Leadership...the Key Component to Success! by Jantzen

Leadership...the Key Component to Success! by Jantzen - March 2015 Scholarship Essay

Are leadership skills necessary for college success? The easy answer is a resounding YES, DEFINITELY and WITHOUT A DOUBT! As a small child my parents made a decision that continues to impact my life, education and created a love of learning, leadership and a spirt of competition that is insatiable.

When I entered the fourth grade they decided to homeschool my brothers and I because our local public school system was subpar and private schools were not within our budget. Through my experience of home school I learned the value of self-motivation, leadership and learning came to life as I spent time interactively absorbing the world through hands on experiences. As years passed and I accepted small leadership opportunities through my basketball program, youth group and ultimately was afforded an opportunity to be a part of an organization called Student Leadership University (SLU). My education and leadership reached a global scale as I traveled with SLU around the world learning how to become an effective leader, various leadership styles and how to encourage people to follow in a positive and effective manner. We were given the opportunity to visit with Winston Churchill’s grandson and listen to his ideas regarding leadership and its importance. I suppose the significance of wise leadership had always been in my thought process but it was during this teaching opportunity that I realized the impact leadership would have in my own life as well as those who I led.

Utilizing leadership skills in college provides the perfect opportunity for me to not only be a success in college but also in life. In my experience, teachers and professors have presented ideas, concepts and thought provoking methods which are impressive beginnings to what a leader can develop into a magnificent final product or theory. Possessing leadership skills allows a student to take these concepts, mold and improve upon them to better society. In fact, without effective leadership, learning these concepts is simply an exercise in memorization and limits a person’s ability to improve the concept for the next generation. College requires countless hours, an enormous amount of money and it would be a travesty to do nothing more than temporarily memorize the teachings of a professor rather than use the ideas as springboard for greater opportunities. If leaders in the United States such as Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller and Cornelius Vanderbilt simply accepted the concepts put before them by teachers and mentors then our country would not be the superpower it is today. Instead, these leaders took ideas from those who came before them and built on the ideas to create opportunities for even more growth from future generations.

Another important aspect of college is forging new friendships and networking opportunities to fulfill social and eventually business needs, leadership in these areas will create strong reliable bonds between individuals. The bonds created through healthy relationships in college allows me to present creative concepts and ideas to other people with leadership qualities and reach people outside of my own sphere.

Lastly, college is about working towards a goal, whether it is a degree or simply a class project, leadership in both of these areas will enhance the possibility of success. I have worked on numerous team projects in college and because of my leadership skills and encouragement to others in one instance I was able to bolster a man’s confidence and he entered a speech contest. He was in his mid-forties and returned to college with very little direction in his life, we had the opportunity to speak to a group of approximately 500 students and I lead him down the path from assisting with his speech, encouraging him to take the next step, he even invited his family, and provided a successful speech. Subsequently, he spoke several times and in a small way began to emerge as a leader in other classes.

Leadership in college and in life is a key component to success. I look forward to my future and success in college to fulfill the goals my parents helped to establish when I was barely nine years old.