Posts Tagged ‘leadership’
Building Your Resume
Welcome to college! Yes, you’re there to learn, but in addition to studying and taking classes, universities offer students countless opportunities to join student-run organizations on campus. Getting involved is a great way to build your resume, gain insightful experience, explore interests, have a good time, make new friends, and maybe even make a difference in the world.
Intramurals
Do you like to play sports but aren’t necessarily equipped to be a collegiate athlete? Intramurals may be right for you! Many universities offer students the opportunity to join intramural leagues—recreational sports leagues that allow you to form your own teams with friends or join teams as an individual—free of charge or for a small fee. Sports can range anywhere from volleyball and basketball to inner tube water polo and broomball, which will allow you to play the sports you love and maybe even try something new. Intramural sports are a great way to blow off steam, get some exercise, and be part of a really fun college organization.
Greek Life
The Greek system may not be the right choice for everyone, but if you are interested in sorority/fraternity life, joining a house can provide numerous ways to gain leadership and philanthropic experience. Joining the Greek system will be a lot of fun and give you a very social college experience, but it will also give you a great opportunity to be a part of a long-standing tradition, raise money for charities, and bolster your resume. Before going to college, you may not be aware that in addition to the traditional fraternities and sororities typically portrayed in the media, there are honors fraternities for certain majors, service fraternities, and cultural fraternities that all bring students together based on common interests. Joining the Greek system and becoming a leader within your chapter can be a great resume builder and help you make connections with alumni down the road when you are looking for a job. Many of the top politicians and businessmen in America were members of the Greek system in college, and you could be next!
Clubs
College clubs are another great way to get involved on campus, and can be formed around anything you can think of: the more traditional, like a book club or chess club; the more obscure, like a squirrel-watching club or Harry Potter society; even the political, like Young Democrats or College Republicans. Whatever you’re interested in, your university is likely to have a club dedicated to it, and if not, maybe you can be the one to create it! Becoming an active member and taking on leadership positions within the organization is a great way to stand out on your campus and gain crucial experience. Having clubs to list on your resume can also be a great conversation starter in an interview and help you become a dynamic, interesting candidate.
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5 Ways To Be Proactive About Your Future!
As a college student, your job is to study, learn, build skills and have fun. Explore your world! While it’s important to be in the moment and focus on school, it’s never too early to begin career planning. This does not necessarily mean concrete planning, but having some foresight about your future is a great idea. Here are some things you can do to be proactive about your future career.
Consider Attending Graduate School
Depending on your major, you are either bound to attend some form of graduate school or have never considered it as an option. Medical School is necessary for doctors, obviously. But if you aren’t pre-med, graduate programs may be worth investigating if you enjoy learning in a more challenging and competitive environment. Take a look at these six things you should know before applying to grad school. If you know Law School is or may be in your future, check out Cappex’s list of the best Law Schools in the country.
Study a Second Language
It’s not everyone’s strong suit, but studying a second language will come in very handy when you graduate college and begin applying for jobs. Our world is becoming smaller in many ways and knowing even the basics of another language will make you more valuable to an employer. Take a foreign language class if you can fit it into your schedule!
Think Outside the Box
You might have a freak-out moment where you yell, “Help! My major is useless in today’s job market!” Don’t worry. There are a lot of jobs to which you can apply all that you’ve learned earning your degree. Remember: work forward from where you are. You have a great set of skills that will vary in demand over time, but use what you have now to work towards an ultimate goal.
Have an Ultimate Goal!
An ultimate goal shouldn’t be a binding goal – demands change rapidly and so do you. You might change your mind down the road and that’s okay! But having a direction is better than having no direction. You can’t discover what you really want to do if you never start anything. So, choose a goal like graduating from Law School or writing a book or teaching a class. Work towards it from where you stand now.
Build Leadership Skills
Having experience as a leader will make you much more appealing to future employers and will definitely give you confidence to tackle your career search post college. Here are three awesome ways you can build leadership skills!
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The Top 3 Challenges College Leaders Face
As the president of your student government, a resident assistant at your residence hall, the captain of your sports team, or a leader in any other club or organization on campus, you have a lot of responsibilities. Besides the usual doing well in school, making it to all the club meetings, and maintaining your friendships and relationships, you have duties as a leader! The following is a list of challenges many college leaders face, and how to deal with them as they arise.
Being the Role Model: As a leader on campus, everyone knows who you are, what you’re involved in, and what you’ve accomplished. On the one hand, it feels completely awesome to walk out of your residence hall and have a handful of waves and conversations before you’ve even reached your destination. On the other hand, everyone knows when you mess up. You’ve heard before that as a student leader, all eyes are on you, all the time. So what do you do when you’re getting a little tired of being on your best behavior for everyone?
Solution: Find a place you can just be yourself. This might be with a friend who lives off campus, with your friends back home, or with another student leader who feels the same pressures you do. Let this place be where you can tell your closest confidants what you REALLY think about the opponent running for your position. By having a place you can be just you, you’re relieving some of the pressures of being a role model all of the time.
Keeping Up with Everything: Chances are, if you’re in one leadership role, you’re in a bunch. Leadership is in your nature. While you might be in love with all of the roles you play on campus, there will always be weeks in which you have tons of exams, relationship problems, volunteer work, family issues, people coming to you for advice, and a million more things you just feel you can’t keep up with. It only takes a few days like this before you’ve failed a quiz, missed a meeting, or skipped a class so you can finish your homework. How do you stay on top?
Solution: Examine how you spend your time and see if there are places in which you could use it more wisely. If you’re already managing your time as best as you can, you may want to consider pulling out of something. While it’s great to be a part of so many things, you want to give these things your all as opposed to hardly having time for any of them. You’ll be a better leader because of it!
Pleasing Everyone: As a leader, you’re the one who gets to hear all of the grief! If you propose that your organization spend money on one thing, you’re upsetting a group of people who wanted the money spent on something else. If other students don’t like how your organization is run, you’re the one who deals with the complaints. As a leader, you can likely see many points of view and can sympathize with everyone, but despite what you do, someone is unhappy.
Solution: Understand that you can’t please everyone, nor will you be liked by everyone. All you can do is your best, and what you think is right!
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Five Ways College Leaders Can Prepare for Fall This Summer
As a resident assistant, executive board member, or other college leader, you’ve been around the block a time or two. You know that when Fall semester hits, it hits hard! You know that from day one, you’ve got unpacking, classes, reading, meetings, and lots and lots of planning for your organization. Give yourself a jump-start by checking out these tips on how you can prepare for next semester right now!
Research
Your first few club meetings of the semester are rich with new ideas and goals for the year. Should we order club jackets or sweat pants this year? What group bonding activities should we do? What speaker should we bring on campus? What should we do to raise awareness on a particular issue? How can we afford that trip to D.C. at the end of the year? If you spend some time over the summer coming up with ideas for the Fall, you’re giving your whole organization a head start, and you’re demonstrating to the group that not only do you have a passion for your organization, you take responsibility. That makes you an attractive leader!
Reservations
If your group meets at a college cabin the last week in October every year, check to make sure it’s been booked. If you’ll need to rent out a room every week at a particular time for a new organization you’ve started, look into how and when you’ll need to make those arrangements. Having reservations done will ensure for a smoother start to the Fall semester.
Recruit
Clubs are always looking for new members. New members bring in new ideas and new talent. When you’ve graduated, it will be these individuals who will be taking your place running the group. Find a way to promote your organization to the incoming freshmen. Advertise your first event on campus when you know new students will be there for orientation. Make a Facebook page, web site, or Twitter feed for your group and encourage new college students to follow it for more information about your club. Make the freshmen feel welcome and encourage their interest!
Read
Stay up-to-date on issues that may interest or affect your group. What’s been in the news this summer that you’ll want to discuss with other people who share your passion? Have there been any recent events your group should raise money for or get involved in? Has a new college rule changed the way your group will have to operate? Has anything happened on campus this summer that could cause conflict in your group? Staying up-to-date on current issues will allow your group to be more relevant in the Fall.
Reach Out
Before you return in the Fall, make sure you remember the names of the people in your group. While you might be a busy college senior for example, sophomores probably won’t think too highly of you if you can’t remember who they are. Send the people in your group personalized messages this summer through Facebook or email. Ask them how their summers are going, and if they’re excited for the Fall. The younger members of your group are critical to your group’s future, and it’s important that you set a good example of how your group should be led.
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How to Write About Your Leadership Roles on a Job Application or College Essay
“Describe any leadership roles you’ve held and the duties you’ve performed in your high school career. (200 words or less)”
Your fingers, which had been dancing across your key board at record pace as you cruise through your application, are suddenly motionless. 200 words? Are you kidding me? You couldn’t list all of the leadership roles you’ve held in that amount of space, let alone describe all of your responsibilities in complete sentences!
Being able to demonstrate the value of your experiences and duties is a very important skill you’ll need for the rest of your life. You may study abroad and be expected to give a fifteen minute presentation for your class when you return. Someday, you’ll be sitting at a job interview and will have to describe what you did at your last job. While you could probably spend hours talking about your trip to England, and use your entire interview session to detail everything you accomplished at your previous job, there’s always a cap on how much you can write and how much time you can take. Check out these tips on how you can effectively depict your leadership roles and responsibilities to a college admissions board or future employer.
Determine What’s Relevant
When you have a lot to talk about, start with what’s going to be the most impressive to the person reading your application. Which of your leadership roles will make the most sense to point out? If you’re an accounting major, it’s more important that you mention your position as treasurer of the economics club, than your role of head photographer for the yearbook club. While you’ll be inclined to write down everything you’ve ever done, sometimes less is more.
Determine What’s Recent
While winning your school’s writing award in 6th grade was awesome, it probably doesn’t have a place in your college/job application, even if it’s relevant to your major. The person reading your application is most concerned with your recent achievements. If you’re in high school, try to limit your application to your high school career. If you’re in college, limit your application to college.
Be Concise
Practice writing and talking about your leadership roles. How can you explain the responsibilities of that role within a few sentences? You probably won’t be able to discuss all of your duties, so stick to what you did most often, and what was most impressive. You don’t need to write down everything you have ever done in that position.
Focus on the Facts
When you discuss your responsibilities, try to incorporate hard facts. Instead of saying you planned a walk to raise money for cancer, you can say you planned a walk for cancer in which 1,300 people attended, and $5,000 was raised. Instead of saying you started an improv comedy group, say you started an improv comedy group that now has 42 members, and has put on fifteen shows. Including the numbers when you describe your leadership duties allows for the reader to understand the magnitude of your accomplishments.
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5 Ways To Be Proactive About Your Future!
As a college student, your main job is to study, learn, build skills and study some more. But being a college student is also about exploring your world to discover what you’re most passionate about. So while it’s certainly important to be in the moment and focus on school, it’s never too early to start thinking about how you can propel your passions into a future career. We’re not necessarily talking about concrete, set-in-stone planning, but more along the lines of having some foresight about your future.
While you’re trekking along through school, here are some things you can do to be proactive about your future career.
Consider Attending Graduate School
Depending on your major, you are either bound to attend some form of graduate school, have never considered it as an option or are somewhere in between. Medical school is necessary for doctors, obviously. But if you aren’t pre-med, graduate programs may be worth investigating if you enjoy learning in a more challenging and competitive environment. Take a look at these six pointers before you apply. If you know law school is or may be in your future, check out Cappex’s list of the best law schools in the country.
Study a Second Language
It’s not everyone’s strong suit, but studying a second language will come in very handy when you graduate college and begin applying to jobs. Our world is becoming smaller in many ways and knowing even the basics of another language will make you more valuable as an employee. Take a foreign language class if you can fit it into your schedule!
Think Outside the Box
You might have a freak-out moment where you yell, “Help! My major is useless in today’s job market!” Don’t worry. There are a lot of jobs to which you can apply all that you’ve learned earning your degree. Remember: work forward from where you are. You have a great set of skills that will vary in demand over time, but use what you have now to work towards an ultimate goal.
Have an Ultimate Goal!
An ultimate goal shouldn’t be a binding goal – demands change rapidly and so do you. You might change your mind down the road and that’s okay! But having a direction is better than having no direction. You can’t discover what you really want to do if you never start anything. So, choose a goal like graduating from Law School or writing a book or teaching a class. Work towards it from where you stand now.
Build Leadership Skills
Having experience as a leader will make you much more appealing to future employers and will definitely give you confidence to tackle your career search post college. Here are three awesome ways you can do this!
Make your profile today at Cappex.com to learn more about education and career planning!
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3 Great Ways To Be A Leader
Many colleges admire students with leadership skills. Any activities in which you held a leadership position or a lot of responsibility for a group reflect well on your application. Schools like to know that they are accepting active students who will take advantage of the great opportunities offered to them, at school and post graduation.
Here are three awesome ways you can build your leadership skills in preparation for college and life!
1. Be a camp counselor. If you’re the kind of person who enjoys outdoor adventures, making friends and teaching kids, you should definitely look into being a camp counselor. According to the open counselor positions on Camp Channel, there are positions available all over the country for equestrian coordinators, psychology enthusiasts, drama instructors and more. Being a counselor not only gives you an opportunity to build leadership qualities in a teaching and learning environment, it also treats you to a fun summer and introduces you to new friends.
2. Attend a youth leadership retreat. Organizations like the National Student Leadership Conference allow high school students to work alongside and meet world leaders, try out future career paths, and live temporarily on a college campus. You can choose from a wide variety of programs the one that best suits your interests and potential career choice. You can also decide based on location – super cool if you are planning on applying to a school that hosts one of these conferences. Nothing beats hands-on leadership experience where you challenge your skills and prepare for your future!
3. Start something! Take a page out of Katy Butler’s book and find something you are passionate about that needs attention. Katy is working hard to change the rating of a film she believes should be available to more students her age. The film, an intense documentary about bullying, affects her personally and she strongly believes in this cause. But don’t worry; you don’t have to go national with your cause. It can also be something simple – start a book club with friends who also enjoy reading and discussion. You can learn big things about leadership even if the role seems small. Get together with friends if doing something alone feels daunting. Cappex’s 2012 Lead With Your Heart Scholarship winner, Camille P. Encinitas, worked with classmates to co-found a nonprofit to help people in her community suffering from hunger. The students went on to produce a documentary about the issue. Talk about leadership! Whatever it is that you care about, start it.
Visit Cappex today to find schools and scholarships that fit your leadership qualifications!
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