Senior Leadership Scholarship Essay

As far back as my sophomore year I have been enrolled in leadership programs and have been interested in the role of a leader. In fact, the first extracurricular program that I joined in school was the 20/20 Leadership program. During the 20/20 Junior Olympics competition I held a position as the Head of Surveys and Student Outreach for my group. My role in the group was to conduct surveys with the student body to allow them to voice their concerns about our school, which could lead us to a problem we could target.

The results that I accrued eventually led our group to the idea of honoring the unique history of our school through a display case of memorabilia from our alumni association. We thought it would be crucial for our project to highlight the important legacy of our school. Before the beginning of the current school year, there was a ribbon-cutting ceremony held with members of the alumni association in attendance as they appreciated the project and congratulated us for our efforts. I plan to continue leading similar projects during my time in college and well beyond into my career since I believe it is truly valuable to practice leadership continually throughout your life.

Another example of my mentorship at school would be my involvement in Link Crew. My job as a Link Leader was to introduce an incoming class of 8th graders to our school and help them transition into the high school environment along with its challenges and expectations. Over the course of the school year, I along with three other leaders would visit our group’s classroom once a month to teach them about their upcoming high school career and how to prepare accordingly. Since my high school career had started at the same time as the Covid-19 lockdowns I felt it was important to guide these kids towards a successful high school career the same way I wished someone had done for me at the time. Through our efforts, we were able to help these kids develop and move past the need for our guidance. I was glad that I was able to give these kids the confidence and knowledge to advance further into high school.

Lastly, the most important leadership activity; the one that I dedicate the majority of my time to would be my role as the Trombone Section Leader. As the section leader, my job is to guide my fellow players on the proper marching technique and prepare their playing skills to performance standards. Through a strong sense of leadership and much dedicated time to my players, we have become one of the strongest sections in the band as stated by our director. This acknowledgment brings me great pride in my section and gives me the hope that the current underclassmen have learned valuable skills from me that they will pass on to the next class when I am gone.

As my experiences have taught me, I have a great dedication to leadership and mentoring and wish to continue my activities well into my college career. I will achieve this in similar ways I have done now which includes joining programs and clubs such as the band and leadership programs. I will utilize the skills I have already learned in my new environment to properly lead my groups to success.