Joining The CWRU Volleyball Team

While preparing for tryouts, I was expected to condition for two hours every day, playing and exercising vigorously. Once tryouts came along, I was in my best shape physically, but mentally, I still feared I wasn't good enough. Luckily, I was wrong to doubt myself because I made the team. All three teams spent hours practicing together, which made me nervous because most of the girls were more experienced. Even though I made more mistakes than the varsity players, they always encouraged me. Because of this, I became a better player and person. As the ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu stated, “If you want to lead the people, you must learn how to follow them.” By allowing me to make mistakes without making me feel like a complete failure, the varsity players set a good example of leadership. Since they were understanding and did not assume an attitude of superiority, I was inspired to be humble and compassionate toward others. Honestly, I am glad I persevered through the tough times because it has taught me the necessary lessons to be a great role model. I hope I can motivate girls to not only play volleyball but to also express the importance of transferring the life lessons learned from the game to their everyday

I started out as a student-athlete in which I depicted great leadership skills and positive role model qualities such as diligence, enthusiasm, and passion for the sport. Hence, after my first year of college, I was named the team captain. I worked closely with the coaches, helped to resolve team conflicts, established the tone for practice, and modeled responsibility, decision-making, and a strong work ethic. I also promoted a positive attitude and team interactions, and encouraged and supported all of my teammates. Throughout my experience as team captain, I showed mental toughness by remaining confident and focus, and respond to individual and team mistakes in an appropriate manner.

Sports make people come close together like family,” because of the opportunity to train, try, win, or lose together.”( The Mental Benefits of Sports, Kathryn Watson, para. 8) Winning and losing as a team is very important to learn how to do. Everyone has to work as a group in something of their life and no one wants to work with a sore loser or winner. Leadership qualities can, “range from being a good character, to respecting others, to being task oriented can be accomplished in both team and individual sports,” because of that “team mindset” ability.(What Do Youth Sports Teach Our Children Really? Suzanne Pish, Michigan State University, para. 6) The “team mindset” is a key thing to strengthen leadership qualities. Leaders are what makes up teams or groups of people or student athletes. Something to improve leadership is, “encouraging and inspiring team members to attain their own personal goals and reach their potential can help you become a better leader.”(Goals to Increase Leadership Skills for Personal Development, Laura Jerpi, para.5) Also, students that are more task oriented or who have better interpersonal skills tend to be healthier than an average human being. Leadership is an significant title to be able to claim. Having the title can get people a long way in

I am involved in many clubs, sports, and volunteering opportunities including tennis, track and field, art service club, ceramics club, arrupe club, W.I.S.H club, and Landow Performance training. All of these activities have taught how to be a leader in and out of Regis. Specifically, club tennis and Regis tennis have taught me how to work as a team with my peers. During the Regis tennis season, freshman year, my partner and I lost many matches, which crushed our confidence. However, through supporting and helping each other, we overcame our loses and improved our game. This applies to NHS, because my perseverance and patience allowed me to not only regain confidence while playing, but it allowed me to grow my character. Additionally, I am now able to see the goodness in everyone I encounter from playing tennis. Outside of Regis, I am involved in a club tennis league at the Pinery where I have taken on some leadership roles including encouraging my friends to join, and showing my peers that perseverance and training to pay off. In addition to tennis, the other activities that I am involved in have allowed me to learn how to quickly solve problems and conflicts. Since childhood, I have had a chance to develop my leadership, organizational skills, and problem solving through all of these

Along with NHS, being actively involved in varsity sports throughout high school has made me gain a “work hard” attitude. This attitude of constantly working above and beyond will carry over to my future education and career to help me succeed. As a two-year captain of both volleyball and cheerleading, I have learned to be a team leader while also being a team player. High school sports have instilled lifelong lessons in me such as working hard, being responsible, and being a leader, that I know will aid me in by success in academics and a

National Honor Society Essay I am greatly honored to be considered for the National Honor Society. The National Society Essay is an exceptional organization that allows students to help the needy and provide essential characteristics for life. Ever since my sister was admitted to the National Honor Society I have strived to make it one of my goals to be apart of this prestigious society as well. Throughout my high school career, I have demonstrated many examples of character, leadership, and service that I believe will qualify me for this coalition. I believe that I posses qualities of a good character because there have been many times where I have exhibited good character.

The first thing I learned from being on a team was responsibility. Volleyball stressed this concept heavily because members relied on each other to be at practice and games so that we can grow and bond together to form a stronger team. With this responsibility came learning how to effectively communicate. Communication was essential especially in a coach to athlete situation, much like a boss to employee scenario, because if we could not attend practice or we were injured, the coach (boss) had to know. I strive to be an effective communicator at my current job and future career in graphic design so that my customers can get the best experience possible. With my ever-improving skills in communication, holding responsibility for myself and this Bay scholarship, I will be able to reach my goal of living a successful life as a graphic

Leadership is a trait that many people misunderstand. Some people believe that leaders need to be mean, assertive, dominant, and have overwhelming control over a situation, however, this could not be farther away from the truth. Often times people confuse being boddy with being a leader. Personally, I think that in order to be a leader you must be nice, as well as showing the way by example instead of orders. In school I try to help all of my friends with any schoolwork they need help with whenever I can. The most important role as a leader that I have is for the school’s junior varsity baseball team. This school district is a lot smaller than many other school district, so we face many teams that are able to have all junior and sophomores on junior varsity. We are about half sophomores and half freshmen and I feel that it is mine, as wells as the other sophomore’s, responsibility to lead the team through example. Even in tough situations I still motivate the team with encouragement, constructive criticism, and positive actions in order to keep our heads

Participating in organized basketball and football for ten years presented me the opportunity to achieve common goals working side-by-side with a variety of different personalities. Playing sports drove home the importance of harnessing different personalities and skill sets as key components to teamwork. Fundamental to teamwork is the ability to encourage others, to pick up new information, to learn from mistakes, to hold oneself accountable and to overcome defeat. Over time I have found that the lessons learned through team sports are broadly applicable tools for success. For instance, this past summer my

McKenzie Jackson, the author of “Former MHS player named best coach”, writes about how Hayden Goldberg, a former student and water polo player at Malibu High School, was named Tri-Valley League Coach of the Year for the MHS water polo girls’ team. A previous high school coach, Mike Mulligan, notes his natural ability to lead and coach, his admiration for the game, and his respect for the players. This article relates to the theories presented in class relating to leadership and sport.

We lean on each other just as much as we strive individually. Together we are stronger and bring out the best in each other. We win together and lose together. We have girls that are our Moms, they keep us under control. Then we have the loud ones, they are the girls that talk when they should and even when they shouldn't. We have the quiet ones who keep to themselves and hardly engage with others. We have the academically talented and the students who can't hand in assignments on time. The one thing we all have in common is our drive and determination towards this team. The second we step over that white line all our lives change. We don't care about anything besides each other in that moment. All of our differences vanish and the one thing that brought us together in the first place takes over. We come

Being surrounded by such a great community, I have learned the qualities of exceptional leadership and have implemented them into my own life. I am the Walden Grove Band secretary, and am a strong member of my church’s youth group. I use the trait of integrity to help guide my decisions and to ensure they are the best for everyone in the group. Not only am I a leader in clubs and organizations, I exhibit leadership qualities while in the classroom, volunteering, and during my extra curricular activities. As Tennis Manager, I take the initative to prepare the equipment for practices and matches, and do many other nessecary tasks to make sure the practices and matches runs smoothly and efficiently. I am responsible for making sure all tennis

Examining how students can greater develop their leadership potential has come to the forefront of education, education based athletics, and intercollegiate athletics in recent years. Recent research by (Grandzol, Perlis, Draina, 2010; Forrester & Borsz, 2008) has shown that those who are put into a role as a peer leader tend to develop leadership skills. Those individuals in peer leader roles have benefited from the opportunities they have been exposed to in those roles. In the summer of 2011 Dr. Christina J. Grandzol published a study entitled “An Exploratory Study of the Role of Task Dependence on Team Captains’ Leadership Development.” This study focused on 31 NCAA Division III team captains. While being a peer leader has been shown

In all of the years I’ve played baseball, I’ve always been a leader on my team, and it has prepared me for other applications of leadership in my life. Examples of leadership in baseball would be when our team is down on ourselves because we’re losing, stepping up and telling everyone it’s not over, to keep our heads in the game. When a pitcher gives up a big hit that lets a few runs in, I call time and calm them down on the mound. At practice, when my teammates aren’t focusing, I’ll tell get them back to practice. This leads into school and if we’re doing a group project and my group is off task, I can get them back

With the opportunity of a fresh start in front of us, I believe now is the time to make the changes this program needed five plus seasons ago. My first year on the team was both very exciting and intimidating. It couldn’t have been more than two days into the season before I was taken under the wing of senior captain Laura. She began to teach me the ropes of the program I would dream of leading myself one day. As a new captain, Laura explained to me her goals as a leader and what she hoped to bring to the Prior Lake Girls’ Hockey Team. As I look back to the very beginning of my high school hockey career, I have yet to see this team achieve the goals Laura set that year. What I will write about is what I have learned what makes some leaders more successful than other, and why