What Great Leaders Teach Us About the Importance of Leadership in College by Chase

What Great Leaders Teach Us About the Importance of Leadership in College by Chase - March 2015 Scholarship Essay

In his 1963 visit to my hometown of Dallas, John F. Kennedy planned to deliver a speech that contained the words “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other”. As we all know, Kennedy never got the chance to deliver that speech, but his words ring true nonetheless. Thankfully, succeeding in college doesn’t mean one must have the ability to inspire a crowd like Kennedy, or rally and maneuver troops with the strategic acumen of George S. Patton. Nonetheless, success in college depends on one’s ability to create and stick to goals, manage time and finances wisely, and remain on course through the turbulence of internal and external pressures. These are skills essential to every great leader and it’s no coincidence that they are also the hallmarks of a successful student.

First, the academic rigors of college are enough to challenge students in ways that will demand tremendous dedication, vigilance, and willpower for them to succeed. Even excellent high school pupils will often find the coursework of their chosen major intensely demanding. Well before a student begins classes, the leadership skill of strategic vision is required to wisely select classes for each semester. Once courses begin, one must continue to plan wisely by comparing syllabuses and allocating study and work time appropriately to the varied project and test schedules of each class. Staying sharp and consistent through the daily grind of homework and test preparation takes considerable persistence. Perhaps Thomas Edison, one of history’s great leaders in innovation, epitomizes this challenge best. In Edison’s fabled invention of the lightbulb, even intelligence as extraordinary as his wasn’t enough. It was his dedication through the arduous process of trying thousands of different filament materials that was the ultimate key to his success. Without a leader’s determination, even the brightest students will struggle at the college level.

Second, it must be said that not all challenges to college success are faced in a classroom. Students must juggle classwork, social demands, and finances without the “safety net” of family in what amounts to a tremendous test of a young person’s responsibility. The opportunities encountered in a new environment with heightened freedom also bring along myriad social pressures, and enjoying the college experience while remaining steadfast in pursuit of one’s goals can be extremely difficult. Commitment to a goal in the face of adversity is a quality embodied by humanitarian leader and youngest ever Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai. While under the threat of retaliation by the Taliban, Yousafzai spoke out advocating for the educational rights of women in her homeland of Pakistan. Even after being near-fatally wounded in an attempted assassination she continues her advocacy worldwide, speaking before the United Nations, Queen Elizabeth II, and President Barack Obama. While challenging, the social aspects of the college experience can be one of the most rewarding and enjoyable times of your life. However, making the most of them requires a leader’s discretion, charisma, and commitment.

Finally, consider that very few of us would be seeking a degree without an interest in what it will mean for our post-collegiate lives. Education for education’s sake is a noble endeavor, but for college success to be meaningful in any practical sense one must translate the lessons learned into a brighter future. Jonas Salk, renowned leader in medical research, was the first to discover an effective vaccination for polio. This feat would have been enough to secure Salk’s place in history, but he is primarily revered for how he translated that achievement into a true accomplishment of his goal. Salk chose to forego any commercial opportunity to exploit the vaccine and instead dedicated himself to ensuring that it was distributed as widely as possible. As a result, one of the most fearsome diseases in history was vanquished and countless lives were saved. For those of us that attain a degree, courage, fortitude, and vision are required to make that college success meaningful in the broader world.

In an earlier speech, John F. Kennedy said, “The goal of education is the advancement of knowledge and the dissemination of truth”. Advancing knowledge requires courage to explore new ideas as well as innovation to craft new concepts, and the truth would not be spread without someone brave enough to share it and skilled enough to do so effectively. Leadership skills can’t be separated from the skills that define great students because they’re one and the same. The examples of great leaders demonstrate that even at the most basic level, learning and leadership are indeed indispensable to each other, and that means leadership skills are indispensable to any successful college student.