Everyone Can Lead by Brianna

Everyone Can Lead by Brianna - March 2015 Scholarship Essay

The thing I struggled with most during the madness that is the college application process was the emphasis on having leadership experience. If I had done things differently, I probably would have had more leadership experience than my minimal “training and directing” little kids for the acolyte team at my church. But that ended up being the best that I had, and I was frustrated that that made me a less competitive applicant. I decided to combat this by emphasizing areas in my life where I had practiced excellence instead. Why did I need a management position in the theatre society at my school when I could instead point to my review of another school’s show that was published in the Washington Post? I didn’t need power to do that, just writing skills.

And now, here I am, actually at college. My lack of leadership skills didn’t keep me from getting into a good school, and they haven’t kept me from doing well here. Actually, the interesting thing about my application for this school is what I wrote about in my essay: my blog. That may seem pretty ordinary to you, but it actually is interesting since during my trouble with leadership, I would often say, “I have a blog! Doesn’t that count as some sort of influence?” And maybe my school recognized that. They recognized what I had been struggling with the whole time: not necessarily the desire colleges have for administration skills for their students, but rather the one-dimensional view that college-bound high school students form of leadership in their quest to create the perfect college application.

When high school students see that colleges are looking for leadership experience, they immediately try to become president or secretary or whatnot of something, anything they are involved in. And oftentimes they actually do an excellent job with it and actually do learn how to direct affairs well, but sometimes it’s just a title. And the fact that they can check off the leadership experience box for something so small and nominal is frustrating.
But even more than that, I feel like it’s become easy to overlook the fact that not everyone impacts people in this way. Not every senior on the baseball team can be the captain. But that doesn’t make the ones who don’t have that position less valuable, and that definitely doesn’t mean they can’t lead. Leadership isn’t always about event-planning and logistics-managing. You can lead by being focused during rehearsal or by motivating and encouraging your peers to put in their best efforts possible. We don’t label those as leadership, but without these people, the ship that is life won’t run as smoothly.

I was interested to learn that European colleges don’t have quite the amount of focus on leadership that schools in the US do. They prize the lone wolves as well as the dominant alphas. And maybe that’s because they too recognize that not everyone can take charge in that way. Can you imagine how crazy any club or team would be if every single person tried to organize it? First of all, it would be ridiculous, and nothing would be accomplished. And second of all, those who aren’t suited for that type of work would be wasting their time and energy on something they don’t enjoy or succeed in. We need to value the quiet leaders, those who accomplish excellence, and every devoted person on the team instead of just the people who make big decisions.

I’m at college now, and I don’t feel like I’m lacking because I didn’t have the traditional “leadership experience.” I feel like I truly did lead through my blog, though some would probably disagree with me. I think my words served at least one person, made them feel encouraged, or made them take another look at an issue. It wasn’t traditional leadership, but I’m okay with that.