Lesson 23 - Leadership
Leadership
Articles About Leadership Skills and Extracurricular Activities - PDF files
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High School Student Leadership: How to Stand Out in Your College Applications
Proven leadership ability is a big deal in college admissions. Hundreds of thousands of students have excellent grades and test scores, but what often sets an applicant apart - and secures an acceptance letter - is his or her outstanding involvement in school clubs, athletics, or community organizations.
Areas of leadership
How To Become a Leader
Areas of leadership
- Academic teams (math team, debate club, etc.)
- Arts (theater, band, choir, glee club, dance, etc.)
- Athletic teams
- Community service/volunteering
- Employment (after-school jobs, internships, etc.)
- Peer tutoring/advising
- Political organizations (model U.N., alliance of students of color, international relations club, etc.)
- Publications (school newspaper, literary magazine, yearbook, etc.)
- Student government
How To Become a Leader
- Know your strengths - Follow your passions; explore what you love; capitalize on what you can already do well. Are you a people person? Consider running for student government. Do you write poetry on the weekends? Apply for a staff job on the literary magazine.
- Gain experience - Be willing to pay your dues. Before you can be editor-in-chief of the paper, you'll have to work as a reporter or a proofreader. As a sophomore, you still have plenty of time to do the footwork before taking on leadership roles in junior or senior year.
- Work well with others - Good managers have strong interpersonal skills. Be able to listen to other people, ask questions, establish trust, and create a sense of teamwork.
- Be optimistic - Maintain focus and a positive attitude, especially in the face of difficulty. Grace under pressure is a key leadership trait. If your team has just lost a crucial game, don't throw in the towel; encourage your teammates to practice even harder for the next one.
- Take action - Leaders are ready to walk the walk - they don't just talk the talk. Set concrete goals and follow the steps necessary to achieve them. Anyone can have a great idea, but not everyone can make that vision a reality.
- And remember: Actions are more important than titles. - Even if you aren't the captain of the varsity lacrosse team, you could be its leading scorer. You may not be the paper's editor-in-chief, but you can write award-winning articles. Your commitment and achievement in a given activity are far more important than your title. If you've made an exceptional contribution to a team or club, ask the coach or faculty advisor to write you a recommendation letter - that way your involvement will be sure to shine on your college applications.
- Resist the urge to pad your resume. - Don't join a club or team merely to fluff up your extracurricular profile. It's important to choose activities that genuinely interest you - otherwise, you risk boring yourself and making a feeble contribution to the organization. College admissions committees can usually tell when an applicant has padded his or her resume with flimsy additions. Instead of a laundry list of activities, admissions officers would rather see meaningful and sustained participation in a few areas. Long-term involvement and responsibility in one or two organizations will strengthen your application, whereas being an onlooker in ten groups may not help you much.
Quotes:
- "If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." -- John Quincy Adams
- "Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality." -- Warren Bennis
- "The most powerful leadership tool you have is your own personal example." -- John Wooden
Questions for discussion and/or journaling:
- What is leadership? What's the difference between leadership and management?
- Are leaders born or made?
- Does a leader need power? How can a leader avoid being corrupted by power?
- What qualities make someone a good leader? Do you have any of these qualities?
- What are some of your strengths? Passions?
- Give an example of when you think you had a positive influence on someone else.
- What experiences (volunteer work, clubs, organizations, group projects) have you had that have given you some of the skills to be a good leader?
- Talk about a positive experience you have had working with others.
- Talk about a negative experience you have had working with others.
- What did you learn from these experiences?
- Consider the following statement: "Actions are more important than titles." How does this relate to being a good leader?