The 'Sax Babes' on a rainy gameday
The 'Sax Babes' on a rainy gameday
Authenticity to me is about allowing yourself to show your true self to the world unapologetically and without shame. Being your authentic self is a favor to yourself and the people around you. It is important to me because I have spent so much of my life not showing my authentic self to the world and I am still working on understanding that the best version of myself IS my authentic self.
Courage is pushing yourself to do what you know is best even when your nervousness and anxiety are screaming not to. Courage is one of my core values because it is what allows me to go from just surviving to actually living.
Growth is knowing that you are never done learning. It is always following that drive for more. To me, thinking that there is nothing more to do or no more ways to grow is the worst fate someone could suffer. The world is ever-changing and we must constantly grow or be left behind.
Understanding to me is not a final destination but a way of being. You can never fully understand, but you always have to try to be understanding. It is important to me because everyone has such diverse perspectives and lived experiences that being an understanding person is necessary to be a decent individual.
There is no single reason that explains why I do what I do. I care deeply about making a different in peoples’ lives and helping others in the same way that so many have helped me. I also know that I want to lead a life where I feel fulfilled and successful, whatever that ends up looking like for me. I won’t sit here and pretend like I am a saint that wants to change the world, but I am driven to make an impact. I want to make a change at least one person's life for the better, and I am okay if that one person is myself.
In the future, I hope to engage in leadership through many different avenues. Some of them I can envision now, like being a project manager, owning my own makerspace, or being a PTA mom. But what I am most excited for are the opportunities that right now I can’t even dream of. When I was in middle school, I never would have thought I would have the chance to travel across the country to perform in my high school’s jazz band. When I was in highschool, I never imagined I would be competing in business competitions for a robotic pet that measures stress. So now in the end of my college career, I look to the future and embrace the unknown, letting my values guide actions and not allowing opportunities to change my why.
In Husky Band, a key element of success comes from having a supportive, welcoming, and fun community within the section. As a section leader, I was able to facilitate community building through planning activities, mediating conflict, and practicing inclusivity.
Being workshop coordinator for the UW makerspaces required a level of systems understanding and organization that I had not previously attempted. In order to be successful, I had to stay on top of developing and organizing systems that were intuitive to my team.
At Komi, we are developing a pet-bot that helps users gain awareness with their stress through biofeedback practices. Throughout the design process, I have always been active in making my opinions heard about including empathy, inclusivity, and equity at every step of the way.
To me, leadership is about using various skills like communication, organization, and conflict management, to enact change on a community through its individuals. Leadership is not about control or making a difference, it is about how you are able to influence people to produce positive results. My definition of leadership includes equity and inclusion as a core of what it is. Leadership doesn’t just include equity and inclusion, it is equity and inclusion.
My understanding of what leadership is and who leaders are has changed drastically over time. When I was in high school, I believed that leadership positions were given to people who were the best in the field. Because of this, I thought that everyone should want to become a leader. If becoming a leader meant being the best, I thought not wanting to take on leadership positions meant you were lazy. When I got to college, I was shocked at how many people there were who weren't actively working to be some sort of leader. I didn’t understand that people could be content and fulfilled without needing to reach for a leadership position. There were two major realizations that helped me come to this conclusion. Firstly, leadership doesn’t equate to ‘better’, just different. You don’t have to be the best to become a leader and even if you are the best, that doesn’t mean you will make a good leader. Secondly, I realized that you don’t have to be a leader to make a difference. Not being a leader doesn’t mean you get no say in the matter.
I have always wanted to take on leadership positions, but now as a senior in college, I understand that I want to be a leader because I want to make a difference in individuals’ lives and capitalize on my strengths, not because being a leader is a progression of being good at what you do.