Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.
Since I was elected president of my third grade class, I knew I wanted to be a part of student government. I wanted to be a leader and to make decisions that would benefit my classmates. I was fortunate enough to be repeatedly elected president throughout high school, winning by "landslides" as my advisor had told me. However, being labeled a president did not make me a true leader.Through facing my failures and conquering my shortcomings as president, I was able to realize what a true leader must be.
I was in charge of the steering committee, an elected group of students who represent our class. After being the uncontested figurehead of Hempfield High School's Class of 2013, I happily took the responsibility for granted. Over the years, I did not meet the expectations the elected members of my cabinet had for me. They became my adversaries, and all had their minds set on removing me from my position.. They decided to scavenge an old school rule to "impeach" me through a steering-committee only vote, which did not involve the entire student body.
Up to this point, I acknowledged I was not showing my full potential. I had depreciated the admirable position of being class president. I believed other issues, such as my dad's sudden stroke midway through my junior year, justified showing up late a few times and slowing down productivity. I was naĂŻve to think my minor shortcomings didn't matter. These "conspirators" were actually beneficial to me, for they gave me an epiphany: I currently was not the president I dreamed to be in third grade. I decided to stay calm but make active decisions. Typical high school rumors, ridden with political slander, began to arise. I did not respond with equally negative feedback, although it was difficult to remain outwardly passive.
I knew I had to seek help from those who put me in my position: the student body. If they believed in my strength as a leader, like I now did, I could turn to them. Thus, my response was a facts-only facebook status for everyone in my class to see, emphasizing how the student body's voice was lost in the steering committee vote. In one night, more than 150 people responded to it, a fourth of my class, in full support for me and my plan to be a better president. It was not enough, however, to save me from impeachment.
I had lost and my childhood dream was shattered. However, those 150 people put the matter into their own hands. The school witnessed the accelerated madness of a dissatisfied population through modern social media. By the next day after the results were made public, civil disobedience had ensued; there were petitions filed, formal letters to my class advisor, and people disrupting his classes to voice their opinion.
He urgently contacted me after one class period. I was unaware of the public uproar, and once it was revealed to me, I was humbled by the support and realized the massive responsibility I had undertaken to gain their trust. This effect on me was incendiary. An idea sprung into my mind to have a dual presidency, between me and the newly elected president of steering committee. This idea was agreed to be the greatest compromise, by attaining to. I had made mistakes, but I acknowledged these mistakes. I chose the best way to defend myself and I discovered how to be a true leader.
This is a good essay and I really enjoyed reading it! Just wondering, but isn't the limit for the common app essay 500 words? Yours is 578.
If anything, you probably will need to shorten it (if there is a word limit)
Otherwise, a really nice topic :D
