4 Things You Might Bring Back from VinUni Leadership Bootcamp

(by Tran Hong Phuong, student at the College of Health Sciences, VinUniversity)

On September 6, 9, and 12, three groups of VinUni students went to Soc Son to participate in a training course organized by VinUni in cooperation with IOGT Vietnam as a part of LEAD1030 course. That two-day and one-night training session gave us a lot of memory, and here’s what we took home beside our certificate of completion.

⭐ Bruises

At Leadership Bootcamp, we’ve been through a dozen of different challenges, most requiring us to push our motor nervous system to the limit. Of course, we also have to use intelligence, flexibility, teamwork, and many other things to complete the challenge, but in my opinion, physical strength still accounts for most, and because of that, injury is inevitable.

As a non-athletic person, I also had to come home with an exhausted body with bruises and scratches everywhere. They will recover in a few days, but I will not tolerate anyone telling me they are “nothing serious”, because I almost couldn’t get out of bed the next morning, and because they are proof of my hard work. I consider these bruises a badge of courage, and I’m sure you will too.

⭐ Dirt

Beside the challenges I mentioned above, Leadership Bootcamp has another “specialty”, which is a 3-hour climb on a mountain.

When I read the schedule, I assumed that it was just a fun march with pre-built concrete paths, so I put on my usual shoes instead of the ones that were provided (also because my feet are size 36 and those shoes are size 40). However…well, I think you know what happened.

Summarizing the difficulties we went through with less than 100 words is impossible, but I can give you some advice in case you also have to climb this mountain: Please wear the shoes you are given, or bring a pair of shoes with non-slip soles, unless you want to become a dumbbell for the team and have to repair your shoes like me.

⭐ Relationships

I don’t know if any romantic relationships have sprung up from this trip, but non-romantic relationships are certainly innumerable. The reason for that is we had to work for two days and one night in a team with completely random members, including people who are close to us, people we barely know, and people we have not contacted yet. More than ten Sapiens with all personalities, strengths, and weaknesses, were forced to cooperate with each other, to trust and help each other with all their mind, because all challenges emphasize that “all team members must pass or the team will fail.”

It was extremely difficult at first, since most members didn’t know each other well enough to form trust. But gradually, that forced belief turned into a real belief, then became more and more stable until the last challenge, to the point that I, a person who always acted personally, had to think “if it’s him/her, then it will be okay” and give the spotlight to my teammates instead of continuing to force myself.

⭐ Experiences

Maybe the challenges here will not appear in real life (well, hope so, cause most of them included flash flood and bridge building), but that doesn’t mean the lessons learned from those challenges are useless. For example, during a challenge, I realized that when I had an idea, I needed to say it, because it could be the answer we were looking for. Or in another challenge, I learned that we should not spend too much time planning, because if we don’t try, we won’t be able to know if it’s feasible or not and where it goes wrong, thereby finding the most optimal plan to get the job done. Assertive, reliable, enterprising, these are all essential elements to make a leader. We learned them from the Leadership Bootcamp, and our mission is to apply them when we become the leader of another team.

These are the things I brought back from my Leadership Bootcamp experience. How about you? What did you bring back from Soc Son or expect to have in there?