Service and Leadership by Kaylie

Service and Leadership by Kaylie - November 2013 Scholarship Essay

I have had the opportunity to experience leadership and service during my high school career at Archbishop Alter High School. These qualities were quite evident in my academic, extracurricular, and community involvement.

Academically, I have had the fortune to enhance and expound these qualities during my advance placement class requirements. During these classes, I have had several opportunities to instruct my peers in regards to curriculum and application of subject matter. Each year there has been a service requirement for a class. For instance, I gave swim lessons for the Honors Biology requirement freshman year. I have used these requirements to be fully engaged in service in different areas of study.

I believe that my extracurricular experience as president of the Dare to Care club at school has made me fully embraced in the act of caring. As the leader of the club, I have the opportunity to choose, assure they go as planned and be a part of each service based activity. One of the activities we are implementing this year is assigning people to bring in cookies each week. Random people to get called down to the office with cookies and a note saying, "Some love, just because. Pass it on." We do this in confidentiality as a club to spark random acts of kindness in the school community.

As a member of the YMCA, I am involved in the community with leadership and service being a key factor. On the swim team, I was in the Elite group, which is the highest level and requires leadership as the younger kids look up to us as role models. Through the YMCA, every year I have had the privilege of volunteering at the GTAC Disability Swim Meet at the University of Cincinnati. I met a disabled athlete with the same birthday as me and it gave me the realization that this could have been me. Although disabled, it humbled me how all the athletes were smiling, grateful, and had no complaints.

Leadership and service have become a valuable aspect to enrich my high school experience. My academic, extracurricular, and community involvement will positively influence in my college life. I look forward to using these as a springboard for my undergraduate studies.