Personal Mission Statement

Definition of leadership: I believe leadership to be the act of leading a group of

individuals towards a mutualistic goal. It involves taking the initiative, reviewing the
opinion of others, and being inclusive, not exclusive.
Life Goals: My life goal since I was a sophomore in High School was to become a
podiatrist. This is a profession I have spent many hours of dedication to and Im not
even in school for it yet. I have been shadowing a podiatrist since I was a
sophomore in High School and I have chosen the pre-med route here at the
University of Illinois in hopes that it will best prepare me for the schooling ahead of
me. Another life goal of mine is to have a family. I have always valued the
importance of a family and the love/support they offer for you. I believe that this is
something everyone needs in life and that it does attribute to the type of leader you
will become. As selfish as this may sound, I have always wanted to be wealthy. The
main reason for this is because my parents have never disclosed how much they
make and I would like to live comfortably like they have so far allowed me to live. I
want to be wealthy because I want to be stable for my future family and so that my
children will be able to have a similar life to mine. I dont ever want them to worry
about money, because that can make people crazy and cloud their judgement.
Learning leadership will help me to achieve all of these goals because it is what will
teach me to be a strong person. Leadership will make me realize the other ways
that individuals think and help me to achieve my goals but hopefully helping others
to achieve theirs in the process.
Core Values: My core values are family, monetary security, and faith.
Why I enrolled: I enrolled in the Leadership Certificate Program to learn about my
leadership style, to find my weaknesses, and to improve upon them. I believe that
the Leadership Certificate Program will be able to help me address my weaknesses
through the classes I will take and the I-programs I plan to attend. Based on these
classes and programs I do believe that they will help me to improve myself as a
leader in ways that I would not be able to just through extra-curricular activities
alone.

Two Significant Learning Goals

1) I would like to become a more inclusive leader, this means including
uninterested others in the situation. To make this goal specific and
measurable, I would like to make sure that I either ask or see group members
participating in group discussion. This will ensure that everyones voice is
heard and no one feels non-included. This area of leadership is important to
me because I used to be that person who felt left out in group situations. And
I dont want anyone to feel that way because it is very lonely. Another reason
this area is important, is because I believe part of being a leader is raising
other leaders. If people arent included in things, then they are not going to
be prepped to be a leader. I would know if I reached my goal when I see
active participation from everyone within my group. This would show that I
was successful in being inclusive and that people feel comfortable in the
group to express their own ideas.

2) I would like to become a strong change catalyst when the situation calls for it.
On my ECI-U, change catalyst was my lowest score. This shows that it is an
area of weakness for me and I can only become a better leader if I focus on
my weaknesses and try to turn them into strengths. I believe that it is
important to become a strong change catalyst because change is what drives
groups forward. If my group that I am trying to lead is stuck in a rut, I need
to be able to implement ways of changing the way we go about things so that
we can achieve our goals. By learning how to be a strong change catalyst, I
will be able to remove barriers, lead initiatives, and call peoples attention
according to the ECI-U. I believe that all of these components of a change
catalyst is important for everyone to know because this is how movements
are made through leaders; whether they be big or small. An underlying
reason why I would also like to learn to be a strong change catalyst is
because I would love knowing that I am capable to be the strong effective
leader if an unexpected situation called for it.

11 Attributes and Skills

Skill/Attribute
Self-Development
Self-Awareness

Leadership Objective

Evidence

I would like to learn what

my strong suits and
weaknesses are in
leadership.

Self-Management

I would like to improve my

temporal skills.

I took the ECI-U for my

AGED 260 class. This
generated scores to
determine my emotional
intelligence and helped
make me more self-aware
of what emotional skills I
am strong in and those
that I need to continue to
work on.
I improved my temporal
skills by utilizing google
calendar and my planner.
Beforehand I had never
used a google calendar
and I must say it is
extremely helpful in
managing time. In
general these two tools
have greatly helped me in
improving my temporal
skills by having everything
I need to do written down
and in a spot where I have
been able to easily check.
By having allotted a
certain amount of time to
each task, I have
procrastinated less. And
this has helped me
improve my leadership
because it has allowed for
unexpected things to
come up and not throw
everything else out of
whack.

Interpersonal Development
Relationship Building
I would like to learn how to
make others feel
comfortable and that they

I have learned this skill

through my job on
campus. I work in the

Communication Skills

can trust me in a timely

matter because I believe
this would help in working
with in new teams. Trust
is a major part of
leadership, and the sooner
I can show others that
they can trust me, the
more involved I feel that
everyone would be within
a group, making it easier
to lead.
I would like to get better
at communicating with
others. As easy as that
sounds, I am not very
strong at communicating
what I need say in a way
that is well understood by
others.

Ethical Practices

I would like to learn about

what ethical practices I
hold close to my heart,
but also learn what others
hold close.

Team Development

I would like to learn how to

better dissolve conflict by
having minimal damage
done to either party.

kitchen at Legends and we

had a bunch of new hires.
Part of my job was to train
the new hires, and when I
did this I had to build
relationships with them by
first gaining their trust by
showing them that I knew
the skills of the job.

I am currently in CMN 230

because it teaches
interpersonal
communication and I
believe that this class has
helped me increase my
communication skills with
others. It has helped me
by making me more aware
of the communication
skills needed to form
relationships and then to
maintain them at a
specific stage.
In order to achieve this, I
have attended the Iprogram Integrity. When I
attended this program, I
gained an understanding
of what others view as
ethical. This helped me to
better understand the
actions of others.
Sometimes, what I may
think is ethical, others
may not think so.
I learned how to do this in
CMN 230. In the class we
talked about how
relationships dissolve
normally due to conflict.
So in order to avoid

relationships dissolving I
was taught to
communicate effectively
in order to prevent conflict
and this was taught
through a series of steps.
Organizational/Group Development
Leading Change
I would like to learn what
the best approach for me
would be to lead change.
I know that in the future I
will have ideas, but these
ideas will mean nothing if I
cant implement them. To
do so, I need to learn how
to how to project my ideas
so that others will follow
me in leading change.

Project and Program

Effectiveness

I would like to better learn

how to recognize the
accomplishments made
within the organizations
Im involved in. I would
like to learn how to do this
in a non-tacky way
though, I want to know
how to recognize
accomplishments in a
meaningful way.

I learned this by attending

the I-program Ignite which
aimed at organizational
development. Part of the
ignite program was to
learn how to initiate,
lead, and sustain change
initiatives in
organizations. This
targeted exactly what I
wanted to learn. It made
it easier for me because
they divided us into small
groups where it was easier
to talk about our ideas
first and then we could
share with everyone in the
program.
I learned this by attending
the I-program Intersect.
While this program
focused on interpersonal
knowledge for effective
leadership, I believe that
this program taught me
how to recognize
accomplishments in a
meaningful way because it
taught me how to build
relationships and develop
the teams I am in. I
learned by having a more
in-depth relationship with
my team, I will be more
likely to have a sincere
and quality way of
recognizing their

Systems Thinking

I would like to learn how to

assess the weaknesses
and strengths of my team.
By doing so, I believe I will
have better insight to how
my team will interact and
what we will be able to
accomplish.

Community Building

I would like to gain

confidence to lead a large
group in ice breaker
games.

Transitional Development
Sustaining Leadership

I want to learn how to

share my experiences and
knowledge about what
means a lot to me by
possibly mentoring or
coaching.

accomplishments.
I learned this by practicing
in the groups I have been
assigned to in class group
projects. For example, I
was in a biology group
project earlier this
semester and we worked
on an experiment. During
the experiment we took
turns do the procedures
and quickly learned who
was good at what.
I learned to do this by
leading small group
discussions within my
sorority chapter at our
sisterhood retreat. When
leading a small group
discussion I gained the
confidence to speak
openly with in a group. In
the future I hope I can
lead a large group in ice
breaker games at the next
sisterhood retreat,
because at that point I will
have gained most of the
confidence it will take to
lead it.
I have learned this by
becoming an advocate for
my major within my
chapter house. There are
a lot of younger women in
my chapter who are in the
same major as me. When
I offered my advice based
on what I have learned
from my years in the
major, I was able to help
mentor them on what they
want to do.