and other young people. Photo: Supplied.
The Academy is supported by the Knights of the Southern Cross WA in partnership with Acts 2 College of Mission and Evangelisation. Program Leader Tom Seeber assisted with developing the Academy back in 2015;
“We had a vision for youth ministry where students are fully equipped to make a difference in their parish or youth group, with the skills they need to lead a team, but also an experience of Catholic Faith that demonstrates what true servant leadership is.”
Full details and testimonies are available on the Academy website knightsyouth.com.
Limited places are still available. Interested students should apply ASAP via the website.