We Do It For Them by Amina

We Do It For Them by Amina - March 2015 Scholarship Essay

In today's society, almost every application asks you to give examples of ways in which you have shown leadership. Through this seemingly necessary trait, students feel "forced" to scramble and find events that they can organize just so they can say they did it. Just so they can say that they are more qualified than somebody that didn't check that off the list. By having these instances of leadership, a student is pushed ahead of others in terms of being able to successfully take advantage of the opportunities that will present themselves.

So is it necessary to have moments of leadership to succeed in college? Yes. But, is it necessary to have real leadership skills to succeed in college? No.
Many can be extremely academically intelligent and have great people skills. But these traits don't necessarily imply that they are capable or should have to be capable of organizing and/or having a dominating role in an activity. Sure these brilliant individuals may presume these roles just so they can say they did it, but doing anything other than an excellent job in that position will not cause students to fall far behind.

Organizations want the best? Then they shouldn't be asking the students to list off times that they have shown leadership. Instead, they should solely be asking other people that have worked with the student to truly see if good leadership skills are present. But unless the system drastically changes, actually having leadership skills offers little benefit if others claim to have them as well.