Personal Narrative: A Career As A Section Leader

Throughout my life, I’ve always had an immense interest in helping others. Being involved in the National Charity League for 5 years has given me the opportunity to be involved with charities that I otherwise would’ve never known about. I’ve had the privilege to help with over b charities in and around my community throughout my years as an NCL member. By far my favorite would have to be Grace’s Feed Our Kids that I have volunteered at every summer since my start in NCL. Through this charity, we are able to provide lunches and fun games to underprivileged kids in Grapevine during the unbearably hot Texas summer days. Each day we serve different meals, either donated from local restaurants or homemade by my NCL class, and have a variety of things for the kids to do, like coloring, water guns,

“Waddley-acha, waddley-acha, doodley-doo, doodley-doo…” rang throughout the gym. 650 freshmen filled the bleachers, laughing while frantically trying to copy Mr. White’s movements to the entertaining camp song. Clad in my purple baseball tee like the other Link Crew Leaders, I chuckled with my group of freshman as we all tried to figure out the motions together.

When I joined marching band in my freshman year of high school, I felt nervous and reluctant about joining because I questioned my abilities. However, I decided to commit myself to it so that I would know if it was something meant for me to pursue in the future. On the first day, I was overwhelmed with the many people who I did not recognize, and I started to feel as if I should never have come. Things began to change for me when I met an upperclassman named Sophie, who was my flute section leader. She was kind to everyone and did not get upset if anyone made a mistake in the music or marching technique, but rather, she gave constructive criticism. Sophie was an amazing leader and musician, and she was, and still is, a role model to me. Without

It all started at the end of last summer. I'm the Drum Major of my school’s band, and for that reason, I was the most nervous I had ever been in my life. At any one point, there were over 150 people watching my every move, and it was nerve-racking. Last summer, they watched me through the hardest time of my entire life. I was given the position in April, but until August, it was essentially just a title.

For five years, I have been a committed member of my high school’s marching band. For two of those five years, I have been given the opportunity to be the drum major where I conducted and commanded the band. Despite being the only sophomore competing against juniors for the title, the band director saw that I possessed the leadership qualifications needed to inspire the band to work as a single unit. Being drum major, as well as participating in marching band itself, has made me more communicative with other people. As a senior member, the younger students look to me and the other seniors for proper examples of experience. However, as the drum major, the younger members look to me for proper marching technique, advice, and an ear to listen.

My senior year of high school, my high brass director left on an extremely short notice, leaving our band one director short for the whole marching season. I cannot begin to describe the trials that we encountered as a band, specifically the high brass family. Not having our “band dad” with us took an excruciating toll that set the high brass back and ultimately the whole band. As a senior, it was my job to step up and facilitate my section since we did not have anyone else to guide us. I did my absolute best to accommodate the younger members with ideal practices to improve their marching skills and playing techniques. During this challenging time, I attempted to take on the persona of a band director to motivate my section to work hard every

I have shown leadership throughout my time at Lincoln High School. When I was a trumpet section leader, I had to encourage the section to try their hardest and not give up halfway through the day. When our band director told us to run to our spots, I ran to my spot and encourage others that were lagging behind to hurry up. As a trumpet section leader, I encouraged others to memorize their music by being one of the first to complete all my music memorization tests. I show academic leadership by completing my assignments early.

In my school’s marching band, I had spent the entirety of my high school year hoping to be granted the prestigious position as Drum Major, and many people stated that I would be the best fit for the position. Due to all of the positive feedback I received in regards to becoming the Drum Major, I felt as though I had a great chance at earning this title. Unfortunately, this long lasting dream of mine was shattered when I failed to acquire the position. Though defeated, I did not let this failure take hold of my passion for music and my desire to be a leader. During summer practices, I consistently showed my talents, and I made it a point to show my band director just how abled I am to have a leadership position. Come the end of band camp, I

Since junior year, I had been section leader of the low brass and woodwind section. My high school had just gone through the transition of losing a music teacher and gaining a recently graduated band director. This of course was a recipe for disaster. My “friend” Field was the drum major. She wasn’t a very good leader of the band and we often butted heads on how she should lead. While I admit it was not my place to say how she should run things, I had a very clear and set way of how to lead. I had been utilizing this since the end of sophomore year and thought that it wouldn’t be that difficult. But I digress. The band was having difficulty with setting charts. The drum majors, counting out Field, and the other section leaders were itching to have a night rehearsal. Eventually the new band director, Mr. Watson, agreed to initiate a night rehearsal. Everyone in the band had already had their nerves on end. Our marching show was not yet placed on the field, plus the vast majority of the band did not have their music memorized. Mind you, we had the looming cloud of state competition which was only four weeks away at this time.

I live in a small town on a small island where most people are of European descent. However, what we lack in cultural differences, we make up with different personalities.Being able to work with people becomes an important lesson. As a leader in band and Key Club I learned important lessons in dealing with different people and how to handle situations in a mature manner and with a calm head. My Junior year I was elected to take on the position of section leader taking charge of the flutes in my band. Many people were very happy than I had gotten the position, I had already taken on leadership roles in the past, but the only Senior in the group felt that it not fair that she had not been given the role. After several months of trying to make

As the Chapter Assistant for the MS Society, a fundamental part of my job was focused on the overall working and organization of the office. These tasks included organization of event materials, mail sorting and a re-organization of the resource library. In undertaking these basic tasks, I learned that in order for an organization to be successful there needs to be organization at all levels. A big organizational project I offered to undertake this year was to purge and shred the old and outdated financial, membership and fundraising documents from the filing cabinets, as it was more efficient to have them online and the required length of time to keep them in paper had passed. In doing so, it allowed my manager to focus on other more important things, de-cluttered the office space and made reviewing these documents easier. Through my classes in Organizational

I have been a student leader for two years and a section leader ever since eighth grade. I have done a lot of instructing during the past two years of being a student leader/section leader that involves either marching technique or music ability during rehearsal or sectionals. I have gave my opinions on either what a underclassmen is doing well on or what they could improve on. I have helped get the instruments and/or the hat boxes on and off the trailers. I have also helped and stayed after for competitions for feed the band, football games, and rehearsal nights to clean up trash or misplaced items.

Landing a spot on the C-team of my school’s Science Olympiad team my freshman year resulted in a lot of jeers from my peers. Unlike others who were disappointed not to be on a better team, I was humbled by the opportunity the spot provided for me. Although I was the “new kid” in this community of motivated and intelligent individuals, I felt right at home. I understood my role was to learn skills from the experienced members which would prepare me for future success. I saw it as a valuable learning experience and was rewarded for my efforts with a 2nd place medal, the only medalling event on the C-team.

I did not discuss my plans for college with my parents during my senior year in high school. I paid for my own SAT tutoring, SAT test, college applications and the down payment for attending the school. I tried to keep them in the dark

I have been trained to become a chemist since the first year of my high school. This is a challenging career, requiring analytical thinking, attention to details, and adaptability. It is also a well-paying and promising career. However, chemistry is not what I have always dreamt of doing the rest of my life. As someone who is concerned about the development of sub-Saharan Africa, I came to a conclusion that what this region needs is not only scientists but also people who know and understand leadership and international affairs. In this paper, I compare my strengths and abilities to the qualities that one should have in order to excel as a chemist and a diplomat.