Welcome
Hello! Welcome to my personal portfolio detailing my growth and development as a leader throughout the HWS Leadership Program. On this site you will find what I believe a leader to be and my own personal narrative on leadership. "If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." - John Quincy Adams |
Leadership Philosophy
In order to be an effective leader, I believe that the most important attribute to have is the ability to listen. I think a common misconception about effective leadership is that you have to be the loudest in the room when in reality, the leaders are the ones who can listen to other people and formulate a plan based on the ideas that are surrounding them. It is important to not order people to follow your ideas, but guide them in a way that shows them why they need to move in a certain direction. As a future leader myself, I believe that leadership should be the ability to guide with collaboration so that every unique voice and thought is heard to achieve the most effective answer to a problem at hand.
Ethical Statement
I believe that everyone's voices should be heard. I was raised in a family where we would discuss an issue and everyone would be able to have a voice and an opinion on the subject we were addressing. There was a balance between the power, the privilege, and justice within my family, and I hope to continue this balance in my own leadership endeavors. I think with leadership, a truly good leader must learn how to share all of these aspects so that they do not solely abuse all of the factors themselves, but learn how to share the power, privilege, and justice with the people they are leading.
Notable Course Work
Throughout the Leadership Program, I have been challenged to think about my leadership qualities, what I believe in, how I want to lead, and an abundance of other aspects to shape me into the leader I am becoming both in and out of the classroom.
Leadership Theory I:
This class taught me the fundamentals of leadership and helped me find out what my core values are. Additionally, it made me take an introspective look into what I truly believe in which helps aid in my leadership values. These are as follows:
- I believe I am stronger than I give myself credit for.
- I believe music has the ability to heal and calm the mind.
- I believe in love.
- I believe in positive thinking.
- I believe people are inherently good.
- I believe an education is one of the most important things.
- I believe family comes first.
- I believe independence is important for everyone.
- I believe people must work hard and not take short cuts in life.
- I believe that we must learn to appreciate life more.
- I believe we should not sweat the small stuff.
- I believe we should always try to treat others how we want to be treated.
- I believe men and women should be treated equally.
- I believe in friendship.
- I believe in showing people what I value.
- I believe that laughter is the best medicine.
- I believe that we must keep our bodies and minds healthy.
- I believe that money is not the most important thing.
- I believe that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
- I believe that everyone should attempt to stay positive in hard situations.
- I believe in the power of a good cry.
- I believe we must treat animals with love and care.
- I believe we must learn from our elders.
- I believe we must respect our parents.
- I believe you should do what you want.
- I believe you should stay true to yourself.
- I believe your job should be something you love.
- I believe that promises should always be kept.
- I believe that you should never betray someone’s trust.
- I believe that life should not be taken that seriously.
- I believe that things happen for a reason.
- I believe that you must listen to your gut.
- I believe that nobody should discriminate.
- I believe a person should read a book every once in a while.
- I believe that people need to slow down their life and appreciate it.
- I believe we should not fear death.
- I believe in the power of non-traditional medicine.
- I believe in the power of song.
- I believe in myself.
- I believe that if you work hard you will get rewarded.
Leadership Theory II
In this course, I was able to continue to shape and build how exactly I wanted my leadership to be expressed to the people around me. One of the most notable parts of this course was our 100 day plan presentation that we were encouraged to conduct. This was one of the first opportunities I was given to truly assume a role of a leader and try to make a change for the better. This showed me how effective public speaking was for leadership and also showed me the power of a good presentation. Another major aspect that I learned was how to learn from other leaders. We had the chance to interview and write about a prominent leadership figure in our lives and learn from their individual styles before reporting back to the class. It was eye opening to hear about all of the different leadership styles from my classmates, and made me realize that there is not one select leadership style.
Public Speaking
This class taught me how to become comfortable talking in front of a group of people. I truly believe that a major aspect of leadership is having the ability to articulate thoughts in a concise and understandable way which is something I feel I struggled with prior to this course. Through bi-weekly speeches I advanced form having a full script to only needing a few notes on a single notecard in order to successfully complete my speech. This skill is going to be exceedingly useful in my future in my leadership endeavors and I feel as though this ability is one of the most important skills I garnered from the Leadership Program.
This class taught me how to become comfortable talking in front of a group of people. I truly believe that a major aspect of leadership is having the ability to articulate thoughts in a concise and understandable way which is something I feel I struggled with prior to this course. Through bi-weekly speeches I advanced form having a full script to only needing a few notes on a single notecard in order to successfully complete my speech. This skill is going to be exceedingly useful in my future in my leadership endeavors and I feel as though this ability is one of the most important skills I garnered from the Leadership Program.
Leadership Applied
Once I had completed all aspects of the in-class portion of my Leadership Program, it was time to put my skills to the test and utilize them with my non-profit that I was affiliated with. I was a Junior Board Member for Family Promise of Ontario County which is a volunteer organization aimed at helping and aiding homeless families find permanent residences. Upon accepting this position, I would go into the office weekly or bi-weekly and help out with any needs that may arise. This would be anything from helping set up technology for the newer staff to editing meeting agendas or simply listening to the goals of the non-profit. At first, I found myself having trouble finding where my newly acquired leadership skills could come into play, but then I was able to offer ideas and critical thinking skills about implementation of programs that I learned throughout the Leadership Program. Even though my time with Family Promise was cut short due to Covid-19, I feel as I learned an immense amount about both non-profits and my own leadership abilities.
Once I had completed all aspects of the in-class portion of my Leadership Program, it was time to put my skills to the test and utilize them with my non-profit that I was affiliated with. I was a Junior Board Member for Family Promise of Ontario County which is a volunteer organization aimed at helping and aiding homeless families find permanent residences. Upon accepting this position, I would go into the office weekly or bi-weekly and help out with any needs that may arise. This would be anything from helping set up technology for the newer staff to editing meeting agendas or simply listening to the goals of the non-profit. At first, I found myself having trouble finding where my newly acquired leadership skills could come into play, but then I was able to offer ideas and critical thinking skills about implementation of programs that I learned throughout the Leadership Program. Even though my time with Family Promise was cut short due to Covid-19, I feel as I learned an immense amount about both non-profits and my own leadership abilities.
Continued Leadership in My Future Career
Through these aspects of the Leadership program along with my major in Psychology and minor in Sociology, I feel exceedingly prepared to move toward my future with courage and confidence. I think everything that I have learned has shown me how to be a successful leader within whatever field I will end up in. I think another aspect that I have learned throughout my undergraduate career and I think is important of any leader, is adaptability. This is something that has been put to the test recently with everything that has changed in a span of two months from Covid-19. While I have yet to know what exactly I will be doing after college, I do know that the skills I have learned from the Leadership Program, my overall Undergraduate career, and the recent events in the economy, will make me more prepared than ever to be successful in my future endeavors.
Get In Touch
Please feel free to reach out at any time for questions or comments about my page. You will also find a link to my resume and LinkedIn if you wish to contact me about future opportunities.
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