Doonique's Unique Characteristics

This semester, we learned specific ways to build our leadership capabilities by reading “How Remarkable Women Lead” by Joanna Barsh and Susie Cranston, researching Boston women leaders, interviewing a present day woman leader, and reading a group book. Throughout all of these resources and research, common themes of how to be a successful leader emerged. Not only did I learn more about leadership in general, but I also found ways to improve my own leadership without going too much out of my comfort zone. The important lessons of leading with perseverance, framing, and an activist's mindset thoroughly influenced my identity as a leader and gave me new tactics to grow as a person.

It can come from being in charge in a school project for language arts literacy or running a fundraiser to help raise awareness to a disease. They take charge in something with an effective sense and choose to embrace their acts of self assessment.What their group or themselves is good at,their weaknesses and strengths.Once they figure that out,everything goes smoothly.Even from a project once the topic is clearly explained and managed by the leader there is no problem getting across from the littlest of obstacles. True acts of leadership here in Terence C Reilly, is not being carried out by bad influences.They have a good ethic of relations with other classmates and prove to work collaboratively.Although teamwork and cooperation is part of a leadership, it all leads up to an effective communication within others.Students have different leadership skills,but never do it in a bad way. They are integrated and not even in schoolwork do they have to be leaders. You can hall moniter and you’re the leader of the hallway or perhaps setting up a new fundriser you had created.You are managaing something for

As an introvert, I never believed that leadership would be my cup of tea. Quiet, observant, soft-spoken. Those are not the traits of a leader...or so I thought. Then, I journeyed to Europe for 20 days with People to People to become a Student Ambassador. Meeting a Parliament member in England and representing The United States of America to a group of German students opened my eyes to the world of leadership and showed me how capable of leading I truly was. Entering my sophomore year of high school, I was selected to be a National Honor Society Member, the Vice President of the Beta Club, and a member of the Tri-M Music Honor Society. While all of the leadership positions I’ve experienced have been extraordinary and eye opening, the most significant

In the Leadership Challenge, 4th edition, it is Kouzes & Posner (2007) intention to present a road map for individuals to follow on their leadership journey. The authors stress that “leadership is not a gene and it’s not an inheritance.” Leadership they assert is “an identifiable set of skills and abilities that are available to all of us” (p. 23). They make clear that the “great person” theory of leadership is “plain wrong.” Leaders are our everyday heroes who do extraordinary things on a regular basis (p. 23).

The purpose of the book is to help the reader discover their “True North.” One of the most profound arguments was that leadership is “not a set of genetic characteristics, but the result of a lifelong process of self-discovery.” I have always believed that a person's leadership style grows overtime, so I like the idea that we are all born as a blank-slate with leadership potential. In addition, the idea that “no one can be authentic by trying to be like someone else [...] you can learn from others’ experiences, but you cannot be successful trying to be like them”(485) really stood out to me because this concept can definitely be applied to SLC. Our class is filled with a wide range of influential leaders with a lot of potential but who

Being the oldest of six children to a single mother has naturally spurred me to shape and build my leadership skills. Over time, I have gained the ability to lead in situations that I deemed necessary. Consequently, I have become an active member of both the National Honor Society and the Female African American Scholars organization (a group geared toward creating a motivational community among the academically successful African American students in my school). Additionally, I have become captain of John Glenn’s varsity tennis team and I have launched a nonprofit business to guide teen mothers through the Young Entrepreneurs Academy. All of my obtained leadership skills have proven useful to me on many occasions.

For the entirety of my high school career, I have been a student in the Leadership Center for the Sciences and Engineering (LCSE) held at Norview High School. Being enrolled in this specialty program has strengthened and pushed me academically, as a leader, with public speaking, and as a service worker. Specifically, LCSE has developed my leadership skills and allowed me to become a more service-oriented leader. In the first year of the program, students take Leadership Foundations where the basics of leadership and the history of great leaders are taught. Then, in Advanced Leadership students model leadership skills by hosting holiday gatherings, being counselors for the LCSE Summer Orientation Camp, and completing 200 volunteering hours.

It is difficult to write on a subject that is so intangible, yet prevalent and visible at the same time. I was always told growing up that I was a leader, but never quite grasped what that was supposed to mean. I always was taller than, and looked older than all of my peers growing up. While the medical reasons are tedious to explain, the impact this made on my development was fundamental to my personality. Growing up, I was always looked up to, both literally and figuratively. This helped build my conscientiousness and interpersonal skills required to be a leader. At the same time, I had many strong role models in my life who were positive influences in my development as a person and a leader. My father was a high school principal, and is now the superintendent of that district. He has very good ideals and skills that he has instilled in me as far as being a leader. These influences along with others have helped shape me into the leader I am today.

A leader is someone who inspires others and promotes integrity and hard-work ethic. A single name immediately wound into my head the moment I read the word “Leader”. Ellen McLemore, a piano director at Lafayette High School, has proved her leadership qualities an inexhaustible amount of times. As the only director of a public high school piano class in Louisiana, the LHS Tennis team sponsor, and a Quidditch Club sponsor, Mrs. McLemore demonstrates many leadership qualities. Between preparing her students with an appropriate amount of knowledge of the fine arts, Mrs. McLemore still finds time to go above and beyond, nearly every day. She in charge of hosting and planning school wide pep rallies, scheduling the annual LHS Talent Show, and

A person that has influenced almost every aspect of my life and has been pivotal in directing me in discovering my identity is my mother, Cathy Turner. This may seem like a cliché answer, and to others it might be, however, I know that I would not be who I am today without the benefit of her guidance and leadership. I believe Cathy took a Situational Theory approach to leading my siblings and I through life. Situational Theory is whenever leaders chose what style of leadership is needed—authoritative, democratic, laissez-faire, and any other type of approach—based on that particular context. If a leader adheres to this theory they are ready and willing to change their approach whenever necessary. Looking back on my childhood and my life as

I believe that leadership is exemplified by certain traits such as integrity, perseverance, and positivity. Kate has always exhibited these traits. I have frequently noticed that she calmly handles the stress of handling a full academic workload, plus her extra-curricular activities. Kate continuously shows stamina and resourcefulness. The detail-oriented focus which Kate shows is rare in young people, and I know that it makes her well-suited to following directions, leading when necessary, and performing creative, helpful deeds.

My entire life I’ve always been a natural leader, but now it’s time to take my leadership to the next level. I’m interested in attending the Junior Scholar Institute because some of my teachers and mentors in the past have also referred to me as a “natural-born leader”, for a long time this didn’t really resonate with me, it was just another compliment from teacher. As I got older and wiser I started to think about this more and more, what did being a “leader” even mean, I never signed up for this, so what I’m a natural-born leader people change, these were all thoughts that ran through my head. As the confusion progressed I started to realize that this leader thing may not be such a bad thing. I was taking 7th Grade Social Studies, where we

When Professor Lopez Littleton asked the class to delve inside of our minds, we took a variety of questionnaires about ourselves. One that stood out to me was the Locus of Control questionnaire. The very first two statements are leaders are born, not made and leaders are made, not born. I chose the second statement that leaders are made, not born. When I was younger, I was quite insecure with myself and I wasn’t much of a leader. Sure, everyone in the class always wanted to work with me because I received satisfying grades and I always prepared proficient work, but I didn’t guide people to greatness. I always felt like I was my own leader but I didn’t really have any followers. I was not born a leader, but I became a leader as I grew older. I absolutely love being a leader and I couldn’t imagine who I would be today if instead I was a follower. Being a leader has gotten me so far in life and continues to get me ahead every day. I have always been the leader when it comes to group projects and with school in general. I believe when there is turmoil, people always look to me for answers. If I am on an adventure, I love to be in the lead because it motivates me when I am motivating others. This happened in Brazil last summer when my boyfriend and I went on a hiking and mountain climbing excursion. As I was in the lead, and the group was falling behind, I cheered them on and encouraged the group to keep on. They highly appreciated my motivation and it made me feel great, too.

For leadership to be born, perseverance is of utmost importance. Pushing through challenges and knowing that mistakes will be made are the next steps to leadership. In an article about how to improve leadership of young women, author Davis-Laack wrote, “Being brave

There are many kinds of leaders; some lead through position and authority, while others lead through inspiration and vision. Some people are simply natural born leaders. However, whether one was born a leader or has to become a leader, all great leaders spend time developing their traits. Similarly, when you train for a sport, you first learn to develop the fundamentals, and then you work to master and apply them. I’ve been told I am a born leader, but have always sought to improve my leadership abilities through experience. Maxwell states, “The learned leader; has seen leadership modeled most of life, has learned leadership through training, and has self-discipline to become a great leader” (Maxwell, 93). This statement is reflective of my experience during my military tenure, and what it means to me is; leadership must be developed in practice, as well as in theory.