Reflections on Leadership
Leadership is a fundamental part of the Global UGRAD program. During our Re-entry Workshops we had a number of sessions dedicated to discussing leadership in a broader context. What does it mean to be a leader? What defines leadership? What are the different forms of leadership? Then, a few weeks after we had our Western Hemisphere students reflect upon the concept and what their roles as leaders would be back in their home communities.
Paula Marina Cabral Muchacho
Honestly, I didn’t know I was a leader before going to the Re-entry Workshop. I thought that being a true leader was more likely associated with really big and evident success, being in charge of a large amount of people, and maybe having fame. But now I understand that it is not that at all. Being able to make your own right decisions, never forgetting to help, and being a good influence on other people is what a leader is.
Randy Carlie Pierre-Louis
I’m growing skills which will become stronger and stronger. In that way I will be able to help my community back home. As a leader, there are many values that I need to practice as often as I can, for being a leader is not easy. People are watching you everywhere and lean on you during difficult situations. You are like a light. To that point, I can use my leadership skills to prove that the light is there.
Melissa de Los Angeles Chavarria Vega
In my home university we have a problem – a lack of interest on the part of the student community. One thing that I can do is show them that if we want to change our campus and administration, we must use our thoughts, actions, and attitudes to do so. We are a small population, less than a thousand students, and we are not working together as a community. We can start to apply daily leadership. We are a diverse group of people; everybody has different skills, and if we can take advantage of this rich diversity and create good and efficient plans that will improve our campus and our community.
Joselio Céspedes Chalas
I think a leader is not necessarily a person who leads or the person who is in charge of a group. In my opinion a leader is someone who takes care of all his or her fellows, is the person that tries to cover all the necessities of a team, working with all the team members as a family, through all the paths and situations they face, until finally achieving successfully every goal.
I would like to end with two really interesting and reflective quotes which I think define leadership…
“A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.” – Lao Tzu
“Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” – Warren Bennis
