Leading the College Project by Julieta

Leading the College Project by Julieta - March 2015 Scholarship Essay

College is one of the most defining “projects” an individual partakes in during the course of their lives. You abruptly transition from childhood into adulthood, without much time to assimilate the multiple changes and novel situations. Without your parents, long-time teachers or childhood friends, there is no one to guide you through your decisions or to give you the answers to the obstacles you encounter, not only in your personal life, but academically as well. For the first time, you are in control of your own destiny. Having acquired leadership skills can make the difference between an overwhelming college experience and an easily digestible one. The objective of this venture called College is to gather an education that will allow you to succeed in your life and career expectations. It all starts with the way you lead yourself through those higher education years.

In my opinion, having leadership skills is not about giving orders and expecting others to achieve a task perfectly. Being a leader involves introspection about your abilities to effectively coordinate the development of an idea, seeing it to fruition, learning first-hand how to execute it and sharing the workload with others when needed. Effective leaders outline their goals, the steps to achieve them and take into consideration other people’s opinions. They delegate resources efficiently, and have the capacity to attack obstacles in a calm and collected manner. These will be important skills to have and develop while acquiring a college education. They will allow you to keep focused on your goals and tackle the challenges that arise along the way.

Even before arriving to the college campus, you need to have a plan of what you expect to acquire out of the college experience. Priorities need to be outlined and goals defined, so that you have a sense of direction for all activities you do and decisions you make. What major do you want to pursue? Do you want to go into the private sector or academia? Are there any extracurricular activities you wish to challenge yourself with? These questions pinpoint specific issues to work on and further develop. You are able to assess the resources you will need, the people you need to talk to and the skills you have to expand on. If research is your goal, part of the plan should be to foster personal relationships with professors and enroll in research specific courses. If the private sector is more appealing, maybe get involved in professional associations that allow for networking. The framework will keep you focus on your goals and enable you to foresee opportunities and obstacles in the path to success.

During your college career, you will be surrounded by people that will affect the development of your plan and attainment of your goals. Leaders know it is important to listen, communicate well and take their opinions and insight into consideration even if you don’t agree with them. In the end, hearing others will provide a broader perspective in which you can base your future decisions. Academic advisors and professors are good examples of people that want to help you succeed and will try to provide their knowledge and advice about certain steps in your plan. Communicating effectively with the people working alongside you will propel your ideas forward and show others your vision and expectations.

Once you have a plan and the people to help you complete it, you must decide how to handle the resources you have available to you. Time management is a leadership skill that is applicable to any life situation, but college is the first place where its importance becomes truly apparent. You might need to handle a full course load while having an internship, a part time job and a position in student council. How are you going to allocate time to effectively achieve the goals you set for yourself? Being a leader involves setting priorities. If you’re initial plan involves research, internships in the private sector will not necessarily be at the top of the list. Organizing your time so that it parallels the outline for achieving your plans requires a lot of creativity and dedication, and having the skills to allocate the resources effectively will make it all seem more realistic. There will be obstacles in your path but these will become less of a deterrent if you are able to foresee and prepare for them.

Leadership skills are essential for a successful college experience. Not only do they help you cope with the expectations and challenges set by the people that surround you, but concurrently allow you to fulfill your goals effectively. They are obviously helpful in the usual aspects of college life like group projects, extracurricular activities or professional groups. However, this is but the first opportunity to apply them in an adult setting, where the attainment of your life dreams is completely dependent of how you lead yourself. You start to realize that these skills are fundamental to not only the success of your career goals, but in all challenges and projects that you commit to in the future.