“The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been” -Henry Kissinger. As an Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America, leadership is something that is taught to boys from the moment they start the program at the age of eleven. Leadership means holding yourself to a higher standard and putting your fellow scouts above yourself. In my last six years as a Boy Scout, I have led others in finding their strengths, weaknesses, and encouraged boys to work as a team to accomplish a common goal. I started as an Assistant Patrol Leader and worked my way up to the highest leadership position, Senior Patrol Leader.
In the spring of 2008, I was the only one in my troop of 27 boys to attend a program put on by the Boy Scouts of America called National Youth Leadership Training. This program only strengthened my leadership skills and I will use these skills for the rest of my life. The senior leaders of the program noticed the way I worked with the other scouts and invited me to lead a patrol through the program the following year. In addition to leading a patrol, I also taught two presentations teaching skills I had learned only a year before.
In the summer of ….., I helped lead a group of eleven scouts in the mountains of New Mexico for twelve days at a camp called Philmont. This journey was filled with stormy days, dehydration, tired feet, and nosebleeds. Although I had about 420 miles of hiking in …. under my belt, it was nothing compared to the dry climate of New Mexico. On the days where our group was at our lowest, I encouraged all our members to continue on until we reached the camp. Each day would consist of hundreds of feet in elevation change and six to eleven miles of hiking. I learned at Philmont that leadership can save lives, keep the spirit of your group high, and make any situation you encounter that much easier to deal with.
Student Essay: Published with Permission
Lynn Radlauer Lubell, Publisher of InLikeMe.com and Founder of Admission By Design, an Educational Consultancy based in Boca Raton, Florida.
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