The purpose of this blog is to compliment in-class learning and to provide another method of student engagement. Through blog discussions you will have the opportunity to learn more about each other and reflect on your leadership experience.
In high school I was a member of Optimiss Service Club. This student organization consisted of girls who displayed achievement in academics, character, and wanted to serve their community through volunteering. Two of the three years as a member I was the Service Project Coordinator. It was my responsibility to plan volunteer events, present the events, coordinate transportation, and send volunteer event reminders. The first year I was in this position was challenging because I had no prior agency contacts to work with. I had to do all the research by myself. Due to my work I was reelected to the position for the following year. That year I was the only returning officer giving me insight of what happened behind the scene the previous year. The previous year’s officers had amended the constitution and the new, recent officers, approved it. When school began the new officers were refusing to follow the new constitution, the one they had just approved. Being an officer for the previous year and wanting to stick to the newly revised constitution I meet struggle with my fellow officers.
I came to the point during the year that I just wanted to resign. It had gotten to that point where my opinion wasn’t being cared for let alone my voice being heard. I knew as the Service Project Coordinator that I couldn’t simply give up. If there was no one to hold my position there would be no Optimiss. The whole idea of the student organization is to serve our community. I had informed my fellow officers how I was feeling in regards to their actions. They said they were offended and that just because I was a returning officer didn’t mean a thing. After this I had just did my responsibility to the organization and the members. I continued to plan volunteer events, presented the events, coordinate transportation, and send volunteer event reminders. The advisor was able to have the other officers listen and take my knowledge into account at officer meetings. And at times the advisor sided with me. At the end of the year and all my work completed the other officers reflected on how they did and compared it to the following year. When they realized that they didn’t accomplish what the organization wanted, even what they wanted in the first place, they admitted to having rejected my knowledge. I wasn’t mad at them just hurt by the fact that they didn’t believe me or trusted in my. They had apologized and we got together to create policies so that for the next year the same situation wouldn’t arise again.
Alexandra, It was smart of you to let the other officers know how you were feeling. I know it is hard when you feel like your voice isn't being heard, but it is important not to give up.It was courageous of you to stand up and say something. At the end of the year when the girls realized that they didn't exactly accomplish what they wanted, I'm sure they felt bad for doubting you. It was very mature of you not to get mad at them for not trusting or believing in you. The most important thing was that you made sure that the same problem wouldn't happen again in the future. You fixed a major problem and I'm sure bettered the organization.
It is always a struggle to stand up and be a leader when there are others doubting you. I know this, because it happened to me. Last semester, I decided to volunteer part time at a food pantry. I needed to get community service hours for LEAD and I also wanted to give back to the community. When I told my “friends” about what I was doing, a few of them made sarcastic remarks trying to be funny. They didn’t understand why I would spend time volunteering when I could get a job and get paid for my work. They not only doubted me, but they put these doubts in my mind. I felt that they thought that I was wasting my time. It was hurtful to hear my so-called “friends” talk bad about something I felt so passionate about. I ended up getting so upset that I talked to my mom about what they were saying. My mom helped me to realize that there are people in the world who aren’t always going to understand what we do and why we do it. The important thing is to remember to stay true to yourself. I would never stop doing something I find important just because some one told me it was a waste of time. Talking to my mom reminded me that sometimes you simply have to ignore others, especially those who doubt you. Needless to say, I am not friends with those people any more, because their negativity was doing nothing besides bringing me down. I managed to overcome my struggle by talking to someone about it and having support, by ignoring others doubts, staying true to what I believe, and eliminating negative people in my life.
I am happy that you realized that your passion in life to volunteer was more important than the ridicule and remarks that your friends gave you. It's hard to stand up for yourself when you have that kind of negative feedback telling you otherwise. Sometimes I think people just don't understand how good it feels to give back and honestly they don't know what they are missing out on. You definitely demonstrated some of Mandelas actions!
Being a leader can be a constant struggle. You often have to give up personal time or make sacrifices for the organization or cause you are serving. There may be times when you feel like these sacrifices are not worth the benefit of the organization but it is important to remember what is important to you and prioritize. Proper time management can also be a solution to this issue. If each hour of your day is planned appropriately, there will be fewer sacrifices you have to make and more time to work on yourself and your relationships with others. The most important thing to focus on is making yourself happy and make it your goal to become your own definition of successful.
Araima, I completely agree with you that time management is important. To be a successful leader you have to be able to plan things out to make sure that you will have time to accomplish everything that needs to get done. If you do not manage your time well the project you are working on will not come out the way it should and although you may actually be a good leader it will not appear that way. Making a set schedule makes everything more organized and helps to make things run smoothly to come out successful in the end.
I wouldn't say that I have faced the type of struggles as Nelson Mandela did as a leader, but I have come across some situations that could have been easier. In high school I was the captain of my basketball team and my junior year we had a group of girls transfer to our school that did not get along with the rest of them team too well. These girls had played together all of their lives and they were coming to a team of girls that had also played together for a long time and neither clique wanted to accept each other. The tension between the girls showed in how we played and out season was going downhill fast. My coach told me that as captain it was my responsibility to get the girls to get along and play well together in order to turn the season around. I decided we should have "Team bonding" nights during which we would get dinner or see a movie or have a sleep over to get to know each other. At first the girls were being typical girls and refused to cooperate, but after a few weeks of team bonding activities we were finally able to start getting along and playing well together. Dealing with the girls was discouraging at times because girls tend to be set in their ways and they were not willing to try out my idea, but I just kept reminding myself that this was necessary to have a successful season and eventually we were all able to come together.
Megan, I definitely understand your circumstance because I had a similar problem as well on the team. But, I really think you made an awesome choice in creating team bonding nights. For my case, we didn't do such a thing so the situation just got worse and worse. So I think it was a smart move in your case in not only loosening the tension between the two groups but creating new friendships. Team morale and cooperation is a big factor in having a successful organization, club, or sport.
Having the strength to stand up as a leader during difficult times can be a struggle. However, as Arnold Schwarzennegger said, "Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength." Troubling times build character and better prepare one to face future dilemmas. During high school, I encountered times when it was difficult to stand up and be a leader. During my sophomore year, I initiated the Italian American Honor Society. I faced many challenges initially with finding a teacher to sponsor the club, recruiting members to join the organization, and overall difficulty with getting the word out. There were many times when I wanted to give up, but I continued to perservere because I knew how much this meant to me and I truly believed in the success of the organization. I overcame these difficulties by reaching out to my family and friends to help better the society and spread the news. I acquired sponsorships from nearby companies to purchase tee shirts for the organization. In the end, I could not be more proud of the outcome. Today the club is very successful and has over 300 active members all because one person dared to dream.
My senior year of high school, I was the secretary of SGA. Our job that year was to plan homecoming and unfortunately was unable to get a location other than our school gym. Homecoming has never been held in the gym over the entire school's history and we had to overcome some serious red tape and struggles. Because it was held in the gym, things like the fire alarm going off, the capacity of the gym, and decorating it became issues to worry about. We had fog machines, which could possibly set the fire alarms off and because of the vast enrollment of my school, not everyone would be able to get a ticket. We had the whole day on Saturday to turn the gym into a "Star Struck" themed mansion, masking the appearance of the gym. Time was against us and people were barking orders in every direction. Leading my team was very difficult because everyone wanted to get it done the fastest in their own way. Some of the decorations were tedious to assemble and others just took a long time. I was able to overcome this struggle by having to establish jobs to everyone that each individual was comfortable with and helping those that were having trouble. Once everyone had a designation to a job, everything went rather smoothly and conflicts were minimized. Homecoming turned out to be a huge success and most people commented on how they didn't even think they were in the gym!
We all go through different struggles each day whether it be physical or emotional. Struggles of a typical leader range in variety from leadership deficits to lack of support and it can be hard to overcome such struggles on your own. For example, I was the captain of my varsity soccer team in high school for three years. My team consisted of my best friends. Being together in school and out of school really created a close bond between all of the teammates and although that may seem like a good thing, at times it was hard to stand up against your friends in knowing what was the right decision to make as a leader. Our practices were a constant battle against getting in shape. Our coaches philosophy was to run hard and that will make wins. So when you're on a run for warm-up with your team and half the team wants to take a short cut, while you fight against the popular vote is tough. Although these are your best friends and you don't want to be harsh or the "fun sucker", its better to do the right thing, and carry on with your honesty, even if that means leading the teammates away from an easy cheat. Although this isn't a life or death example of a leadership struggle, it shows the everyday fight us leaders have against the majority out there that don't want to follow in the right doing. More so, it shows the fight against peer pressure and caving into something you don't believe in. All great leaders carve their own pathway to success, they don't cut across the dirt road.
I think in situations like yours there should always be ground rules between you and your friends. I don't think your work life should interfere with your social life and I applaud you for doing the right thing. It must have been hard because they were your friends, but at least you set a good example by being an awesome role model to your team.
Through all the experiences I have had as a leader, so far my biggest struggle being a leader was becoming the president of a club that I believed had so much potential yet people did not find interest in it. In high school I took mandarin chinese and my teacher attempted to start a club but the students who tried to start it had no idea how to do it and in some of the fundraising events they actually kept the money (which to this day blows my mind). After years of failed attempts with this club I talked to my teacher and decided I wanted to run the club and make it something people wanted to be involved in. Being the president of chinese club has been my biggest struggle because I had to make people around me believe in what I believed this club could do and make the leaders in the club actually get their job done. People honestly thought this club was a joke and a good way to put leadership in their resume; I constantly had to tell the officers to get their job because otherwise they would not do it. I went to the extent of firing an officer who did not do anything and put another students interested in doing her job and participating in the club. As a leader, I reached out to the members of the club and to the school asking what they would be interested in doing in this club and I tried my best to make them all happen. Through extremely hard work, never forgetting the goals I set out for the club, picking up people's slack, trying my possible best to make this club both fun and educational, I was able to make this club a reality and at some point I had a room full of students. This has been my biggest struggle and I can definitely say also one of my biggest accomplishments.
I think its awesome that even though people tried to stop you in pursuing your goals in creating a new club for your high school. It takes a motivated person to start a brand new club and especially one that many people might not know much about.
As i'm sure we all know, being a leader sometimes isn't the easiest thing to do. There have been many times where I had to struggles while trying to be a leader. The most hardest for me was when I was in high school. We were assigned group projects in my 10th grade Biology class, which consisted of teaching the whole class about an anatomical system for an entire week. My group consisted of three other people, and the group appointed me to be the "team captain." I thought it would be pretty cool to be the team captain, but I was wrong. As the weeks went on preparing our project, I soon began to realize that my group members were inefficient, and didn't do what they were assigned to do. It was a real struggle for me, because I didn't know how to handle the situation because that has never happened to me and plus I was scared to talk to them about it because I didn't want to be a "mean dictator." Eventually, it got so out-of-hand that I finally decided to talk to them about it in a civil manner. Surprisingly, they all agreed that they were slacking and said they would try harder. In the end, our project was a huge success and that was one of my first learning experiences that I had as a leader.
In high school, students are even lazier and to further on your point, most of the responsibility is placed on the group leader because they assume you have it under control. Bringing up the attention on the matter of no participation from others in a civil manner is the exact way to handle it, and very impressive for a sophomore at the time.
I found myself in a struggle with being a leader during my senior year of high school. I was named the captain of the football team and was probably the laziest player on the team. I was one of the players to always skip practice after school and would fool around during the practice if I attended. As captain I was supposed to be a model for the younger players; furthermore, I had to change my attitude for the sake of the team. It wasn't until one day during school when my head football coach pulled me aside and gave me both guidence and direction on how to become a better leader on and off the field. He explained to me 2 aspects that make an effective leader stand out. One is to lead by example. If others are to follow, what are they to follow? And two: talk is cheap. In order to get anything done an action must take place.
Everyone has leadership struggles that they face throughout their life. My struggle was during my senior year of high school when I was Senior Class Secretary. During my leadership class I had all of my best friends in it and I had difficult time mixing business with pleasure. It was dificult for me to able to set down certain expectations I had for them when I was more lenient with them then I was with the others because they were my best friends and I know in the end they would eventually get it done even if it was not the way I wanted it to be. I had to overcome this struggle towards the end of my year because they had failed to finish a task on time which got me in trouble with my advisor, so something had to change. The change I made was not allowing them to help with me but to work with other people of our executive board. At first, they were upset with me but then realized it was for the best for all of us.
As any leader knows, being a leader is a difficult task. I learned this lesson the hard way in high school while working as the senior class president. One of the hardest times I had was when we were writing, filming, and producing the senior skit. We worked as a class to create a 10 minute long "faculty meeting from hell" which we found, funny, not hurtful and enjoyable for everyone. However, the teachers did not find the skit as humorous as we did. It was put on me as the leader of the project to deliberate with administration and produce a censored version. This was very difficult because my fellow class mates and I felt that the skit was not hurtful to anyone. It was very hard for me to be both professional and speak my mind. Despite how hard it may have been, I needed to rise to the position of a leader and do what was best for the class and myself. I eventually respectfully told our principle that we felt we were being over censored and, because of that, we would not put any senior skit on during that years talent show.
One thing that often becomes a struggle for leaders is having the financial backing to accomplish certain goals. In my senior year of high school, I was the leading organizer of a Walk for Autism, a large fundraiser and awareness event to support families in the Central Florida area raising children with Autism. One of the biggest difficulties of planning and executing a large-scale event is scraping together the funds to pull it off and not spending any unnecessary money, since the goal is to yield a profit for the cause, in this case, a charity organization. Prior to this, I had not had much real experience in planning budgets and obtaining sponsorships. If you have ever tried to get any kind of large sponsorships, you know how disappointing it can be when company after company turns you away. It takes patience and hard work to find sponsors. It also takes preparation, professionalism, people-skills, and enthusiasm for your cause. I learned so much about working with business-owners and fundraising in general from a woman I worked with and still continue to work with. Her name is Judee, and she has been an incredible mentor and example in my life over the past three years. With the skills I learned from her and with a lot of perseverance, I managed to help pull off an amazing event.
Take advantage of the adult role models in your life; they often have much wisdom and experience to offer.
Every leader has their ups and downs. Struggles are what mold the leader to become who they are. I faced my biggest when I am moved to United States from India at the age of 11 in the 6th grade. In India, I was very used to being a leader and always outspoken. When I moved here I didn’t have the liberty to be myself because I didn’t know the language, I didn’t know the culture, the system, I didn’t know anything at all. I had a huge culture shock. This made me very quiet and I always just kept to myself. At one point I was losing self-confidence because I couldn’t be myself. First I just focused on learning everything and then in 9th grade I had amazing friends who I could be myself around and this helped me big time in restoring my self-confidence. The following year I joined a Lead class which was similar to our lead class which forced me to be outspoken and the same year I also joined SGA. Even today I learn new things every day and grow as a leader and as a person.
Being a leader is hard on its own, let alone the struggles that are usually attached while you are trying to make a difference, or lead people. The last time I faced a struggle while I was a leader, it was a few years ago when I was supposed to lead a school's classroom as an assistant teacher. At the age of only 17 I was left in a room with about ten 3rd grade boys and girls. It was my job to be there leader and teach them the lesson of the day. However, children around the age of 8 to 9 are not typically the easiest to manage. My leadership abilities were truly tested. Being able to mange them, as well as being able to keep control of the class, stay on track with time, and ensure the class was learning were all a very difficult task for me. Especially, since I was not trained to be a teacher. I guess its safe to say that leaders are usually born with leadership qualities. So being able to control the class was not so difficult to take control of the loud, hyper, and uncontrollable class. I was quick to find my pace, and prove my leadership abilities. I ended my time as an assistant teacher proving to not only myself, but the teacher, the class, and my boss that I was able to take on a lead a bunch of kids that were classified as the rowdy group. I was proud to see how my leadership abilities can be used, in the most unsuspecting of places.
In high school I was a member of Optimiss Service Club. This student organization consisted of girls who displayed achievement in academics, character, and wanted to serve their community through volunteering. Two of the three years as a member I was the Service Project Coordinator. It was my responsibility to plan volunteer events, present the events, coordinate transportation, and send volunteer event reminders. The first year I was in this position was challenging because I had no prior agency contacts to work with. I had to do all the research by myself. Due to my work I was reelected to the position for the following year. That year I was the only returning officer giving me insight of what happened behind the scene the previous year. The previous year’s officers had amended the constitution and the new, recent officers, approved it. When school began the new officers were refusing to follow the new constitution, the one they had just approved. Being an officer for the previous year and wanting to stick to the newly revised constitution I meet struggle with my fellow officers.
ReplyDeleteI came to the point during the year that I just wanted to resign. It had gotten to that point where my opinion wasn’t being cared for let alone my voice being heard. I knew as the Service Project Coordinator that I couldn’t simply give up. If there was no one to hold my position there would be no Optimiss. The whole idea of the student organization is to serve our community. I had informed my fellow officers how I was feeling in regards to their actions. They said they were offended and that just because I was a returning officer didn’t mean a thing. After this I had just did my responsibility to the organization and the members. I continued to plan volunteer events, presented the events, coordinate transportation, and send volunteer event reminders. The advisor was able to have the other officers listen and take my knowledge into account at officer meetings. And at times the advisor sided with me. At the end of the year and all my work completed the other officers reflected on how they did and compared it to the following year. When they realized that they didn’t accomplish what the organization wanted, even what they wanted in the first place, they admitted to having rejected my knowledge. I wasn’t mad at them just hurt by the fact that they didn’t believe me or trusted in my. They had apologized and we got together to create policies so that for the next year the same situation wouldn’t arise again.
Alexandra,
DeleteIt was smart of you to let the other officers know how you were feeling. I know it is hard when you feel like your voice isn't being heard, but it is important not to give up.It was courageous of you to stand up and say something. At the end of the year when the girls realized that they didn't exactly accomplish what they wanted, I'm sure they felt bad for doubting you. It was very mature of you not to get mad at them for not trusting or believing in you. The most important thing was that you made sure that the same problem wouldn't happen again in the future. You fixed a major problem and I'm sure bettered the organization.
It is always a struggle to stand up and be a leader when there are others doubting you. I know this, because it happened to me. Last semester, I decided to volunteer part time at a food pantry. I needed to get community service hours for LEAD and I also wanted to give back to the community. When I told my “friends” about what I was doing, a few of them made sarcastic remarks trying to be funny. They didn’t understand why I would spend time volunteering when I could get a job and get paid for my work. They not only doubted me, but they put these doubts in my mind. I felt that they thought that I was wasting my time. It was hurtful to hear my so-called “friends” talk bad about something I felt so passionate about. I ended up getting so upset that I talked to my mom about what they were saying. My mom helped me to realize that there are people in the world who aren’t always going to understand what we do and why we do it. The important thing is to remember to stay true to yourself. I would never stop doing something I find important just because some one told me it was a waste of time. Talking to my mom reminded me that sometimes you simply have to ignore others, especially those who doubt you. Needless to say, I am not friends with those people any more, because their negativity was doing nothing besides bringing me down. I managed to overcome my struggle by talking to someone about it and having support, by ignoring others doubts, staying true to what I believe, and eliminating negative people in my life.
ReplyDeleteJenny,
DeleteI am happy that you realized that your passion in life to volunteer was more important than the ridicule and remarks that your friends gave you. It's hard to stand up for yourself when you have that kind of negative feedback telling you otherwise. Sometimes I think people just don't understand how good it feels to give back and honestly they don't know what they are missing out on. You definitely demonstrated some of Mandelas actions!
Being a leader can be a constant struggle. You often have to give up personal time or make sacrifices for the organization or cause you are serving. There may be times when you feel like these sacrifices are not worth the benefit of the organization but it is important to remember what is important to you and prioritize. Proper time management can also be a solution to this issue. If each hour of your day is planned appropriately, there will be fewer sacrifices you have to make and more time to work on yourself and your relationships with others. The most important thing to focus on is making yourself happy and make it your goal to become your own definition of successful.
ReplyDeleteAraima,
DeleteI completely agree with you that time management is important. To be a successful leader you have to be able to plan things out to make sure that you will have time to accomplish everything that needs to get done. If you do not manage your time well the project you are working on will not come out the way it should and although you may actually be a good leader it will not appear that way. Making a set schedule makes everything more organized and helps to make things run smoothly to come out successful in the end.
I wouldn't say that I have faced the type of struggles as Nelson Mandela did as a leader, but I have come across some situations that could have been easier. In high school I was the captain of my basketball team and my junior year we had a group of girls transfer to our school that did not get along with the rest of them team too well. These girls had played together all of their lives and they were coming to a team of girls that had also played together for a long time and neither clique wanted to accept each other. The tension between the girls showed in how we played and out season was going downhill fast. My coach told me that as captain it was my responsibility to get the girls to get along and play well together in order to turn the season around. I decided we should have "Team bonding" nights during which we would get dinner or see a movie or have a sleep over to get to know each other. At first the girls were being typical girls and refused to cooperate, but after a few weeks of team bonding activities we were finally able to start getting along and playing well together. Dealing with the girls was discouraging at times because girls tend to be set in their ways and they were not willing to try out my idea, but I just kept reminding myself that this was necessary to have a successful season and eventually we were all able to come together.
ReplyDeleteMegan, I definitely understand your circumstance because I had a similar problem as well on the team. But, I really think you made an awesome choice in creating team bonding nights. For my case, we didn't do such a thing so the situation just got worse and worse. So I think it was a smart move in your case in not only loosening the tension between the two groups but creating new friendships. Team morale and cooperation is a big factor in having a successful organization, club, or sport.
DeleteHaving the strength to stand up as a leader during difficult times can be a struggle. However, as Arnold Schwarzennegger said, "Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength." Troubling times build character and better prepare one to face future dilemmas.
ReplyDeleteDuring high school, I encountered times when it was difficult to stand up and be a leader. During my sophomore year, I initiated the Italian American Honor Society. I faced many challenges initially with finding a teacher to sponsor the club, recruiting members to join the organization, and overall difficulty with getting the word out. There were many times when I wanted to give up, but I continued to perservere because I knew how much this meant to me and I truly believed in the success of the organization. I overcame these difficulties by reaching out to my family and friends to help better the society and spread the news. I acquired sponsorships from nearby companies to purchase tee shirts for the organization. In the end, I could not be more proud of the outcome. Today the club is very successful and has over 300 active members all because one person dared to dream.
My senior year of high school, I was the secretary of SGA. Our job that year was to plan homecoming and unfortunately was unable to get a location other than our school gym. Homecoming has never been held in the gym over the entire school's history and we had to overcome some serious red tape and struggles. Because it was held in the gym, things like the fire alarm going off, the capacity of the gym, and decorating it became issues to worry about. We had fog machines, which could possibly set the fire alarms off and because of the vast enrollment of my school, not everyone would be able to get a ticket. We had the whole day on Saturday to turn the gym into a "Star Struck" themed mansion, masking the appearance of the gym. Time was against us and people were barking orders in every direction. Leading my team was very difficult because everyone wanted to get it done the fastest in their own way. Some of the decorations were tedious to assemble and others just took a long time. I was able to overcome this struggle by having to establish jobs to everyone that each individual was comfortable with and helping those that were having trouble. Once everyone had a designation to a job, everything went rather smoothly and conflicts were minimized. Homecoming turned out to be a huge success and most people commented on how they didn't even think they were in the gym!
ReplyDeleteWe all go through different struggles each day whether it be physical or emotional. Struggles of a typical leader range in variety from leadership deficits to lack of support and it can be hard to overcome such struggles on your own. For example, I was the captain of my varsity soccer team in high school for three years. My team consisted of my best friends. Being together in school and out of school really created a close bond between all of the teammates and although that may seem like a good thing, at times it was hard to stand up against your friends in knowing what was the right decision to make as a leader. Our practices were a constant battle against getting in shape. Our coaches philosophy was to run hard and that will make wins. So when you're on a run for warm-up with your team and half the team wants to take a short cut, while you fight against the popular vote is tough. Although these are your best friends and you don't want to be harsh or the "fun sucker", its better to do the right thing, and carry on with your honesty, even if that means leading the teammates away from an easy cheat. Although this isn't a life or death example of a leadership struggle, it shows the everyday fight us leaders have against the majority out there that don't want to follow in the right doing. More so, it shows the fight against peer pressure and caving into something you don't believe in. All great leaders carve their own pathway to success, they don't cut across the dirt road.
ReplyDeleteLauren,
DeleteI think in situations like yours there should always be ground rules between you and your friends. I don't think your work life should interfere with your social life and I applaud you for doing the right thing. It must have been hard because they were your friends, but at least you set a good example by being an awesome role model to your team.
Through all the experiences I have had as a leader, so far my biggest struggle being a leader was becoming the president of a club that I believed had so much potential yet people did not find interest in it. In high school I took mandarin chinese and my teacher attempted to start a club but the students who tried to start it had no idea how to do it and in some of the fundraising events they actually kept the money (which to this day blows my mind). After years of failed attempts with this club I talked to my teacher and decided I wanted to run the club and make it something people wanted to be involved in. Being the president of chinese club has been my biggest struggle because I had to make people around me believe in what I believed this club could do and make the leaders in the club actually get their job done. People honestly thought this club was a joke and a good way to put leadership in their resume; I constantly had to tell the officers to get their job because otherwise they would not do it. I went to the extent of firing an officer who did not do anything and put another students interested in doing her job and participating in the club. As a leader, I reached out to the members of the club and to the school asking what they would be interested in doing in this club and I tried my best to make them all happen. Through extremely hard work, never forgetting the goals I set out for the club, picking up people's slack, trying my possible best to make this club both fun and educational, I was able to make this club a reality and at some point I had a room full of students. This has been my biggest struggle and I can definitely say also one of my biggest accomplishments.
ReplyDeleteSara,
DeleteI think its awesome that even though people tried to stop you in pursuing your goals in creating a new club for your high school. It takes a motivated person to start a brand new club and especially one that many people might not know much about.
As i'm sure we all know, being a leader sometimes isn't the easiest thing to do. There have been many times where I had to struggles while trying to be a leader. The most hardest for me was when I was in high school. We were assigned group projects in my 10th grade Biology class, which consisted of teaching the whole class about an anatomical system for an entire week. My group consisted of three other people, and the group appointed me to be the "team captain." I thought it would be pretty cool to be the team captain, but I was wrong. As the weeks went on preparing our project, I soon began to realize that my group members were inefficient, and didn't do what they were assigned to do. It was a real struggle for me, because I didn't know how to handle the situation because that has never happened to me and plus I was scared to talk to them about it because I didn't want to be a "mean dictator." Eventually, it got so out-of-hand that I finally decided to talk to them about it in a civil manner. Surprisingly, they all agreed that they were slacking and said they would try harder. In the end, our project was a huge success and that was one of my first learning experiences that I had as a leader.
ReplyDeleteIn high school, students are even lazier and to further on your point, most of the responsibility is placed on the group leader because they assume you have it under control. Bringing up the attention on the matter of no participation from others in a civil manner is the exact way to handle it, and very impressive for a sophomore at the time.
DeleteI found myself in a struggle with being a leader during my senior year of high school. I was named the captain of the football team and was probably the laziest player on the team. I was one of the players to always skip practice after school and would fool around during the practice if I attended. As captain I was supposed to be a model for the younger players; furthermore, I had to change my attitude for the sake of the team. It wasn't until one day during school when my head football coach pulled me aside and gave me both guidence and direction on how to become a better leader on and off the field. He explained to me 2 aspects that make an effective leader stand out. One is to lead by example. If others are to follow, what are they to follow? And two: talk is cheap. In order to get anything done an action must take place.
ReplyDeleteEveryone has leadership struggles that they face throughout their life. My struggle was during my senior year of high school when I was Senior Class Secretary. During my leadership class I had all of my best friends in it and I had difficult time mixing business with pleasure. It was dificult for me to able to set down certain expectations I had for them when I was more lenient with them then I was with the others because they were my best friends and I know in the end they would eventually get it done even if it was not the way I wanted it to be. I had to overcome this struggle towards the end of my year because they had failed to finish a task on time which got me in trouble with my advisor, so something had to change. The change I made was not allowing them to help with me but to work with other people of our executive board. At first, they were upset with me but then realized it was for the best for all of us.
ReplyDeleteAs any leader knows, being a leader is a difficult task. I learned this lesson the hard way in high school while working as the senior class president. One of the hardest times I had was when we were writing, filming, and producing the senior skit. We worked as a class to create a 10 minute long "faculty meeting from hell" which we found, funny, not hurtful and enjoyable for everyone. However, the teachers did not find the skit as humorous as we did. It was put on me as the leader of the project to deliberate with administration and produce a censored version. This was very difficult because my fellow class mates and I felt that the skit was not hurtful to anyone. It was very hard for me to be both professional and speak my mind. Despite how hard it may have been, I needed to rise to the position of a leader and do what was best for the class and myself. I eventually respectfully told our principle that we felt we were being over censored and, because of that, we would not put any senior skit on during that years talent show.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that often becomes a struggle for leaders is having the financial backing to accomplish certain goals. In my senior year of high school, I was the leading organizer of a Walk for Autism, a large fundraiser and awareness event to support families in the Central Florida area raising children with Autism. One of the biggest difficulties of planning and executing a large-scale event is scraping together the funds to pull it off and not spending any unnecessary money, since the goal is to yield a profit for the cause, in this case, a charity organization. Prior to this, I had not had much real experience in planning budgets and obtaining sponsorships. If you have ever tried to get any kind of large sponsorships, you know how disappointing it can be when company after company turns you away. It takes patience and hard work to find sponsors. It also takes preparation, professionalism, people-skills, and enthusiasm for your cause. I learned so much about working with business-owners and fundraising in general from a woman I worked with and still continue to work with. Her name is Judee, and she has been an incredible mentor and example in my life over the past three years. With the skills I learned from her and with a lot of perseverance, I managed to help pull off an amazing event.
ReplyDeleteTake advantage of the adult role models in your life; they often have much wisdom and experience to offer.
Every leader has their ups and downs. Struggles are what mold the leader to become who they are. I faced my biggest when I am moved to United States from India at the age of 11 in the 6th grade. In India, I was very used to being a leader and always outspoken. When I moved here I didn’t have the liberty to be myself because I didn’t know the language, I didn’t know the culture, the system, I didn’t know anything at all. I had a huge culture shock. This made me very quiet and I always just kept to myself. At one point I was losing self-confidence because I couldn’t be myself. First I just focused on learning everything and then in 9th grade I had amazing friends who I could be myself around and this helped me big time in restoring my self-confidence. The following year I joined a Lead class which was similar to our lead class which forced me to be outspoken and the same year I also joined SGA. Even today I learn new things every day and grow as a leader and as a person.
ReplyDeleteBeing a leader is hard on its own, let alone the struggles that are usually attached while you are trying to make a difference, or lead people. The last time I faced a struggle while I was a leader, it was a few years ago when I was supposed to lead a school's classroom as an assistant teacher. At the age of only 17 I was left in a room with about ten 3rd grade boys and girls. It was my job to be there leader and teach them the lesson of the day. However, children around the age of 8 to 9 are not typically the easiest to manage. My leadership abilities were truly tested. Being able to mange them, as well as being able to keep control of the class, stay on track with time, and ensure the class was learning were all a very difficult task for me. Especially, since I was not trained to be a teacher. I guess its safe to say that leaders are usually born with leadership qualities. So being able to control the class was not so difficult to take control of the loud, hyper, and uncontrollable class. I was quick to find my pace, and prove my leadership abilities. I ended my time as an assistant teacher proving to not only myself, but the teacher, the class, and my boss that I was able to take on a lead a bunch of kids that were classified as the rowdy group. I was proud to see how my leadership abilities can be used, in the most unsuspecting of places.
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