Is this a good enough essay to show that I am a good student and applicant for the university? How can I show off my leadership skills better?
Leadership is defined as someone who commands a group of people. In truth, a leader is much more than that. In my opinion, a leader is someone who has a vision or a goal and a passion to make that goal come to life. A leader is someone that is committed, determined, motivated and works well with others. I believe that all of these qualities define my personality when I set a goal. I have had a number of leadership experiences, but one specifically overtakes them all. It was not a leadership position set by a club or organization, but by me setting a goal and accomplishing it. One day, in my religious education class we were focusing on one of the key responsibilities of being an Ismaili Muslim: giving back to the community. The topic was introduced with an example of a little boy who spread the important message of helping the poor through a chain reaction. Once I heard this story, I was inspired by the little boy. I wanted to do something for my community that would create a domino effect. Ultimately, I came up with the idea of Stay Active 2012. Stay Active 2012 would be an initiative to encourage kids not only to be active, but to stay active. The program would teach youth that healthy living is not to be thought of as a chore, but as something that is enjoyable. While also encouraging them to instill the same lesson in their brothers and sisters, their friends, and eventually their kids; a chain reaction.
My goal was to promote a healthy lifestyle although; many people have done this before. What made this different was the idea of a chain reaction. I decided that this was a project that needed to come to life. I brought together some friends and classmates to team up and help convey this concept to the children. I led the team by explaining the purpose of the project so in result they would be committed to the idea. I explained that the idea was not to plan a couple of sports activities but an initiative to promote a healthy lifestyle. I knew that understanding and implementing this would be critical to making an impression on the kids. After taking ideas from the team into consideration, I came up with an itinerary of the activities that would best impact the kids while still keeping them entertained.
We had many struggles throughout the process of planning the event, mostly with things not going according to plan. One issue we had was a few people backing out because they were unable to attend which made us have to rearrange the schedule and counselors to participant's ratio. I encouraged the team members to stay committed by telling them how important this project was and that it would not only be fun for the kids but also fun for us. Also, our budget began to become scarce with items still needed. We stayed committed by not taking things too seriously so we would not stress out and could have a sense of humor about our problems. I asked the members of the team to talk to different adults about what we were trying to do for the kids how beneficial it would be. We ended up receiving over $200 in donations from parents. This was just enough to fund the event, provide meals and snacks for the kids, and get the rest of the supplies.
I decided it was best that we split the team by strengths. I delegated tasks to specific groups based on their strengths and interests. I assigned the more artistic people in our team to design flyers and banners for marketing, the athletic team members to think of exercises that pinpointed specific body and muscle groups, and I myself coordinating the logistics, finances, and overall flow of the project. My favorite part of this delegation process was the fact that I was able see each component of the project piece together to form the end product. My team and I marketed the event by passing out flyers, having sign ups every day of the week, holding parent information sessions, and emailing out event reminders. I also encouraged the members of the team to advertise by both word of mouth and social media. On the day of the event, we had more than 70 children participate in Stay Active.
I believe that this project was completely successful and although there were some difficult times throughout the process, I am proud to say that we all stayed committed to the project. I feel that this was my most significant leadership experience because I used everything I learned through my experience in business organizations to make this project come to life. I felt that I showed the qualities of a good leader because I was determined, motivated, worked well with the team, delegated tasks to the team effectively, communicated the concept to the team as well as the kids so they could help bring it to life, and stayed committed to the project.
First, it would have been much better if you posted your prompt also with the essay. We could then provide you with more relevant comments.
Leadership is defined as someone who commands a group of people. In truth, a leader is much more than that. In my opinion, a leader is someone who has a vision or a goal and a passion to make that goal come to life. A leader is someone that is committed, determined, motivated and works well with others.
Well... all this is true, but the point is that whether they contribute for your essay. If this is for a college application and they want you to demonstrate your leadership qualities then you need to talk about your experiences that well demonstrate such leadership qualities. You should avoid making statements as much as possible and try to convince them through facts, ideally your experiences.
