Leadership: From The Boy Scouts of America to Therapeutic Cures by Rohan

Leadership: From The Boy Scouts of America to Therapeutic Cures by Rohan - May 2024 Scholarship Essay

Leadership. It is not a virtue some people are innately born with or only a select few possess. Everyone has the potential to develop leadership qualities. However, this is only possible if others selflessly devote their time to this mentorship. Leadership cannot be verbally taught to others but instead instilled through the actions of preceding leaders. This cyclic phenomenon was best exemplified through my involvement in my Boy Scout Troop and my 13-year journey to becoming an Eagle Scout.
Transitioning from my Cub Scout Pack to the Boy Scout Troop was a daunting change in my Scouting career. I was surrounded in a new environment with the same peers and many older Scouts. At this point in Scouts, my leadership was rather limited, but I was setting myself up for a position of success to become a leader in our Troop by taking a proactive stance in my connections with the older scouts. I was not hesitant to ask proactive questions and be bold in my assertions to learn as much knowledge as I could from the older Scouts to grasp a deeper level of understanding of why our Troop was structured the way it was and how it collectively functioned. I was beginning to understand the strengths of those around me and how we could contribute to this bigger picture.
As the years went by, I ranked up and took on more leadership responsibilities in the Troop. Instead of worrying about myself, I had to put others before me. I began asking questions like what skills we need to teach the younger Scouts to ensure their rank advancement? How are we structuring the troop meetings to be educational and entertaining? How can we keep each patrol group active and motivated during this camping trip? I had to adapt my thought process for the betterment of the Troop as a whole rather than specific individuals. Moreover, leadership effectiveness is evident through communication skills, which need to be early, clear and inclusive. There were countless disagreements between Scouts, patrols, parents, and the committee chairs that were resolved by simply listening to each other and identifying areas of misunderstanding. Finally, the most important aspect of leadership, which I hope to carry with me throughout life, is educating the next generation of other leaders towards a better future. As a leader, you are granted the opportunity to learn from your mistakes by inspiring others to collaborate to achieve a goal greater than any one persons’ actions. This was the most rewarding experience when I achieved Eagle because I could look back knowing the Troop we were leaving behind was better and in the hands of people ready to positively serve their future community due to the mentorship we had bestowed upon them.
This year, as I came to the West Coast to begin my college education, I could apply my leadership approach from my early Scouting years to a completely new environment. I realized that I could not immediately be a leader on campus, but I knew what I needed to do and the leaders I needed to surround myself with to put me in a position to become one. One of these leaders I had the pleasure of meeting was Dr. Fyodor Urnov, a Molecular & Cell Biology Professor.
I first met Dr. Urnov as he visited our Introduction to Biotech class to detail a healthcare call to action. What struck me immediately was that he was an accomplished researcher in molecular therapeutics; yet, he was coming to a class full of undergraduate freshmen to humbly ask for our attention and assistance. Dr. Urnov put aside his pride to talk to us eye to eye and convey his proposal to streamline gene editing. With today's advancements in medicine, we have all of the means to create curative treatments for rare pediatric genetic diseases called Inborn Errors of Immunity; however, large biotech pharmaceutical companies refuse to bring these cures to market because they are not seen as profitable. Dr. Urnov explained to us how medical ethics and patients should always come before the business. It was heartbreaking to hear Dr. Urnov read the hundreds of emails he receives daily from frustrated parents begging him to take action for the curative treatments to cure their kids' rare diseases. In this instance, Dr. Urnov was taking a stand against what he knew was morally wrong and asked us to join his research lab to push-back against the biotech industry. Since then, Dr. Urnov has united communities including the Innovative Genomics Institute and Danaher Corporation to make this dream a reality by platforming CRISPR/Cas9 to streamline this reprogrammable technology for standardization. Additionally, he hopes to expand this idea by building a national network of CRISPR cure centers that would follow a cyclic blueprint from mutation to a clinical lead. In doing so, Dr. Urnov is reducing the time/cost to create these therapeutics from millions of dollars over years to <150k in only three months needed to save the lives of countless children suffering from IEI.
Finally, when I think about leadership as a whole and what it means to be a good leader, I think about someone with a larger vision to unite people and the skills to teach others to accomplish something more purposeful for the betterment of humanity. When I think of leadership, I think of Dr. Fyodor Urnov.