Leadership

    Land Sea is my best example of my leadership skills.  Leadership involves "providing direction or guidance" (Merriam-Webster Dictionary).  It can be done by asking leading questions that will lead to finding the answer.  I witnessed excellent leaders while I was a participant on Land Sea.  They served their function very well by doing these things.
    On Land Sea I feel I gained leadership skills.  When I felt unsure of the path we were taking, I told my group.  Whether the path we were on was correct or not, by saying something, I was asserting my leadership skills.
    Each day on the trip our group assigned a leader of the day.  Although we always worked together and made decisions as a group, the leader of the day made sure to always have their map accessible and to be paying close attention to where we were going.  The leader also carried the first aid kit and had to make sure they stayed with the group rather than hiking ahead, or falling behind.  Without the first aid kit close by, it was useless when it was needed.
    Another example of my leadership skills was seen in my developmental psychology class.  We wrote children's stories along with students at Woodward Elementary.  In doing so, I was seen as a role model to my co-author.  When I worked with her, I did not want to always give her the answers, or tell her what we should write, but instead I asked for her opinions.  If she was not having a good day, or was feeling ill, she might not have been as eager to work.  I had to be aware of this when I was working with her, and help to encourage not only her writing for this story, but her desire to want to learn and work hard always.  I took this role very seriously, understanding that she would be carefully watching everything I did and said.  Even a comment that to me may have  meant nothing, could have been very important to her.
    I have also been in the same sort of circumstance on a few other occasions.  My sister teaches third grade, and I have visited her classroom and chaperoned a field trip that her class went on.  During my visits to her school I was amazed to see how excited some of the kids were to meet me.  Even when I passed by them in the hall a year later, when the students I met before were no longer in my sister's class, they still ran up to me to say hello.  That surprised me a lot; I hadn't realized at the time what an impact I was making on the kids, but I see now that I really did.