"Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it. "–Dwight Eisenhower
Kind of a traditional definition, that applies pretty broadly in the work world - for good leadership, anyway.
What I am trying to understand is how it is defined from a Scholarship perspective. I don’t know how many scholarships I’ve looked at that list “Leadership” as a primary factor. What does that really mean for a kid?
Being president of a club can have more to do with popularity than with leadership, particularly in High School. And, what about a student who doesn’t desire that type of position - the clear “leader” positions. There are so many ways a student may “lead,” but identifying those and then conveying it, can be quite difficult. So a kid who keeps the school website updated, or works on a team to develop props for a competition and guides the team to select their idea - would both be “leadership,” though not traditional, at least in my mind.
Here is what typical scholarships say:
Vanderbilt: students who combine outstanding academic achievement with strong leadership and contributions outside the classroom.
Georgia Tech: those who demonstrate extraordinary academic achievement, outstanding leadership skills, and have high potential to contribute inside and outside the classroom at Georgia Tech.
So how do you define it and what did your child do to show it? What is really meant when a scholarship says, “awards are based on showing strong/outstanding leadership?”