Before joining LEAD, I was quite a reserved person. However, I had lots of energy (but didn’t know where to channel it), and I had dreams of becoming an independent woman with her own company and a large network.
When I was in my 2nd year of college, I attended a LEAD orientation. I watched the LEAD employees and saw they had a confidence and patience I admiredI wanted to gain the skills they had and be like them. I also saw LEAD as a platform for channeling all my energy I had towards reaching my goals of entrepreneurship and independence.Since joining LEAD, I have completed 18 projects in total, including working on 13 projects in one month during my first year of LEAD. I, therefore, won the Most Active Leader award during my local Valedictory in my first year, and this encouraged me to keep going. Since then, I have also won the Best Leader award in the local Valedictory in 2013.
Although I feel very good about my accomplishments in LEAD, there have also been challenges. It is difficult when you are taking a leadership position, trying to be innovative, but people oppose you or don’t believe you. However, through LEAD I have become more confident and better understand my true potential, so I know it’s important not to let those people discourage me.
Finally, one of my LEADaccomplishments I feel the proudest of is how many students I have encouraged to join LEAD. Since I became the first student from my college to join LEAD, I have convinced 153 students to join LEAD with my testimonial. My hope is that all of them have a better understanding of their potential through LEAD, just like I have.