The building blocks of Success by Bethany

The building blocks of Success by Bethany - March 2015 Scholarship Essay

Being ready for college is something that I've been aiming for the last couple years of my high school career. I feel like I have worked for and achieved the necessary skills for a successful life at college.

I have been the captain of my lacrosse team in West Des Moines, Iowa since early this fall. From this, I have had the opportunity to student lead practices and some select games. I have learned what it means to be a leader, putting others first, from my coach. The baseline of being in charge of my teammates but yet still treating them as my equal has matured me from where I was last year, and the years before that.

The second leadership opportunity I’ve had is recently being promoted in my store as the youngest manager in my job at Fareway food stores. I’ve been treated with the responsibility to count down drawers at the end of the night, as well as managing the checker’s breaks and what they can do to be most productive in the store. This has taught me some important leadership skills such as time management and people skills.

The last major leadership opportunity I’ve been given is one not yet experienced, this summer I have two opportunities to learn leadership skills from leaders in our world. The first one I will be at a summer leadership camp being taught by local military leaders, at Lake Ann Camp. The second I am taking a service week and serving in the areas of Queens, New York City. I will do various things such as childcare and talking with local leaders on how to better the community and communications through the government and the community. I think this experience will teach me a lot about giving and how important a strong foundation in a local community is.

So far I think I’ve built strong building blocks to be a strong leader and have a good foundation for this new chapter in my life, collage. I think there’s plenty more I could learn- but being 18 I think I’ve built my foundation on strong layers to be better prepared for life to come.