Leadership

Addresses the knowledge, skills, and dispositions required of a leader, with or without positional authority. Leadership involves both the individual role of a leader and the leadership process of individuals working together to envision, plan, and affect change in organizations and respond to broad-based constituencies and issues. This can include working with students, student affairs colleagues, faculty, and community members.

Integrating my academic foundation with extensive field experience, I have developed a leadership philosophy that balances administrative authority with collaborative empowerment. As defined by ACPA & NASPA (2015), the Leadership competency involves "the knowledge, skills, and dispositions required to positively influence people, groups, and organizations to pursue shared goals." In my role as a Graduate Advisor for Late Nite, I have directly applied this by leading a team of 16 undergraduate employees and four student managers to execute upwards of 84 events annually, ensuring that our mission and vision are articulated across all internal documents and public-facing programs.

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Foundational Outcome	Experience
Education
Articulate the vision and mission of the primary work unit, the division, and the institution.	Joining Late Nite, gave me a particularly unqiue experience in crafting the mission and vision of the organization. In which I formulated student committees to ideate what those should be and then I helped them to craft them. These are consistently present in all of our internal staff documents and runs deeply through all of the events that we facilitate. In a way I am always articulating the mission and vision of my unit.
Identify and understand individual-level constructs of “leader” and “leadership.”	I define leadership through the mentorship of 16 undergraduate employees and 4 student managers, focusing on their professional development and performance.
Explain the values and processes that lead to organizational improvement.	I value prestige and follow the philosphy of "Shoot for the stars and aim for the moon" Meaning that I am readily prepared to evaluate any program or service offering to create data-driven improvements and always looking to close gaps.
Explain the advantages and disadvantages of different types of decision-making processes (e.g. consensus, majority vote, and decision by authority).	In my role as House Director, I utilized "decision by authority" for policy violations and emergent crises, while employing "consensus" and "governing groups" by establishing a dormitory council to give students agency over their environment.
Identify institutional traditions, mores, and organizational structures (e.g., hierarchy, networks, governing groups, technological resources, nature of power, policies, goals, agendas and resource allocation processes) and how they influence others to act in the organization.	I have consistently played a part in planning and evaluating campus traditions and flagship events, always looking to analyze the who, what, when, why, and how of each tradition to best meet the perceived needs of the student body.
Training
Identify one’s own strengths and challenges as a leader and seek opportunities to develop leadership skills.	My strength in innovation was recognized by the "Undergraduate Student of the Year" award. I further develop my skills through professional associations like ACUI and NACA.
Identify basic fundamentals of teamwork and teambuilding in one’s work setting and communities of practice.	Every Late Nite event is a collaborative team effort between myself, one manager, one marketing manager, and 15 event staff.
Describe and apply the basic principles of community building.	Every event facilitated by Late Nite is meant to utilize niche programming and special occasions to build community.
Development
Describe how one’s personal values, beliefs, histories, and perspectives inform one’s view of oneself as an effective leader with and without roles of authority.
Build mutually supportive relationships with colleagues and students across similarities and differences
Engagement
Understand campus cultures (e.g. academic, student, professorial, administrative) and apply that understanding to one’s work.	I apply an understanding of campus cultures by continously planning events around cultural communities around campus as well utilizing niche trends and experiences to create programming that students want.
Use appropriate technology to support leadership processes (e.g. seeking input or feedback, sharing decisions, posting data that supports decisions, use group support website tools).	I use Qualtrics for evaluation , Microsoft Office for reporting , and Adobe Creative Cloud or Capcut for marketing campaigns
Think critically, creatively, and imagine possibilities for solutions that do not currently exist or are not apparent.	In Event planning you are always trying to predict the unpredicatble and make the experience perfect for your intended audience.
Identify and consult with key stakeholders and individuals with differing perspectives to make informed decisions.	Everyone has an idea of how to best serve students and your role as a professional is to communicate why your idea, using data, is the best idea to serve the student needs. It isn't always the most efficient or liked method.
Articulate the logic and impact of decisions on groups of people, institutional structures (e.g. divisions, departments), and implications for practice.	I track the impact of my decisions by evaluating departmental return on investment and compiling financial transactions to ensure all programmatic logic aligns with departmental goals.
Identify positive and negative impacts on wellness and, as appropriate, seek assistance from available resources.	Consolidate and restructure programs that are inefficient or cause stress to minimize their impact such as a switch to Microsoft teams, or a newly structured staff meeting to facilitate Team Building.
Exhibit informed confidence in the capacity of individuals to organize and take action to transform their communities and world.	I exhibit confidence in my staff bydelegating tasks and programming, playing to their strengths, and empowering them to execute their own team-led events.
Within the scope of one’s position and expertise, lead others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organization.	Lead a team of 20 student staff to successfully execute between 20-84 events a year.