The best teachers, missionaries, doctors, entrepreneurs, and scientists are those who enjoy what they do on a daily basis. Individuals can sense when people do a job just for the money because they do not invest their whole self in a task; as Chokyi Rinpoche points out, “a piece of the puzzle is missing, and that missing piece may be compassion.”[1] Perhaps because much of American culture encourages us to separate “work-time” from “play-time,” I think we naturally fear that doing what we love leads to selfishness. However, businesses such as Google, which use innovative ideas like free food and recreation at work, 
experience higher productivity and greater employee satisfaction. Clearly passionate ideas combined with passionate actions are a potent combination.My struggle, then, is to find a tangible and enjoyable action that also serves something higher than myself— in particu
lar, children and the disabled. To shift my passion from an ideological to a more tangible plan of action, I need to reexamine my interpretation of “passion.” Strong emotions defined my concept of passion while I wrote Project Four. To begin to develop a leadership vision, however, I need to combine my enthusiasm to help others with concrete actions that also excite me. As Daniel Goleman states, “gifted leadership occurs where heart and head—feeling and thought—meet.”[2] Seeing passion from this new perspective, I ask myself, “what do I like so much I would do it for free?” Surprisingly, only a handful of activities satisfy this inquiry. My list of such loved activities include interacting with people, teaching, dancing, camp counseling, discussing pressing issues, giving gifts, orchestrating activities, and decorating. When I lay it out in list form, I see that every activity involves either verbal or nonverbal communication. To do what I love while helping children and the disabled to the best of my ability, I should thus lead through something that involves substantial human interaction.
lar, children and the disabled. To shift my passion from an ideological to a more tangible plan of action, I need to reexamine my interpretation of “passion.” Strong emotions defined my concept of passion while I wrote Project Four. To begin to develop a leadership vision, however, I need to combine my enthusiasm to help others with concrete actions that also excite me. As Daniel Goleman states, “gifted leadership occurs where heart and head—feeling and thought—meet.”[2] Seeing passion from this new perspective, I ask myself, “what do I like so much I would do it for free?” Surprisingly, only a handful of activities satisfy this inquiry. My list of such loved activities include interacting with people, teaching, dancing, camp counseling, discussing pressing issues, giving gifts, orchestrating activities, and decorating. When I lay it out in list form, I see that every activity involves either verbal or nonverbal communication. To do what I love while helping children and the disabled to the best of my ability, I should thus lead through something that involves substantial human interaction.
I can immediately improve the lives of children and the mentally disabled through manageable goals that involve communication such as volunteering, mentoring, and serving as a camp counselor. Although I do not want to pursue teaching as a career, I take great pleasure in teaching children and having the ability to share my enthusiasm for life. Younger children look up to adults and “cool” college students, so I stand in a strong position to affect the lives of kids.
This week, in fact, I begi
n to teach a weekly first-grade class through a program called Junior Achievement. The program focuses on increasing the involvement of children in government by creating excitement for government and society at younger ages. I will create lesson plans and use attention-grabbing activities that teach about family dynamics and economics. I feel nervous of the power I will hold to influence the children as I will be the teacher responsible for teaching and even disciplining. This nervousness, though, is also partly excitement in knowing that I can increase the children’s knowledge and maybe even improve their lives.
n to teach a weekly first-grade class through a program called Junior Achievement. The program focuses on increasing the involvement of children in government by creating excitement for government and society at younger ages. I will create lesson plans and use attention-grabbing activities that teach about family dynamics and economics. I feel nervous of the power I will hold to influence the children as I will be the teacher responsible for teaching and even disciplining. This nervousness, though, is also partly excitement in knowing that I can increase the children’s knowledge and maybe even improve their lives. As I discussed in relation to finding my passion in Project Four, I can also continue to help children through mentoring. As a middle school mentor through Austin Partners in Education, I love acting as an older-sister type friend and confidante for an eighth grade girl. By giving genuine advice and lending a listening ear, I can help my student make better decisions and work through rough times. I also recently applied to be a KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) Academy Mentor through the newly created Plan II-KIPP partnership. This program seems similar to my previous mentoring, but I believe that the Plan II class that goes along with the mentoring would help me to discover ideas about how to help children since it examines problems and issues pertaining to the current education system.
Children hold a certain vulnerability, enthusiasm, and innocence that require us to pay special attention in the shaping of their lives. The mentally disabled, however, experience even greater vulnerability to maliciousness and fears of the unknown, and it saddens me that they o
ften struggle to live fulfilled lives. I can help improve the lives of such individuals by continuing to work as an overnight summer camp counselor at Camp Champions, a camp for people with cognitive disabilities. At camp and in other similar situations, each time I spend time with the disabled, I believe that I lighten others’ responsibilities and hope that I can improve lives by providing “normal” life experiences. Furthermore, every year that I work at the camp I gain not only more experience but also more responsibility to care for the campers and to run the camp. If I continue to work each summer, my actions touch will consequently expand. To further my leadership vision to help children and the mentally disabled, next summer I can also apply to be the Arc of Greater Houston’s Summer Program Coordinator intern. By being responsible for the “planning, coordination and evaluation of summer programs for individuals with cognitive disabilities,”[3] I would be able to positivley influence the lives of many individuals. Indeed, I can begin this process this summer, because I plan to intern at the Monarch School in Houston and thereby create change in lives of children with neurological disorders.
ften struggle to live fulfilled lives. I can help improve the lives of such individuals by continuing to work as an overnight summer camp counselor at Camp Champions, a camp for people with cognitive disabilities. At camp and in other similar situations, each time I spend time with the disabled, I believe that I lighten others’ responsibilities and hope that I can improve lives by providing “normal” life experiences. Furthermore, every year that I work at the camp I gain not only more experience but also more responsibility to care for the campers and to run the camp. If I continue to work each summer, my actions touch will consequently expand. To further my leadership vision to help children and the mentally disabled, next summer I can also apply to be the Arc of Greater Houston’s Summer Program Coordinator intern. By being responsible for the “planning, coordination and evaluation of summer programs for individuals with cognitive disabilities,”[3] I would be able to positivley influence the lives of many individuals. Indeed, I can begin this process this summer, because I plan to intern at the Monarch School in Houston and thereby create change in lives of children with neurological disorders.Just as a disturbance in water ripples across a pond, so too does a positive helping influence on one group of people spread to another. Happiness and laughter, for example, spread like wild fire in classrooms when one student is excited about learning. KIPP Academy, an innovative system of charter schools that targets low-income students, also exemplifies the impact one major change can have on the rest of the nation. In 1994 two teachers launched the first KIPP middle school in Houston, and after a sustained track record of high student achievement, this special program of public schooling has spread to fifty-seven schools that enroll 14,000 students across the United States.[4] As with KIPP, a program implemented in one school can spread to many more. It appears that creating local or regional coverage that expands with its successes solves large scale problems.
Therefore, from my experiences in teaching and mentoring in schools, I would like to start a program in diversity training for elementary schools. In high school, I had the privilege to hear great speakers on various diversity issues such as mental disabilities, sexual prefere
nces, and racism. Learning the facts and hearing personal experiences helped to dispel many fears of the unknown that I know myself and many of my peers held. Removing ignorance is the first step to lessening discrimination, but young children often do not receive information on the strange or different. Since people form many opinions and biases during childhood, it is imperative to educate kids in order to counteract stereotypes at a young age. Parents should teach their kids about differences in people, but this parent-teaching does not always occur. By instituting a program that allows volunteers to visit and teach on special days in elementary schools, myths about mental retardation and other disabilities could unhinge. Eventually, children in school would not throw around insults like “that’s retarded” or “that’s so gay”—phrases that can hurt people’s feelings. The best way to start an elementary diversity program would be to model after a successful program such as Junior Achievement that sends volunteers to teach elementary kids about government and business. Perhaps I could begin with an elementary school in whatever town I live in, and if it is successful then I could branch off from there.
nces, and racism. Learning the facts and hearing personal experiences helped to dispel many fears of the unknown that I know myself and many of my peers held. Removing ignorance is the first step to lessening discrimination, but young children often do not receive information on the strange or different. Since people form many opinions and biases during childhood, it is imperative to educate kids in order to counteract stereotypes at a young age. Parents should teach their kids about differences in people, but this parent-teaching does not always occur. By instituting a program that allows volunteers to visit and teach on special days in elementary schools, myths about mental retardation and other disabilities could unhinge. Eventually, children in school would not throw around insults like “that’s retarded” or “that’s so gay”—phrases that can hurt people’s feelings. The best way to start an elementary diversity program would be to model after a successful program such as Junior Achievement that sends volunteers to teach elementary kids about government and business. Perhaps I could begin with an elementary school in whatever town I live in, and if it is successful then I could branch off from there.Negotiating and planning this potential program requires a solid education; and, since I could be on a committee or board that proposes the idea, rather than starting the program as a profession, any career choice could work. First, critical thinking is central to any major planning and implementation. The three realms of leadership, education, and critical thinking certainly rest in the realm of the college ex
perience. I think the best way to learn critical thinking is through a liberal education since it involves dealing with unknown future events. Plan II, therefore, presents the perfect liberal arts education. Classes such as World Literature and my freshman TC on civic entrepreneurship become central to my leadership vision as they encourage self-reflection, creativity, and examination of diversity and many pressing issues. The writing intensive classes, including history and philosophy, develop my ability to articulate myself and communicate. Even the required art history classes that at first appear unneeded to help children, actually hone my critical thinking skills as I analyze art from diverse cultures. While I plan to attend medical school, my vision for a diversity program and continued volunteer work appears to require neither science nor pre-medicine classes. So how can I justify taking chemistry, biology, physics, and other fields that relate to medicine? The answer rests in my discovery that I love human interaction. Though it at first appears paradoxical, science explains how the entire world interacts and communicates. Friction allows us to walk, a missing enzyme in the human body can lead to a neurological disorder, the brain develops or does not develop—all things can be viewed from a scientific perspective. My career choice to become a doctor also fits well into this reasoning. As a doctor I would both interact with people daily and would work to heal children’s ailments.
My college education becomes even more important to reach both my career goal and my leadership vision because it opens up countless opportunities. Volunteer agencies, teaching programs, businesses, and internships all seek modern and dynamic changing minds. I think that simply being in college presents us with prospects that would never be available otherwise. In college we gain “the greater sense of range and possibility” that Ram Dass discusses, and I think the idealism combined with knowledge at the University of Texas makes us more “likely to take initiative and to reach out less self-consciously to those in need.”[5]
Viewed in this light, college transcends its role as an educational institution and becomes much more. It becomes a light to guide us upon our paths toward accomplishing our goals and leadership visions. It is possible to continue helping children and the disabled through service and work, but we need to change the negative stereotypes and ignorance that exist against anything that is different. It is up to us to start changing them.
Word Count (without quotes): 1741
perience. I think the best way to learn critical thinking is through a liberal education since it involves dealing with unknown future events. Plan II, therefore, presents the perfect liberal arts education. Classes such as World Literature and my freshman TC on civic entrepreneurship become central to my leadership vision as they encourage self-reflection, creativity, and examination of diversity and many pressing issues. The writing intensive classes, including history and philosophy, develop my ability to articulate myself and communicate. Even the required art history classes that at first appear unneeded to help children, actually hone my critical thinking skills as I analyze art from diverse cultures. While I plan to attend medical school, my vision for a diversity program and continued volunteer work appears to require neither science nor pre-medicine classes. So how can I justify taking chemistry, biology, physics, and other fields that relate to medicine? The answer rests in my discovery that I love human interaction. Though it at first appears paradoxical, science explains how the entire world interacts and communicates. Friction allows us to walk, a missing enzyme in the human body can lead to a neurological disorder, the brain develops or does not develop—all things can be viewed from a scientific perspective. My career choice to become a doctor also fits well into this reasoning. As a doctor I would both interact with people daily and would work to heal children’s ailments. My college education becomes even more important to reach both my career goal and my leadership vision because it opens up countless opportunities. Volunteer agencies, teaching programs, businesses, and internships all seek modern and dynamic changing minds. I think that simply being in college presents us with prospects that would never be available otherwise. In college we gain “the greater sense of range and possibility” that Ram Dass discusses, and I think the idealism combined with knowledge at the University of Texas makes us more “likely to take initiative and to reach out less self-consciously to those in need.”[5]Viewed in this light, college transcends its role as an educational institution and becomes much more. It becomes a light to guide us upon our paths toward accomplishing our goals and leadership visions. It is possible to continue helping children and the disabled through service and work, but we need to change the negative stereotypes and ignorance that exist against anything that is different. It is up to us to start changing them.
Word Count (without quotes): 1741
Image Citations:
Money Pile- http://www.biblehelp.org/images/stacks%20of%20money.jpg
Google- http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/07/top_brands/image/google.jpg
Abstract Faces- http://www.wagingpeace.org/images/about/about_people~image.jpg
Boy Looking Up - http://images.jupiterimages.com/common/detail/24/29/23462924.jpg
Junior Achievement- http://web.grps.k12.mi.us/JA/images/90F743FAB5EA4BC680A01D566CEA5123.jpg
Camp Champions- personal photo
Ripple- http://achristian.files.wordpress.com/2006/06/4ripple_growing.jpg
Elementary Cartoon- http://www.schodack.k12.ny.us/scs/images/Kindergarten.jpg
Science- http://www.murraystate.edu/qacd/cos/fair/images/ScienceFairT06.jpg
Possibility Quote- http://kimtelaswelcome.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/m79possibility-emily-dickinson-posters.jpg
[1] Chokyi Rinpoche. Medicine in Compassion. (Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, Inc., 2006.) Page 3.
[2] Daniel Goleman. “Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence,” Composition and Reading in World Literature. Vol. 1. Comp. Jerome Bump. Austin: Jenn’s, 2007. Page 62.
[3] Bethanne Arafat. “The ARC of Greater Houston.” Agency Listings for 2008. ExxonMobil. 28 March 2008. http://www.volunteerhouston.org/AboutUs/index.php/exxon.htm.
[4] “About KIPP: Overview.” KIPP Academy. 2008, KIPP. 28 March 2008. http://www.kipp.org/01/.
[5] Ram Dass. How Can I Help? (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1985). Page 47.
