Not many Ugandan-British schoolgirls get to deliver a speech on climate change to one of the UK’s most senior policymakers. I did. And it changed everything about how I understood the reach of my voice.
I am Lujam Okello, Ugandan-British. I was 16 when I was appointed Head Girl at my school of 1,000 girls. Whilst it was a major achievement, my conversation with my mentor Ms. Margaret took on a deeper meaning. She told me it was more than a school title — it was preparation for stepping into visibility and learning to use my voice.
Soon after my appointment as Head Girl, I delivered a speech on COP26 for the Rt Hon. the Lord Deben, Chairman of the UK’s independent Climate Change Committee. When Ms. Margaret told me how proud she felt seeing me, a Ugandan-British schoolgirl speak confidently on such an important issue, I began to understand the reach of my voice. Leadership was no longer about holding the Head Girl title. It became about responsibility — and about inspiring others, especially those from underrepresented communities. Through Ms. Margaret’s mentorship, I begun to gain confidence and perspective.
I am now an undergraduate student studying Politics and International Relations. This degree has given me a language for the things I have always felt deeply - global cooperation; how governments make decisions; why some communities are heard and others are not. These are not abstract concepts to me but rather, they are questions I carry personally, as someone who sits at the intersection of two cultures and has had to learn, from a young age, how to navigate spaces that were not always designed with someone like me in mind.
I will be honest. There have been moments in my journey where I have doubted whether my voice belongs in certain rooms. Moments where I have qualified my own knowledge before I have even been questioned. Where I have said “I am still developing” so many times that it became a habit rather than a truth. Ms. Margaret helped me see that pattern clearly — and helped me understand that humility and confidence are not opposites. You can be at the beginning of something and still have something worth saying.
I am building something — a career, a voice, a body of knowledge — and I know that every leader was once exactly where I am now. My ambitions are clear, even if the path is still unfolding. I want to work in policy and public service. I want to contribute to the kinds of decisions and institutions that shape how societies function and how people are protected or failed by the systems meant to serve them. Eventually, I want to pursue postgraduate study — a PhD — that allows me to contribute not just as a practitioner but as a scholar. I want to be someone who does not only respond to the world’s challenges but helps to define how we understand them.
I think about the young girls in schools right now who are watching to see whether someone who shares their background can step into these spaces with confidence and belong there. I want to be evidence that they can. Ms. Margaret’s mentorship has been part of shaping that understanding.
As an undergraduate student, I am at the beginning but I no longer experience that as a limitation. I experience it as a position of possibility. I am part of the next generation of women leaders not waiting in the wings. We are already here, finding our footing, building our voices, and learning — as I did at 16, standing in front of a school of a thousand girls. That visibility was foundational and it is something I use, purposefully, and in service of something larger than me. That is the lesson I carry. That is the leader I am becoming.
Dear Lujam, your former Headteacher said it best - 'When you see her at the UN, you can say she spoke at our school graduation...'. That was a statement of recognition and representation. Your leadership journey begun at school and continues! Well done!