<p>I am applying at the University of Texas-Ausin and here is one of my essays. Please read it and judge it based upon how you believe an admissions officer would judge it. Also any help would be much appreciated!</p>
<p>Prompt: Considering your lifetime goals, discuss how your current and future academic and extra-curricular activities might help you achieve your goals.</p>
<p>What is something that is always needed but rarely found? Not gold, but something equally as valuable. Leadership. Leadership is needed throughout the world; from political to spiritual, leadership is essential to success. However, few are born capable of great leadership so the rest of us must learn, try, and perfect our own personal leadership ability. This ability is what I continue to work on through the Boy Scouts of America and through my experiences as a Special Olympics Campus Coordinator.
As a young Boy Scout I was given the opportunity to observe many different leadership styles as well as try out my own on a small scale. I recognized that involving everyone and giving everyone a purpose was essential to making the system work and that practice still lives with me today. I tried out this technique with both success and failure. The best scenario would be when preparing a dinner while on a campout. There were a few people who were very skilled in the kitchen and were essential to producing a great meal, however the hard part was giving a purpose to those who werent so well around the stove. There were some who didnt want to help, and those who wanted to do it all (myself included). Involving everyone was the only way to create a working system and produce a great product. I learned from each of these experiences as I worked my way up the ladder in my troop and began seeing other small details that leaders do to help a system. They dont do all the leading. Sometimes they will designate a few older scouts to be in charge of certain areas, much like a business, and run it as they see fit. This, I saw, greatly reduced the amount of work for the leader and gave others experience as a leader. Finally when my time came to be elected as the Senior Patrol Leader of my troop I felt like I had all the skills necessary to lead my troop to success. Man was I wrong.
I began as a yeller and a demanding leader that led to a low morale. I soon found the morale of the entire group was more important than doing everything my way. I had to understand that no one was perfect and I could not expect perfection from any one. One of the hardest parts was realizing my plan for an activity or event would never go smoothly or perfectly. There would always be something that would interfere, and I learned the key to success was adjusting to this interference. I also had to realize the group would not always accept the way I wanted to do something so I again had to adjust my idea to fit in with the groups preferences. These constant adjustments allowed me the opportunity to adjust my leadership style from demanding to understanding, but stern. I found this leadership style to be the most powerful in terms of accomplishing tasks, but also keeping morale up. Finally the largest test of my leadership abilities was upon me: my Eagle Scout project. Creating, leading, and executing this project felt like nothing less than trying to move the world. Obstacles such as a shortage of money, volunteers, and time interfered with success. I had to personally motivate myself as a leader to accomplish what I set out to accomplish. Eventually I did and I know the project advanced my leadership ability more than any other task I have ever faced.
Outside of Boy Scouts entirely I found myself as a coordinator for another large organization in the United States: Special Olympics. I began volunteering with Special Olympics to fulfill a requirement for school, but found a higher calling than just a simple school requirement. I wanted to really make an impact and allow others to make an impact as well. Midway through my junior year I was chosen to be the campus coordinator at Richland College for Special Olympics. I was honored to be able to involve myself in an entire new way. This new leadership position was different than any I had before. I was now in charge of both motivating people to volunteer, but also make sure everything was in place to make the events a success. My job consisted of publicizing the events to my school and asking for volunteers, scheduling volunteers for shifts, and ensuring they had the necessary help and materials to succeed. It was mass organization of people, sometimes up to seventy-five people. I regularly had to arrive early and leave late to insure everything went smooth and that everyone was able to make an impact. This was a new challenge to me in my leadership development. No longer were people required to do what I asked them to do, but could leave without any penalty. I had to make sure everyone was happy and most importantly wanted to be there. Creating this positive volunteering environment led to greater success for each of the events-the important part. I was able to use some previous leadership experience to aide in this, but also had to further develop myself to lead a new group of people with a different end product.
The reason why I pursue advancing my leadership ability is to make myself an ideal candidate for future leadership positions in both my community and the workplace. My dream of becoming an elected official serving in Washington D.C. would not be possible without strong leadership abilities. For myself to lead a city, state, or country to both economic and social prosperity I must have the background in leadership that will give me the skills needed to accomplish my goals. In terms of the private sector I hope to advance up the corporate ladder in economics because of my strong leadership abilities. Whether it be a large corporation, a think-tank, or an economics firm I know my leadership abilities will be useful towards advancing my career. The leadership ability that I have grown through the Boy Scouts as well as through my position with the Special Olympics will produce success for myself in my pursuit of both my career and life goals.</p>