The question is "Please describe what makes you a unique individual and how these qualities can benefit the University of Connecticut community."
University of Connecticut
Kyle Macri
Becoming a unique individual is a task that average people often do not succeed at. It is not for everyone, hence the word "unique". However, I have managed to set myself apart from my peers, and not blend in with the crowd, but rather lead that crowd. Leadership is a quality that not many people possess, simply because it is not a very easy characteristic to teach yourself. Leadership is not a quality that comes to you overnight, but rather years of practice. This relentless pursuit of making myself the best leader that I can be is what puts me in front of that crowd.
Many people can say that sports have shaped their lives, and that is true for myself as well; however, not many people are able to say that their lives have shaped sports. In 7th grade, when I was only twelve years old, I made a major change in my life by deciding to stop playing baseball, and begin to play a sport that was relatively new to me, lacrosse. I went into tryouts knowing that no first year player had ever made the select team in our town, simply because there was a rule against it. My outstanding performance at tryouts had surprised my coaches to the point of them deciding the rule should not apply to me. In all of the sports I've ever played, I was always the player that the other coaches knew about. I was well known, not always for my skill, but more for my ability to lead my team in even the most unfavorable circumstances, and keeping a positive attitude about the situation because I knew my teammates were looking up to me.
Having leadership qualities do not mean much to anybody unless they are used in a way that will benefit the people around you. Knowing this, I went into Southington High School as just another one out of the five hundred students in my graduating class. After a few short weeks of being in this monstrous high school, I decided I was not going to leave as just another student receiving their diploma. In the second month of school, flyers and announcements were being made about the Class of 2012 officer positions. I was so excited about the opportunity that when I went home after that first day of hearing about the open positions, I immediately filled out the application and wrote my one page essay on why I deserved that spot as class officer, not realizing that the applications were not being accepted for another two weeks. In the proceeding vote among my peers, I was elected Treasurer of the Southington High School Class of 2012. What this position meant to me is that I was no longer going to just be another student in this high school, but rather I would have the ability to be someone that meant something to the school. I knew that with this position came great responsibility, and I saw this responsibility as yet another opportunity to better my leadership abilities that I realized would be crucial to my success later in life. If being class treasurer has taught me one thing, it's that people are in need of someone to look up to, and I am glad that for these past four years I could be that person.
Math and Business have always been areas in which I have excelled in, explaining my enrolling in marketing classes while in high school. These marketing classes, and teachers, are what introduced me to a business-oriented club called DECA. DECA is a club whose goal is to help students take their place in the business world. After researching this group, and attending a few meetings after school, I saw this group as yet another opportunity for me to not only set myself ahead of the my class even further, but mainly to help my peers better themselves. In my junior year, I took on the role as Parliamentarian for the club, and in this opened up numerous doors to my development as a leader. On three separate occasions with DECA, I was able to attend a statewide leadership conference, a day-long event directly aimed to help its attendees become more productive leaders by bettering their self-esteem, creativity, and professional behavior. Only an elite group of students from each school take place in this event, and I can proudly say that after attending this conference three times, that the skills and ideas that I have learned from each seminar will help me in all aspects of my future. After attending my second seminar, I decided that I needed a more challenging role; to not only help myself for the future, but to also exercise my leadership qualities that I had acquired. In my senior year, I am now the Vice-President of Southington DECA. Taking on this role meant a whole new bundle of challenges that I was confident enough to tackle. Being Vice-President has once again set me apart from the members of my school, and in doing so I am able to take on a whole new opportunity to lead my peers to better themselves for their whole entire lives.
Leadership is not a quality that everyone has; it takes a truly special individual to have the ability to put themselves above the rest. Becoming a leader is not an easy task for anybody; it takes an extremely determined person to put in the work for the benefit of others. A leader is not like everyone else, rather someone that everyone else looks up to, and I am proud to admit that throughout my life I have always been that one person in whom others have been happy to look up to. I have always accepted this role and thrived to become a better leader for the people who look to me's sake. Leading others has helped me get this far, and I hope that I will be able to guide others as a leader at the University of Connecticut.
University of Connecticut
Kyle Macri
Becoming a unique individual is a task that average people often do not succeed at. It is not for everyone, hence the word "unique". However, I have managed to set myself apart from my peers, and not blend in with the crowd, but rather lead that crowd. Leadership is a quality that not many people possess, simply because it is not a very easy characteristic to teach yourself. Leadership is not a quality that comes to you overnight, but rather years of practice. This relentless pursuit of making myself the best leader that I can be is what puts me in front of that crowd.
Many people can say that sports have shaped their lives, and that is true for myself as well; however, not many people are able to say that their lives have shaped sports. In 7th grade, when I was only twelve years old, I made a major change in my life by deciding to stop playing baseball, and begin to play a sport that was relatively new to me, lacrosse. I went into tryouts knowing that no first year player had ever made the select team in our town, simply because there was a rule against it. My outstanding performance at tryouts had surprised my coaches to the point of them deciding the rule should not apply to me. In all of the sports I've ever played, I was always the player that the other coaches knew about. I was well known, not always for my skill, but more for my ability to lead my team in even the most unfavorable circumstances, and keeping a positive attitude about the situation because I knew my teammates were looking up to me.
Having leadership qualities do not mean much to anybody unless they are used in a way that will benefit the people around you. Knowing this, I went into Southington High School as just another one out of the five hundred students in my graduating class. After a few short weeks of being in this monstrous high school, I decided I was not going to leave as just another student receiving their diploma. In the second month of school, flyers and announcements were being made about the Class of 2012 officer positions. I was so excited about the opportunity that when I went home after that first day of hearing about the open positions, I immediately filled out the application and wrote my one page essay on why I deserved that spot as class officer, not realizing that the applications were not being accepted for another two weeks. In the proceeding vote among my peers, I was elected Treasurer of the Southington High School Class of 2012. What this position meant to me is that I was no longer going to just be another student in this high school, but rather I would have the ability to be someone that meant something to the school. I knew that with this position came great responsibility, and I saw this responsibility as yet another opportunity to better my leadership abilities that I realized would be crucial to my success later in life. If being class treasurer has taught me one thing, it's that people are in need of someone to look up to, and I am glad that for these past four years I could be that person.
Math and Business have always been areas in which I have excelled in, explaining my enrolling in marketing classes while in high school. These marketing classes, and teachers, are what introduced me to a business-oriented club called DECA. DECA is a club whose goal is to help students take their place in the business world. After researching this group, and attending a few meetings after school, I saw this group as yet another opportunity for me to not only set myself ahead of the my class even further, but mainly to help my peers better themselves. In my junior year, I took on the role as Parliamentarian for the club, and in this opened up numerous doors to my development as a leader. On three separate occasions with DECA, I was able to attend a statewide leadership conference, a day-long event directly aimed to help its attendees become more productive leaders by bettering their self-esteem, creativity, and professional behavior. Only an elite group of students from each school take place in this event, and I can proudly say that after attending this conference three times, that the skills and ideas that I have learned from each seminar will help me in all aspects of my future. After attending my second seminar, I decided that I needed a more challenging role; to not only help myself for the future, but to also exercise my leadership qualities that I had acquired. In my senior year, I am now the Vice-President of Southington DECA. Taking on this role meant a whole new bundle of challenges that I was confident enough to tackle. Being Vice-President has once again set me apart from the members of my school, and in doing so I am able to take on a whole new opportunity to lead my peers to better themselves for their whole entire lives.
Leadership is not a quality that everyone has; it takes a truly special individual to have the ability to put themselves above the rest. Becoming a leader is not an easy task for anybody; it takes an extremely determined person to put in the work for the benefit of others. A leader is not like everyone else, rather someone that everyone else looks up to, and I am proud to admit that throughout my life I have always been that one person in whom others have been happy to look up to. I have always accepted this role and thrived to become a better leader for the people who look to me's sake. Leading others has helped me get this far, and I hope that I will be able to guide others as a leader at the University of Connecticut.
