Year: Class of 2015
Major: Biology (BS)
Hometown: Seattle (Boring, I know, sorry!)
Fun Fact: I think that if you choose the right time and place, and wash your hands before and after, picking your nose is actually really fun.
Leadership practice:
After several seemingly good and conventional ideas (a fundraiser for a hospital patient, changing UW’s health insurance policy for international students, and a well-being workshop) I decided that I needed to be a little more realistic and honest to myself. While these were all appealing ideas to me, they weren’t necessarily something that I was willing to put enough time and effort towards and were more so ideas that I felt were appropriate for the title “Leadership Practice.” So it turns out now, that my leadership practice now is a little ambiguous/unconventional. However, I decided that this was okay.

While applying for UW Leaders I had 3 main goals in mind: 1) Being more involved on campus overall, 2) incorporating leadership skills with academia and 3) being a more confident and determined individual.  My efforts towards this goals is my leadership practice.

Prior to this year I never went to any events on campus because I truly wanted to. Meeting other UW Leaders who were so involved on campus changed this dramatically. Nor had I applied to so many jobs/positions and gone to so many interviews. I’d established much closer relationships to my professors/mentors and finally am accomplishing my dream of going on a UW Study Abroad this summer. I may potentially be helping with research on Mt. Rainier this summer as well. Doing things I’ve never done before and being reminded of how much there is to do every week at UWL meetings have made me feel a lot more confident than last year.

Needless to say, these goals are far from checked off. I learned that leadership practice is an ongoing thing– things that aren’t always consciously done and can’t always be recognized because it can be in the things we do naturally. or subtly. My efforts so far don’t indicate that I’ve achieved my goals. It’s difficult– and perhaps even impossible– to say you’ve achieved something, but having goals certainly does push you to do more. I do recognize that organizing an event/idea and collaborating with people to make happen is a very good skill for a leader to have though, and this is still something I hope to work on in the future.