Personal Narrative: My Experience At Advancing Leadership Youth

During the four years that attended high school, I have had the opportunity of being a member of many clubs. Being apart of Family Career Community Leaders of America was to me the greatest achievement of all four years attending high school. Although I only been a member for two out of the four years, it feels as though it has been forever. I had the privilege of being an officer for both of the two years. The first year I had the honor of being the FCCLA Treasurer, and my second year the President of Public Relations. My first year of membership, I won the gold medal in the North Carolina FCCLA State Competition. I won this medal by creating a Stop the Violence campaign by getting students in my school to spread bullying awareness for a

Leadership is defined as the power or ability to lead other people. Historically, I have strived to be a person that my peers would call a leader. I want to be a part of the Florida Leadership Academy so that I can learn new leadership skills from other proven leaders, as well as spread some of the skills that I have honed over the years. Throughout my life, I have pursued numerous leadership roles such as assistant captain of my high school’s varsity ice hockey team, Lead Volunteer at Young At Art, and currently, the secretary of the University of Florida Student Investment club. In addition, as a sophomore in high school, I took the initiative to apply and enroll at the College Academy at Broward College. This decision was a unique opportunity

I believe that leaders must accept the crucibles and acid test so that they can identify their value, and accomplish their great dream and tough missions. As the author of the “Crucibles of leadership” mentioned that leaders should equip with the following essential skills, namely, “engage others in shared meaning, a distinctive, compelling voice, integrity, and adaptive capacity.1 We know how these essentials important, however, we don’t understand how to obtain these elements as well as how to employ them, because the overconfidence always blind us. Thus, people who desire to become the leaders need to go through the crucible test.

7am. That was the time I arrived at the parking lot of the First Presbyterian Church in Woodbridge, New Jersey. The destination was Montreat, North Carolina and I was about to embark on a journey with twelve other kids to attend my first Montreat Youth Conference, a retreat focused on strengthening and shaping youth’s faith. The number of stories I’ve heard of what a week in the black mountain area of North Carolina entailed led me to crave the formation of my own stories. This trip was reputable for being “life changing,” and Montreat was supposedly a “thin place between heaven and earth,” but before going on the trip I was perplexed as to what those words meant and if they were ever going to hold meaning for me. However, after a twelve-hour

Ten forty-six, on a late Saturday night. Instead of sleeping I was once again reading and editing my Teen Advisory Council (TAC) application for the Ronald McDonald House of Southern New Jersey. I still remember to this day how nervous I was; the application, the interview, and the phone calls. However, as I further refined each and every component, my nervousness slowly transformed into confidence. Next thing I knew I was sitting there with fifty other individuals, listening to the executive council’s strategy on how we were all going to help improve the council. It was at that point that I knew becoming a part of the TAC would provide the opportunity to help those in need while building my understanding on how such organizations achieve their goals.

Throughout high school, I participated in many leadership activities. I served as the president of the National Homeschool Honor Society, which involved organizing meetings community service projects. I taught a class of twenty preschoolers at my church for two years. Even simply hosting Bible studies has involved a lot of planning and leadership. All of these opportunities have shown me that a good leader not only instructs people on what to do, but they also listen to the people they are leading. A good leader needs equal amounts of passion, patience, confidence, and integrity.

When registration time rolled around in fall 2015, I only needed 12 hours to graduate in May; however, I knew I would be bored and yearned for a class that was meaningful and would end my college career on a positive note. When Dr. May mentioned the mentoring at-risk youth class I was hooked. Although he tried to talk everybody out of it, I knew that this was going to be a perfect fit for me. I have always enjoyed working with youth, whether it was through coaching cheerleading, volunteering in the local elementary school, or spending afternoons at a halfway house for abused and neglected children. By signing up for the mentoring program I was able to try something I had never tried before— using my love for youth to create a lifelong one-on-one

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.

When I was in elementary school I would spend most of the summer setting stuffed animals up on my bed to teach them all the math problems I had learned the previous year in school. In middle school my friends would come over and I'd teach them how to do cool tricks on the trampoline or how to draw bubble letters. Once I was in high school, I had more opportunities to work with children and I took them without hesitation. Since teaching is something I enjoy doing in my freetime I know it's something I would love to do as a career.

It was a humid August morning in Fork Union, Virginia when I, along with 42 of the finest cadets Fork Union Military Academy had to offer, boarded buses for a trip to our final training exercise of the 10-day leadership training course. This course was open only to cadets who had performed admirably in the prior school year. I was told the night before to be prepared for an orienteering course and to wear my battle dress uniform, which consisted of a pair of heavy, olive drab green cargo pants, a black polo shirt embroidered with the academy name, and a pair of carefully shined leather combat boots, the perfect uniform for a day of taxing exertion. When I arrived at Terry Farms, a school-owned plot of land that would serve as the orienteering course for that day, I surveyed my surroundings and saw acres of open fields bordered by dense forests filled with

I remember my freshman year of orientation quite vividly. We had recieved our class schedules for the year , a few weeks before school was to commence. The moment I glanced at my schedule, there appeared a glaring mistake that protruded from the agenda. I was allotted Leadership class sixth period with Ms.Hanson; a class that I had no intention on taking, and a teacher whom I heared only middle schoolers whisper about. My heart skipped a beat but being the very timid freshman that I was, I did not request a change. Summer passed, nerves heightened, final goodbyes to middle school life were had and from there I discovered what it takes to be a leader.

For the past 3 summers I have been a part of a Leadership in Training summer Camp run by the YMCA. It is a two week event, the first week is your “Training”. This is where you play team building games, and learn to solve problems as a group. The second week, your skills get put to the test. On the first day of the second week you get assigned to a group. The groups are sorted by age, the ages range from preschool to 5th grade.( I normally request the preschoolers). There is normally 1-2 counselors per group. You assist the counselors along with help the kids do fun activities such as fishing, canoeing, archery, and arts and crafts. A lot of patience is needed for this, along with the ability to say “no” sometimes.

Before I interviewed Annie I knew a small deal of information on bits and pieces of her life. Annie started teaching here at RHS in the fall of 2015. I was kind of cautious around her at first, because I didn’t know what offended her or what bothered her. The first few weeks of school, it seemed like she was treating us 1st graders or Kindergarteners by giving us spelling tests with four of five letter words that 1st graders or Kindergarteners would study. I slowly got used to the fact that the tests were just to see where students were at with their grammar. Eventually I warmed up to her and we got along pretty well. Other students also warmed up to her. As 9th grade came to an end, I hoped that she would be here next year. On September 8th,

My parents have raised me to be a good Christian and to always practice my religion. Every Sunday my family and I would wake up eight in the morning, two hours earlier, and get ready for our ten o; clock mass. It was very routine and something I looked forward to all week. It was the only time when my family seemed to get along and behave civilized while we were all together, which was extremely rare to see. Driving a few miles from my house, we arrive at the same old parking lot every week. We rush into mass just seconds before the church bells ring and the choir stands to welcome the priest. Right before the priest blesses us to begin the mass, we find the same empty pew that seemed as if it was reserved specifically for my family for years. We sit and listen quietly to what my priest has

Having gone through university, I had experienced and learned a lot. I had the pleasure of mentoring secondary school children, where I and my colleague has to support, assist and teach them to code and solve any issues they encounter but we also had the responsibility for a safe, attractive experience. I was also a Department Representative for 3 years where I had to handle data and information from lectures/vice chancellor/higher up and correctly filter and clearly distribute to Students/students reps/ (and vice versa) for example to promote and increase awareness of programmes or extra sessions, changes in regulations and etc…, as a Department Representative my service was to the department and students to make sure they have a safe and