Leadership Class by Danika

Leadership Class by Danika - July 2026 Scholarship Essay

Interviewing into leadership, I expected it to be something entirely different than anything I'd done before. As time went on, attending more meetings, charities, and helping out around the school, I realized that anyone could be challenging themselves with these commitments without the "leadership class" label.

Entering a new community was challenging for me, I had gone from my simple classes to surrounding myself with the biggest thinkers and planners in my school. I immediately involved myself in every helping opportunity that came up, with fear of being behind all the other underclassmen. In our busy school, everything I needed to learn about from planning logistics to physically building crafts and parade floats, needed to be learned fast. With our leadership professor consistently running from place to place, I was left with big tasks and little instructions. This most challenged my critical thinking skills. There are times in everyone's life where we don't have a single clue on how to do something. With pressure from my classmates and school community, I trained myself to come up with solutions fast and thinking critically of the best possible solution.

I believe that everyone has critical thinking skills, but they need opportunities to strengthen them. Analyzing situations and asking questions to big ideas is something every student at my school is capable of doing. Looking back at myself freshman year, not being in the leadership program, I had these skills. Not only the mindset, but I had the resources to make a difference in my community like we learn in my leadership class. I realized being a leader isn't about the role; it's about how you shift your creative thinking to reality.

When I used my creativity toward making a beneficial difference, without being in an environment where I needed to help on a project or organize an event with a checkbox attached, created my real critical thinking skills. However, I needed the leadership class to realize that and uncover my skills.