International Women's Day SPECIAL FEATURE - ALICIA CURTIS

Hello Fellow Emergen's,

I cannot find anyone more fitting to feature on Emergen’s International Women’s Day blogging drive than its very own creator. Here we have a driven and inspirational woman who started to firmly imprint her footprints into the world at a very young age. Having started and been involved in a number of initiatives such as Millennium Kids; a development program for business and professional women; and this community, Emergen, she maintains her very humble stance and forgets to mention her State President role in the National Speakers Association Australia and the Young Women's Leadership Program that she created and coordinated for a group of amazing young women. Her commitment to serving others and her compassion for the world around us has inspired many and we will foresee the ripple effect that she has created in the years to come. It is an honor to introduce to you Alicia Curtis, this feature is not to be missed.

1. Tell me about yourself

Born and bred in Perth, but love to travel. I’ve run my own business since I was 18, speaking and training groups about the impact that everyone can make in their community (and simultaneously develop your own leadership skills!).  

Over the years, I’ve volunteered for a number of causes, first of which was setting up the Kids Helping Kids conferences when I was a teenager.  These conferences turned into the organization, Millennium Kids, which I’m still proud to be involved with today.  For the last five years, I’ve also been actively involved with BPW (Business and Professional Women), working with young women in business, advocating for women’s issues and networking internationally.  I wrote a development program called Keys to Achievement for BPW, which is now being implemented in many countries around the world.

What’s most important to me are my friends and family, my ability to contribute my leadership and creativity in the community, my health and wellbeing and having compassion for our environment, animals and people.

2. What is the project you are most passionate about right at the moment?

Emergen is probably the project I’m most passionate about right at the moment!  It started a couple of years ago and has just grown and developed into this awesome community of amazing young leaders.   It’s really exciting to see community members getting involved and adding their talents and skills to the community like you Linda with the featured member interviews, Janine with the Blogging for a Cause initiatives, Ally with the competitions and I could just keep going!   We need more young leaders to step up and help make this community great for all of us!

3. What's your favourite book and why?

I have lots of favourite books!  Anita Roddick’s Business as Unusual was the first book that inspired me about using business as a tool for social change.  Right at the moment, I’m reading The How of Happiness by Sonja Lyubomirsky about the academic research on happiness. It’s a fantastic and inspiring book.  It makes you think about what you are actively doing to make yourself happy in life.  I’ve also been inspired by Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn about the discrimination against women that is rampant across the world.  It’s still a huge issue that needs to be addressed in our world.

4. What are your special hobbies and interests?

I like keeping fit so I’m often running or dancing. Lately I’ve being trying to stretch my health and fitness so I’ve been trying pilates which has been great.  I’m always looking for my next fun fitness challenge! 

I also love drama and the theatre so I like to take a drama or improv course occasionally and go see as much theatre as I can.  I used to act quite a lot and I suppose if I hadn’t gone into my business I probably would have given acting/directing a go!  I ended up teaching drama to primary school students for a couple of years while building my speaking/training business.

Lastly, I also love cooking so you can always find me making a fresh batch of pasta or pizza from scratch.  I love cooking healthy foods that taste good.  I’ve been a vegetarian since I was 12 years old, so my specialty is great vegetarian food!  Would love to start my own food blog at some stage.

5. What are your aspirations over the next 1-5 years? And how will you get there?

One of my biggest aspirations at the moment is to build the Emergen community.  There is so much potential for Emergen to grow in becoming a collaborative community where young leaders contribute their talents to help each other grow and succeed.   We are only going to achieve this by pooling our strengths and working together to build the projects and activities that we want.  We’ve already got a team in Perth that are starting to work together on the projects they want to see.  And we are ready to start building teams in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.  So let me know if you’re interested!

6. Based on your learning experience so far, what one piece of advice would you give to other Emergen members?

My advice is simple - discover what your strengths are and contribute that to the world.  I believe everyone is amazing at something and sometimes we need a little help with determining what that is! Once you’ve discovered what your strengths are, then it’s time to share that with the world, through your work, business, leisure or volunteering.  What’s your uniqueness and how are you sharing it with others?!