KC Royals Charities Scholarship Essay

A quote by Mariarn Wright Edelman serves as a perfect example of the goal in becoming a pursuing education and consequently becoming a better leader: “Education is for improving the lives of others and for leaving your community and world better than you found it.” This quote by a very powerful woman emphasizes the importance of education, but this applies to leadership as well. The ultimate goals of a leader should be to bring people together, solve problems, and make the lives of others better. Finding a strong sense of leadership in oneself and educating oneself to their own highest potential is a lethal combination in working towards those goals. My journey in becoming a leader has helped me realize these and has helped mold my life to higher standards. That is the story I will try to convey here.

From a young age, as in elementary school, I had been told that I had a strong voice and/or presence. My parents, teachers, and, more specifically, a janitor at my school, Mr. Anderson, provided me with affirmations of my apparently innate ability to command attention. All the people rooting for me would say, “I think you would be a good lawyer.” “I bet you’d make a good principal or teacher.” “I can see it; you gon’ be the president some day.” At such a young age, I could never have really grasped the long-lasting effects such words would have on me. At the time, I bet it was just cool to hear that so many people thought such great things about me. The actual application of these ideas was definitely beyond me, though. In the present, I can more clearly see that these events laid the foundation for a pattern of success.

Middle school is the next major milestone of my academic career. Similar to my time in elementary school, my performance and general personality achieved the same tone of praise as before. I was older though, and I was definitely more capable of understanding what this could mean for moving forward in terms of a career. At this time, the term leadership had hardly grazed my vocabulary, and advocacy and representation of opportunities that promote leadership were nonexistent. Alongside the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic occurred during my time in middle school, my school had an apparent lack of opportunities, clubs, etc., meaning that I didn’t grow very much in terms of experience and, more specifically, leadership. But high school is really when my potential launched into an uncontrollable spiral of ideas, plans, motivations, and so much more.

In high school, I found more of myself than I ever had before. I had broken out of my shell, become more confident, more intentional, and it was thanks to a man I met named Raz. Raz was my computer science teacher, but computer science wasn’t the most important thing that he taught me. The most important thing he taught me was J.J.D.I.D.T.I.E.B.U.C.K.L.E., the 14 Leadership Traits. This is, to this day, the most memorable thing I’ve learned since the beginning of high school. When introducing them the first time, Raz mentioned that everyone can be a leader, but not everyone will. When I heard those words, I couldn’t help but cheese, as my dad would say, at the challenge he seemed to have dropped on the class. From that day forward, I always kept the 14 leadership traits close to my heart. They guided all my actions, my attitude, my work, and ultimately the results to help me get to be the person I am now.

Of the 14 traits, the one that stood out the most to me was integrity. As I’ve gone through life, I’ve come to realize that their can be a significant deficiency in integrity. Whether it be someone who stole a crayon or a true injustice within our justice system, I have seen such a lack of integrity, so I vowed to be as authentic, truthful, and open as I can be, to be the change I want to see in the world. This specific trait, alongside the others, has truly shaped me and set me on the path I want to live on. Though the path of life may be rough, smooth, up and down, it will always be real.

From that day at the beginning of high school, I’ve strived for success. Success in leadership, in academics, in a career, in hobbies and relationships. That moment is the reason I have pushed myself and taken on many challenges to prepare myself for higher education. Not only will pursuing a higher education help me boost me on my path, but it will also equip me with more knowledge, experience, and insight on how to be a better leader and how to make changes in my communities. For the past few years, I’ve asked and challenged myself to find ways to make a difference now. In doing this, I have found a few ways to do so, but the range of my own availability or access is rather limited. While some change or contribution is absolutely better than nothing, I know that the opportunities and experiences I’ll find in college or any other form of higher education will give me the extra push I need to do even greater things than I can now.

I strive to live as close as possible to the sentiment, philosophy, and work of Marian Wright Edelman. I will live with integrity and authenticity, and I will do everything in my power to bring people together. I will do everything in my power to learn as much as possible everywhere I go and use my past experiences and new knowledge to help contribute to making the world a better place.