As a young leader, I grew my style of servant leadership through my many experiences, including Boy Scouts, church involvement, and participating in youth leadership development programs. Specifically, in my sophomore year of high school, I was a part of a leadership program called Youth Leadership New Braunfels. It was sponsored by the local Chamber of Commerce and taught me important lessons about city government, public service, and effective leadership styles. Of the different styles demonstrated, servant leadership stuck out to me. By offering your time and leadership for the purpose of serving others, I find that it is effective and most useful to any project or organization. To me, servant leadership is elevating others above yourself so you can contribute to the betterment of a team and accomplish a project's objective or goal. I have exhibited servant leadership in different capacities since this youth leadership program and intend to use it well into the future.

One of the most significant ways I lived out this servant leadership was through my position of Community Outreach Officer of my undergraduate student council organization. Serving in the position for a year, I helped the Liberal Arts Student Council (LASC) complete ten community service events. Some notable ones include putting on a book drive for underresourced high schoolers, coordinating a forty person Big Event group, and putting on four environmental cleanup days. In all of these events, I made sure to lead by example and as a servant leader. I was able to enable others by being the first one to show up and the last one to leave and demonstrate what to do at each service project. I learned that putting forth a little extra effort to serve and ensure your volunteers can perform their tasks can go a long way in motivating teams.

As with most people at the Bush School, I am entering a career field of public service. With this, I always need to keep in mind that I am funded by and work for the constituents I serve. So, I will continue to operate under the form of servant leadership as I enter into the workforce. I will also commit myself to the ideal put forth by George H.W. Bush that public service is a noble calling. Whether I stay in public service for my whole career or not, there will always be a part of myself committed to lifelong service to my neighbor, my community, and my country.