KC Royals Charities Scholarship Essay

An important leadership experience for me comes from the Garden Club. This experience has shown me that many people avoid hard work that needs to be done. People are scared of taking actions. This was a valuable lesson that I have learned. Many people just joined the garden club as an excuse to get out of class. I joined because I truly enjoyed gardening. This is why it was sad for me to see that no one wanted to show up after the first couple of meetings. When it was time to volunteer to come on weekends to help out I was the only one to show up. This is why it is important for me to be honest, take action, lead, and do the work that needs to be done.
Gardening required a lot of heavy lifting, watering, tending to soil, and pulling weeds. People would often forget to show up to meetings or just decided to not show up at all. Our garden club sponsors were former teachers that were kind, and enjoyed gardening. They would be left alone to tend to the garden themselves. They would send emails out and people chose not to respond. They asked for open communication when people would not be able to attend meetings and they did not get a response. I wanted to take the initiative to come help and do what I myself was assigned to do instead of just having the sponsors do everything on their own. This experience showed me that being a leader means to do what is necessary and right even when no one is looking. Even when no one is informed about it you should always stand up. Being reliable, reliant, and committed even when there is no reward is what makes a leader.
Through this experience, I learned a valuable lesson about accountability. It is easy to take credit for success when everything is going smoothly, but true leadership is about stepping up when things get difficult or when you do things even when you do not want to. I didn’t wait for someone else to fix problems or hope that someone else would water the plants—I took responsibility because I cared about others and the garden that I take a part of responsibility for. Leadership requires taking ownership of not only the successes but also the struggles that come with anything in life.
Additionally, being in the garden club helped me develop problem-solving skills. There were times in which snow, rain, bugs, or conflicts within the schedule that disrupted our club. We were able to speak with each other and learn to work around conflicts and find alternatives. This mindset is what I will carry into the future, and in any given leadership role. This critical thinking and adaptability is important when you are faced with challenges.
Garden Club may seem like it has no correlation with being a leader or that it has no benefit or teachings other than how to dig up things, it has hidden gems that can be so easily overlooked. These same values that I have learned in garden club can be applied in school, work, and in everyday situations. When I am in school and the teacher asks for volunteers no one raises their hands. I take initiative and raise my hand, this skill is what comes from the garden club. When I am overwhelmed with homework or essays I persevere and push through the hard work. This is also a skill that comes from the garden club. When I decide to stay after school to get help from a teacher, that is responsibility and advocating for myself. This is a leadership skill that I have learned from the garden club. This one club has taught me so many skills and has helped me develop a strong mentality that I did not know I could reach prior to joining the club. With these necessary skills I was given the passion , hope, and inspiration to gain higher education. In my field of being a real estate agent I can utilize the skills that the garden club has given me in order to help within my community. Garden Club’ teachings have prepared me for further education and have set me up to become a real estate agent. I want to gain that higher education so I can eventually give back to my community and teach others and the youth the same skills that I have learned in order to be successful in life. A real estate agent has the power to invest back into the community and step into the spaces that uplifts the community and bring awareness to issues within the community. This is what I wish to achieve in life.
From the carrying of bags of dirt, to watering the beds, to harvesting fruits to give to family and friends, the garden club has given us so many tools besides just shovels. The tools that I was provided with are skills and mindsets. I have gained the skills of leadership, accountability, respectfulness, responsibility, resilience, as well as adaptability. All of which are necessary skills that any leader should acquire.