Essential Leadership by Jessica

Essential Leadership by Jessica - March 2015 Scholarship Essay

While you don’t need a formal leadership position to be successful in college, the skills that make a good leader are essential for college success. You must have a vision, be humble and obedient, and remember that to lead is to serve. Knowledge and wisdom alone do not qualify people to lead; a great leader has high expectations, tempered with patience. Similarly, simply learning the facts found in books will not lead to true success in college; a successful student sets higher expectations and is patient as they work to prepare themselves to enter the workforce or make a difference in the world. All of us are leaders, even if at times we are only leading ourselves.

A leader has a vision of the work that lies ahead of him or her. Mindy Gibbins-Klein, the founder of REAL Thought Leaders said, “Leadership is having a vision, sharing that vision, and inspiring others to support your vision while creating their own.” Once you have visualized the bigger picture and have envisioned yourself graduating, nothing can stop you from doing what it takes to get you there. This is an essential skill for college success, as there are many stumbling blocks on the road to graduation. Financial hardship, tempting job offers, travel opportunities, and many other things may entice you away from finishing college. Remembering your long term goal and having a vision keeps you disciplined to finish what you started.

"A leader is someone who has the clarity to know the right things to do, the confidence to know when she's wrong and the courage to do the right things even when they're hard." – Darcy Eikenberg, founder, RedCapeRevolution.com. In college, you must be humble enough to admit when you are wrong, and humble enough to take direction from your professors in order to succeed. You must also maintain courage to be honest in your school work, even when it would be easier to cheat and get an A. While it might get you the grade once, it will not equate to true success in college.

Another crucial leadership skill essential to college success is service. College is a unique time in life where you devote all of your time to yourself and personal improvement. Classes, quizzes, and tests take up the majority of your thoughts, time and efforts. It can be easy during this self-centered time to feel down or unhappy. The remedy to this is to serve others! Get outside of yourself once in a while to escape the pressures of college, or you’ll never make it out alive. To lead is to serve.

Lastly, leaders are duty-bound and obligated to prepare others to take their place at some future time. The cemeteries are filled with leaders who thought they were indispensable; don’t make this same mistake. Leaders- and successful students- don’t strive to put others down to make themselves look good or think they are the only ones knowledgeable enough to get a group assignment done. Lift others as you go. Remember that you were a lost freshman once too and leave your college campus a little better than when you got there.