Exploring Leadership, taught by Professor Barbara Rinto, was my choice for my junior year honors experience. The main reason I chose this class among others experiences is that leadership is extremely necessary for a business-major student like me. In today world, wherever I work, I would have to cooperate with many people, and in some cases, become a leader of my own group. Therefore, I believe that taking this class helped me become a better leader by learning all the leadership skills I need.
This was an interesting class because its purpose is to explore the nature of leadership, not only across the world but also on our campus. By taking this class, I had the opportunities to examine and discuss with other honors students about leadership theory, styles, skills and historical and cultural references. Also, I learn directly from campus-based and community leaders by evaluating common beliefs about leaders and leadership with them. Furthermore, because leadership at its essence is about working with other people to make positive change, I also learn about myself by finding my own strengths and learning to complement the strengths of others. At the end of the class, I had a basic understanding of current leadership theories, practices and skills. Also, I articulated my personal leadership philosophy based on my values, strengths and experience and recognized the influence of identity and privilege in leadership.
One of the most interesting activities that I did in this course was writing my own blog each week during the semester. The blog entries were my chances to reflect on my learning and discuss about leadership using my own personal value and opinions. For example, one of my blog entries was about my result after taking the strength finder assessment. In this blog, I wrote about the strengths I found out about myself and why these were true using the personal experiences I got. It was helpful because the blog helped me understanding my value more and know which aspect of my leadership skill that I can further develop.
The second most interesting assignment is this class was the Leadership in Context assignment. Together with 3 other people in my assigned group, we interviewed the president of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity to learn about their leadership between brothers and also had the chance to visit the fraternity house. After the interview, we had a better understanding about the mission, structure and connection of the fraternity. Also, we learnt about how the organization views its leadership, how the brothers identify their leaders and what skills a leader in the fraternity needs in order to take that responsibility. The assignment was an interesting experience because not only I gain new knowledge about the leadership of a well-respected fraternity on campus but also get to know more about my groupmates by spending time working together with them.
I am happy with what I have learnt and done in my junior year in college, but I think that I could have done better. For example, with all the knowledge I learnt from Exploring Leadership class, it would be great if I have applied for a leadership position in my fraternity, Delta Sigma Pi, or Finance Club in order to apply my leadership skills. This is also my plan in my senior year because I want to become a better leader myself. In addition, I would spend more time finding an internship next semester because I want to get hand-on experience on my field of study and also use the leadership skills I got in a full-time job.
In addition, I want to give back more to the community by participating in more kinds of volunteer activities. I spent most of my volunteer time in my junior year at Matthew’s District Ministry 25; therefore, I would love to do other activities like tutoring for middle high school students at the local church next year. Furthermore, I would love to spend a semester abroad before graduating because travelling and discovering new cultures are always my passion in life.
This was an interesting class because its purpose is to explore the nature of leadership, not only across the world but also on our campus. By taking this class, I had the opportunities to examine and discuss with other honors students about leadership theory, styles, skills and historical and cultural references. Also, I learn directly from campus-based and community leaders by evaluating common beliefs about leaders and leadership with them. Furthermore, because leadership at its essence is about working with other people to make positive change, I also learn about myself by finding my own strengths and learning to complement the strengths of others. At the end of the class, I had a basic understanding of current leadership theories, practices and skills. Also, I articulated my personal leadership philosophy based on my values, strengths and experience and recognized the influence of identity and privilege in leadership.
One of the most interesting activities that I did in this course was writing my own blog each week during the semester. The blog entries were my chances to reflect on my learning and discuss about leadership using my own personal value and opinions. For example, one of my blog entries was about my result after taking the strength finder assessment. In this blog, I wrote about the strengths I found out about myself and why these were true using the personal experiences I got. It was helpful because the blog helped me understanding my value more and know which aspect of my leadership skill that I can further develop.
The second most interesting assignment is this class was the Leadership in Context assignment. Together with 3 other people in my assigned group, we interviewed the president of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity to learn about their leadership between brothers and also had the chance to visit the fraternity house. After the interview, we had a better understanding about the mission, structure and connection of the fraternity. Also, we learnt about how the organization views its leadership, how the brothers identify their leaders and what skills a leader in the fraternity needs in order to take that responsibility. The assignment was an interesting experience because not only I gain new knowledge about the leadership of a well-respected fraternity on campus but also get to know more about my groupmates by spending time working together with them.
I am happy with what I have learnt and done in my junior year in college, but I think that I could have done better. For example, with all the knowledge I learnt from Exploring Leadership class, it would be great if I have applied for a leadership position in my fraternity, Delta Sigma Pi, or Finance Club in order to apply my leadership skills. This is also my plan in my senior year because I want to become a better leader myself. In addition, I would spend more time finding an internship next semester because I want to get hand-on experience on my field of study and also use the leadership skills I got in a full-time job.
In addition, I want to give back more to the community by participating in more kinds of volunteer activities. I spent most of my volunteer time in my junior year at Matthew’s District Ministry 25; therefore, I would love to do other activities like tutoring for middle high school students at the local church next year. Furthermore, I would love to spend a semester abroad before graduating because travelling and discovering new cultures are always my passion in life.