At the beginning of the year, Norwich High student Izzy won a place on the Leadership and Entrepreneurship Accelerator Programme (LEAP), which took place this July in Jersey.

LEAP is one of the world’s premier female leadership programmes and develops business, entrepreneurial and leadership skills through launching social enterprise projects to target key global issues. International teams of students formulate their own ideas into a business pitch while global experts act as coaches, mentors and guides. Finally they act as investors, ready to provide funding in a Dragon’s Den style final pitch.

We caught up with Izzy to hear more about her experience with the programme this summer…

“LEAP is a leadership and entrepreneurship program for girls aged 14-18 in Jersey. To earn a full scholarship, I successfully submitted a  two minute elevator pitch detailing my social enterprise business idea allowing me to go.

During the 10-day course, we were divided into small groups to create a social enterprise addressing a UN goal, with hopes to secure funding from a panel of experts/dragons at the end. Each day, we heard from inspirational speakers and business experts who supported our projects and we engaged in frequent debates on issues regarding gender equality.

My team set up SOAL, standing for Supporting Our Aspiring Leaders. SOAL is a non-profit organisation in support of the fifth UN goal: Gender equality. We have recognised that there is a lack of women within leadership positions, so SOAL is striving to change this. We will run fortnightly classes held in Jersey (with hopes of expanding internationally) for girls ages 11-18, teaching the key business, financial and life skills which will allow them to become the leaders of the future.

The program greatly enhanced my networking skills; at the networking event (an event held the day before our pitch for practice), I connected with many company representatives and plan to stay in touch. It also improved my teamwork abilities, as we navigated various challenges together and successfully resolved them.

The course left me excited for my future and reassured me that I want to study business/entrepreneurship, as I thoroughly enjoyed the entire process.