Alumni Essay 1

Throughout my personal journey with Youth Lead KC, I have learned multiple aspects of leadership that have been a bit outside my comfort zone. Initially, I viewed this program as a way to go on field trips and a bragging right. I first started learning leadership on the trip to the community gardens. As we explored the gardens, I learned how even in seemingly simple jobs like gardening, a high amount of concentration and patience goes into it. This is something I noticed as an important aspect of leadership and how important it is in every single career. I have tried to incorporate these skills into my personality to develop as a leader in the future. I noticed another aspect of leadership as I continued my journey, which was confidence. When we joined the lawyers in the courtroom, we were exposed to a different aspect of leadership that is less common. With the lawyers, we explored the aspect of speaking in front of a crowd and being confident in what you’re saying. Being able to interact and speak with the lawyers made me want to further develop my skills in presenting my opinions and findings in front of others. This skill is something I have always really struggled with, so I never thought too much about how important it is and how it could really benefit me. As I grow, I will continue to put effort into expanding these skills into my future school and career. Being able to voice my thoughts in front of others and gaining the ability to have patience and focus on the small things are aspects of leadership that I never thought of before my experience in this program, and are something I will focus on as I continue to grow. As I go on to higher levels of education, I will make an effort to always pay close attention to any little detail and make sure that I display these forms of leadership. This is an aspect that I want to leave a legacy on. To me, leaving a legacy means that you were able to make such an impact on a subject or a person that it’s considered a legacy. This isn’t something that is only exclusive to people who are famous; this is a feature that could be in a family or in a college. In a family, leaving a legacy could simply be having the ability to spell and having that be something that you put emphasis on to your children. Leaving a legacy is something that I find to be important to me, as it settles you inside the mind of your predecessors. When I think about people in the future field that I wish to work in, I realize how important it is to leave an impression on others. I wish to leave a legacy in dietetics, but also leave a legacy within my family. I wish that in the future, after my time, my family remembers me as someone who was able to leave a legacy and make an impact on a vast majority of people.