Beyond the Title by Abigail

Beyond the Title by Abigail - August 2026 Scholarship Essay

Last year, I thought I understood what it meant to be a leader. As my junior class president, I had a title, recognition, and a position that made me feel like I had proven myself. When senior year approached, I expected to continue as class president. Instead, after the election results, I became senior class vice president.

The feedback was not given to me in a conversation or written on a piece of paper. It came through an outcome I did not expect. At first, it felt like a hit to my ego. I could not understand where I had gone wrong. I had worked hard as junior class president, so I naturally questioned what the results said about me as a leader. I was disappointed because, without anyone directly explaining why, I felt as though I had taken a step backward.

With time, however, I realized that I was focusing on the wrong thing. I was so concerned with the title I had lost that I was overlooking the opportunity I still had to lead. Becoming vice president forced me to reconsider what leadership actually meant to me. Before this experience, I associated leadership with being recognized, being at the front, and having the highest title. Now, I understand that leadership is much more about how you treat people, how well you listen, how you collaborate, and how willing you are to contribute even when you are not the person receiving the most recognition.

This realization was further reinforced for me this past summer at a leadership camp I attended. During one of the workshops, a speaker shared his own experiences with leadership and emphasized something that stayed with me: not to let a title define who we are. He explained that titles can be taken away or changed at any time, but the way we show up for others and the impact we make are what truly matter. Hearing this from someone outside of my own experience helped me put my situation into perspective and made me realize that I had been placing too much value on a position rather than on my actions.

As vice president, I became more collaborative, more willing to listen, and more comfortable supporting others. I also became more confident because I stopped measuring my abilities by my title. I learned that I could still make an impact without having “president” attached to my name. In fact, letting go of that need for recognition allowed me to focus more on the people I was serving.

I still do not know exactly what caused the election results, and I have learned to be comfortable with not having every answer. What I do know is that the experience revealed something about myself that I needed to change. I had allowed a position to become part of how I measured my worth. The experience challenged that mindset and taught me that one outcome does not define my ability to lead.

Now, when I receive feedback or face an outcome that is different from what I hoped for, I try to look beyond my initial disappointment. I ask myself what I can learn, what I can improve, and how I can grow from the experience. I no longer see leadership as something that is proven by a title. I see it as something demonstrated through my actions.

Losing the position I expected was difficult, but it taught me a lesson I may not have learned from success alone: sometimes, the most important growth happens when your plans do not work out. I stopped letting a title define me, and in doing so, I became a better leader.