Royals 9

Joining 20/20 Leadership is an experience that has shaped my life for the better. When I first joined 20/20 Leadership as a freshman, there was a lot of talk about my future, and preparing for it. The first field trip that I went on during 20/20 leadership was all about working together and never being afraid to ask for help. This experience was so eye-opening to me because I was so used to doing everything on my own and I had always thought that asking for help was a sign of weakness. Learning to work cooperatively and lean on others for support was a formative experience for me. I am the oldest child of 4 siblings and though I felt I had many leadership qualities already; I tended to carry the burden alone.  During my four years of 20/20 Leadership, I have learned to be a leader, work collaboratively, and create special connections that will last for a lifetime as well as aid me in my future career and relationships.

As a freshman, I would never have imagined that during my Junior year, I would be creating a presentation about making my school a better place and how collaborative and difficult that process could be. 20/20 Leadership has influenced my development by making me more confident in myself and giving me the knowledge and skills to present a project that involved many other students, teachers, and community members. The leaders are so helpful in making others the best that they can be. During my junior year, I and other 20/20 Leadership members created an idea to clean the pond outside of our school to create an interactive outdoor classroom. Presenting our idea developed my creative side of myself and let me work on my collaborative skills. Even though we did not end up winning the competition, our project really opened my eyes to how working together can be so rewarding. It also taught me that even when you do everything right, you may not win every time. Our project was not chosen for the grant and while that was disappointing it was still a formative process. 20/20 Leadership is such a good program for development and self-reflection. I have so many experiences from 20/20 Leadership that stand out to me, and 20/20 Leadership is an experience in itself.

Even with the disappointment of not winning the competition, I still learned a lot of important life lessons like time management, teamwork, and networking skills. The project took a lot of time and I had to juggle my other extracurricular activities to give the time and effort the project deserved. This experience was so important to me because I had learned so many important experiences like being able to know how to make connections and work with others efficiently. Everyone that I worked with on that project was in it and wanted to help and that was a huge boost because we all wanted to win, and I think it made the whole experience better. When we did not win the competition, we were all disappointed, but we also knew that the person who had won would do good with the money that they were given. I love all the experiences that I get to be there for, it is truly eye-opening, and I would do it repeatedly if I had the chance to.

Being a part of 20/20 Leadership has led me to further my education because I love to help people. 20/20 Leadership has given me so many opportunities to help others in need and it makes me feel like such a good person to give back to my community. Furthering my education in the medical field is a great way for me to give back. I want to help people feel better and more volunteering is in my near future too. The medical field is all about collaborating with one another to help others. I hope to be as good of a person as my leaders in 20/20 Leadership have been, as they have shown great resilience, kindness, and perseverance. They have all shown me what it is like to be a better person and have inspired me and many other students. It is an experience I would recommend to other high school students as it really enriched my experience.

Being with so many wonderful and influential people is so rewarding to me because I get to be with so many other amazing minds and personalities. I would like to especially thank Heather Hoel, Nicole Walker, and Caitlyn Wells for making me the person that I am today and believing in me. All three of these women have been so helpful on my journey through high school and have developed my social and leadership skills and have given me more confidence and the drive to continue to improve my community.