Cynthetiq

When you were in school did you get selected or participate in anything like Model UN, Leadership retreat, or Student Council?

I never got selected for any of those things. I never thought of myself as a leader in school, but I seemed to be a natural leader once I started working. I was always trusted to be a supervisor or manager pretty much right out of the gate when I first started working. Maybe it was the Alex P. Keaton demeanor I had.

If you did participate in any of those things do you think it helped you develop new skills or skills you use today?

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snowy

I was involved in other things in high school, but I got into leadership in college. I was pretty active in student leadership all throughout my undergrad, in various capacities. Vice-President of Educational Programming for Hall Council, NACURH representative, National Residence Hall Honorary Community Service Chair, Secretary for Alpha Phi Omega (community service fraternity), Secretary for the English Students Association (club for English majors), President of the English Students Association, etc.

I learned a lot about managing people, planning tasks, executing tasks, delegation, organizing, promotion, and reviewing tasks. I learned how to write a constitution for a student organization, how to plan events, how to fundraise, and how to budget for an organization.

I use the skills I learned from student leadership every day in my capacity as a manager.

For what it's worth, I found it easier to get involved in leadership in college over high school. In high school, the same people ran for class councils or ASB over and over again, and it also required a whole class period a day towards that. I didn't have time in my schedule for that (my extra period was choir).

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If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

genuinegirly

I went on a leadership retreat in college, just felt like an adult version of summer camp with team-building activities. Honestly, it was a good experience, pushed me to communicate better and gave me the opportunity to see several tasks through as a team. It gave me the skills I needed to deal with group work in college, which was something I needed since in high school I was the kind of person who would just do all of the work on a group project.

I was a girl scout until junior high, then in junior high and high school I was in the leadership of our church youth group. I planned weekly activities, phone called all of the girls to make sure they knew about each activity, planned larger dances and participated in various leadership councils. It was time-consuming and sometimes frustrating, but overall a wonderful experience. I have no fear of planning events now, and welcoming new people to a group comes naturally.

I've never done anything like model UN or student leadership. Too many big decisions.

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"Sometimes I have to remember that things are brought to me for a reason, either for my own lessons or for the benefit of others." Cynthetiq

"violence is no more or less real than non-violence." roachboy

SecretMethod70

I wish I had done Model UN as a student. I wouldn't have had time, though, and I didn't even know it existed until college.

We had a student council at my junior high which didn't have much purpose other than pertaining to sports and cheerleading events (as far as I remember), but I was elected along with a few other friends to be part of the environmental council. Anyway, the most interesting thing of it is that we took a worthless feel-good portion of the student council and turned it into something useful by creating school-wide recycling programs and contests as well as funding our organization - and eventually the entire student council (for whatever they used the money for) - through our Friday candy sales. From what I remember, we pretty much skipped all the actual student council meetings because we were doing more on our own anyway. It was a good and fun experience and I guess you could say we learned some basic organizational and entrepreneurial skills.

In HS, I was elected to be secretary of my school's showchoir (it was not anything like Glee, thank you very much). Specific to that role, the main thing I remember dealing with was our weekly schedule and things like that. The showchoir had 4 officers though (Pres, VP, Sec, Tres) and we worked as a team to plan many of our activities, such as our summer retreat, end of year parties, fundraisers, etc. I suppose I learned about planning and working as a team of executives from that experience.

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Le temps détruit tout

"Musicians are the carriers and communicators of spirit in the most immediate sense." - Kurt Elling

uncle phil

interestingly enough, i was the model u. n. rep from my school for the country of gabon (understand this was many, many years ago)...

i honestly don't think the experience helped me develop any marketable skills at the time, but i did get the chance to meet a lot of interesting people from our county's high schools who i wouldn't have otherwise...

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"We were wrong, terribly wrong. (We) should not have tried to fight a guerrilla war with conventional military tactics against a foe willing to absorb enormous casualties...in a country lacking the fundamental political stability necessary to conduct effective military and pacification operations. It could not be done and it was not done."
- Robert S. McNamara
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"We will take our napalm and flame throwers out of the land that scarcely knows the use of matches...
We will leave you your small joys and smaller troubles."
- Eugene McCarthy in "Vietnam Message"
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never wrestle with a pig.
you both get dirty;
the pig likes it.

Baraka_Guru

I always looked at student council and leadership camps, etc., as a bit of an oddity. I'm not sure what they really meant or what they entailed. Even today I'm rather ignorant.

I was never a leader; I'm a follower, a grunt, a peon, a serf.

I tend to thrive when there's someone else in charge, making the decisions and allocating the resources.

Mind you, there were many times in college when I had to step up where there was clearly a leadership void. It, to me, as a necessary evil. I never liked doing it, and I'm sure I was never really likeable while I was doing it.

That said, I probably lack all kinds of leadership skills. I also doubt I'm a good manager. I tend to be unorganized and a bit impulsive.

I suppose I'd rather other people give me structure.

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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

StanT

I was captain of the dope smoking team in high school. Very competitive position where I went to school. Can't say it helped much later in life.

I straddled the line between worst possible attitude and still graduating.

I liked college, high school was just a road bump in life to me.

citadel

I found it amusing at my high school that anyone with good grades got recommended for those things, with no attention paid to the differences between a leader and a person put in charge of others.