Key Moments

Unit One: Model the Way

Summary: During my time in Leadership, the class opened with a discussion based around what it means to be a leader and who chooses who "gets" to be a leader and who is excluded. Immediately, my idea of what leadership is was challenged and redefined as modeling the way. For a leader to model the way, however, it all begins with their why. The deep reasoning, values, and drives that lead a person to do what they do. This unit truly unpacked my deepest values and how my actions, as a leader and human being, need to model those values so that others are able to believe in me and my vision.

Artifacts of Learning: Throughout the first unit, there were a variety of experiences we were able to engage with that helped to grow my understanding of leadership. One of the initial guest speaker we had come visit our class was Suzanne Steven, of whom I wrote a reflection due to the significance of which I gleamed from her presentation. Beyond Ms. Steven, I worked throughout the year with my mentor, Alison Griffin, and learned a great deal. Specifically, during this time, I was managing the development of a new sector of student council addressing the lack of voice and representation. During our first meeting, we developed a number of goals which I've continued to aim to achieve throughout this year. Finally, during this unit I began reading The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John C. Maxwell and derived a great deal of inspiration through his writing which I put in note form to help internalize. Even now, I continue to refer back to his work and how it applies to me and my leadership practices.

Unit Two: Inspire a Shared Vision

Summary: In the second unit of Leadership, we focused on being able to project a vision to others and garner excitement and a joint enthusiasm around bringing about the change desired. A lot of the work continued around the ideas of values discussed in Unit One, but broadened the need of values to not only be applicable to the leader but the grander organization. Additionally, Unit Two emphasized uniformity to ensure all efforts were productive and helped build to one goal.

Artifacts of Learning: In the second unit, we were initially given a presentation by my own mentor, Alison Griffin. This presentation hit my particularly hard as it established that, like mentioned in the summary of the unit, values are not an individual journey but rather of shared importance to the entire organization. If a person can't find themselves in the values of the group, why would they be enticed to participate? Alison talked about how she was able to embed others' values into her organization, which really stuck with me. Later in the unit, we practiced demonstrating our vision and having it be fulfilled. This was a particularly exciting challenge for me because it was an opportunity to make a project in a short amount of time and getting a variety of people on board. Running this experiment helped to demonstrate to myself the extent of which I had grown and learned in respect to my leadership abilities. Finally, the unit ended with a socratic, and yet again, my book inspired me more and more with its continual laws. Out of the laws I learned during this period, the Law of Empowerment stood out most significantly to me as it truly defined that your leadership ability really hinges on your impact on others, for leadership is not what you can do alone, but with others.

Most Impactful Moment of Semester (S1):

Although there were a variety of different moments which challenged my previous assumptions and made me reconsider different areas of my leadership, the presentation that shifted my understanding of leadership, and generally life, the most was Anna Doka. Anna was particularly curious because she mainly focused on personal brand and what personal brand means for a leader and person in general. She drew attention to the fact of that there are always people watching you. Depending on what people see you do, their vision and idea of you change, and especially in the world of business, government, and similar fields, having a uniform experience is key. For example, each person who interacts with you should have a similar idea of who you are and what you stand for. This understanding that everything you do adds to your personal brand, and represents the ideas and values discussed in Unit 1, has stuck with me for basically every minute of my life since we've had that presentation. Before I interact with groups of people, whether it be in classes, on trips, or even my friends, I consider how it will effect my personal brand. To the same point, it is a balance. Anna pointed out that reputation is not equivalent to personal brand, yet, there are certainly a lot of overlapping ideas. Regardless, I believe this new method of thinking has continuously positively inspired my leadership style as I undeniably act more put together around different groups of people and try to truly demonstrate my beliefs in similar ways to different groups. Additionally, I've been working on improving my YouTube channel, LinkedIn, and other social media platforms to solidify the idea of personal brand and who I am. Overall, thanks to Anna, I've become a better, and more true, leader.

Unit Three: Challenge the Process

Summary: In our third unit of leadership, we highlighted the idea of challenging assumptions of perfection and current methods, and challenging them to create something bigger and better than ourselves. Specifically, we talked about being able to review our ways of leadership, interacting with others, and organizations to find areas for improvement, even when we assumed we were performing at the highest level possible. Additionally, we spoke in significant detail in regard to bias and challenging our presumptions about people in and out of our organization.

Artifacts of Learning: One major artifact of learning during this unit was beginning my change project. Specifically, we worked on creation the foundation doucment for my idea to challenge the understanding of how club information was shared around Peak to Peak and organizational style. In the old fashion, clubs were unable to interact with each other due to a misuse of scheduling on the club calendar, but, as the final implementation begins to take way, clubs will now be able to clearly see each other's schedules and communicate effectively with members to ensure that clarity is of pivotal importance. Beyond my work with my change project, we had the opportunity to write a speaker reflection. While our speaker reflections are normally based off a speaker from the same unit, I reached back to the previous unit to write my reflection because I believe our speaker, Anna Doka, fulfilled the idea of challenging the process. As mentioned above, Doka worked with the idea of personal brand, which challenges the idea of only an organization having a brand. This, and work with my mentor, inspired me to focus on continuing to build many different sections of my expression publicly and the brand associated with me. One of the most visible ways I was able to do this is through the detailed creation of a LinkedIn account. The final artifact of my learning during unit three was my goal for the semester: that being showing gratitude for members of the middle school show. Every semester, I direct the middle school show and, previously, I've shown the same type of gratitudes to the same types of people. Thus, I specifically worked to disrupt this thinking and consider how my gratitudes each and every person in my organization and how I can challenge my assumptions to continue to grow.

Unit Four: Enable Others to Act

Summary: In our fourth unit of leadership, we highlighted the notion of fostering collaboration and strengthening others by building strong communities where individuals are able to work together to create a common goal. Specifically, we talked about providing opportunities for members of organizations to individuate their work and follow what truly empowers and inspires their success. Whether it be in a class or even a part of my own student council, allowing each person to find their passion is truly what fosters success.

Artifacts of Learning: During this unit we had two major artifacts. The first artifact pertains to the notes we wrote in preperation regarding a socratic around enabling others to act. These notes discussed the major ideas of the unit, specifically regarding fostering collaboration and strengthening other. To me, the part that stood out most from the notes was the importance of trust; trust is the climate of trust and basis of growth: “The achievement of dreams and ambitions is rarely the product of contributions from a single person” (178). This idea has continued to stick with me and I continue to take moments on who I trust, why I trust them, and whether or not I'm fostering an interaction with the individuals around me that increases their trust in me or corresponding decreases it. Secondly, another significant artifacts of learning during this unit was our mentor meeting and the prescribed notes taken during that meeting. For me, this meeting was essential to formulating the final report of a project I had been working on since the beginning of the year. On reflection, I also belive this meeting is, somewhat surprisingly, a perfect example of enabling others to act. For me, my mentor has been one of the strongest points of growth for me this semester, and I have constantly referred to her for advice and help in difficult times where I don't know the next step. I believe that Alison, my mentor, has been completely dedicated to the entire of strengthening others and having no other concern but ensuring that I feel supported. We have used collaboration greatly and while, certainly, in the end its my project which is being presented and created for the rest of the school to see, it simply wouldn't have been possible without the help of my mentor - thanks to her keenness for enabling others to act.

Unit Five: Encourage the Heart

Summary: Often, leadership is shown as something very straightforward, harsh and direct. However, to create a good team, its important to support others emotionally too. This unit specifically talked about how to form strong communities, the types of people we work with, and the places we work with; when truly considering it, each one has a major impact on our lives and our teams, for while their certainly aiming for a goal, the goal can't be achieved without a strong love for one another. 

Artifacts of Learning: 

Most Impactful Moment of Semester (S2):

The most significant moment of semester two that challenged my thinking was one of my earlier mentor meetings with Alison Griffin. While it was a perfectly simple conversation, I asked how I should approach the idea of passing down different systems to newly elected officials and rising classes. She gave a few good suggestions and then gave me some great advice: even though an idea may not stick at Peak to Peak, it continues to stick with you wherever you go. Often, I get very wrapped up in the idea that everything I do has to work and has to last forever. Simply put, that's not true. I'm an evolving person who continues to get better every single time I try something and it fails; yet, just because it doesn't work, it doesn't mean the idea is dead, rather, the idea is continuing to live on in my own head to whatever I may pursue next. I believe a perfect example of this was first semester when I tried to initiate a great deal of change in our student council including changing how students were elected, the size of our student council, the organization of the committees, and a few other small details. Nearly every single suggestion was completely overruled. Although I then continued to spend the rest of my year struggling with the fact that none of my proposals were accepted, the values I have which revolve around those suggestions continue to live in will, and will be able to thrive in whatever place I next go. This concept of following what I have tried to change, and how those ideas will move with me, helped me to select my college: Haverford College. This empowered me because it allowed me to see I need a place where I can actually implement my ideas to their full extent, and a place where that is highly encouraged at a constant rate, and student voice and listening to the people is pivital. For me, that was at Haverford. Overall, my mentor was extremely impactful to my growth as a person and I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to work with her.