Jarrod Wetzel-Brown, Comstock HS
MASC/MAHS Board of Delegates Member

I was not particularly involved with any "official" leadership organizations, but that did not stop my brother and I from evolving as leaders at an early age. Helping my friends on the playground exercised my ability to work with other individuals. Cleaning up my messes instilled personal responsibility, and my fantastical dreams of youth fueled my sense of vision. Although my acts may have seemed insubstantial then, they have led to the overall development of both my character and actions as a leader. As I enter my adult life, my values have begun to concretely form, and I have learned that leadership roles are (and will continue to be) very important to me. My two most pressing and current leadership roles include President of National Honor Society (NHS) and my main officer position in my school's Student Government. Both of my leadership roles involve a heavy use of communication and also stress both virtues of patience and flexibility. I am expected to lead our school's NHS in the right direction. I am expected to also inform, instruct, and encourage each officer so that we may achieve the goals we set as an organization. At times, this can be rather challenging, but I have learned that challenges bring about personal growth.
I have also learned that different types of trials test leaders and bring about even further development. In Student Government, I feel as though I lead in an almost "paradoxical way" compared to when acting in my presidency, but this presents new challenges that have also shaped me. I must listen to the other officers' opinions respectfully. I have realized in this leadership role that listening is just as necessary as speaking my own mind. Both positions place me in situations that utilize different aspects of being a leader, thus allowing the advancement of my own leadership skills.
As I mentioned before, my roots in leadership began years ago, and to be honest, I am still practicing the same small acts I completed when young. I am still playing on a "playground" of sorts when I am forced to work with my peers to accomplish a collective goal. I am still cleaning up my "messes" and making responsibility and liability significant parts of my roles as a leader. Finally, I continue to dream and hope for great things to happen. I have realized that a proper leader must dream big in order to achieve anything that largely effects his or her world. Leadership has indeed shaped me as a person and has instilled me with the values that I cherish most, and that is why it is so important to me. I guess it is a good thing that I started "leading" when I was young.