Ryan Kwapniowski's FLP Portfolio

The Reflection

 

        Throughout my Freshman Leadership Program experience I tried to place myself in every situation that was presented to me and see where I fit best and ask how would I respond in that situation. In the past, I took a lot of things for granted, I just assumed everything would come to me eventually, if I just waited. These experiences taught me an extremely valuable lesson, nothing is just handed to you. If you want to accomplish something, it is your duty and responsibly to go get it and work for it. No one else has any hand in your future, and as a leader they are expecting that you know what to do and can guide them down the correct path. Coming into the program, I just assumed that a leader was a leader. I never put that much thought into the fact of how or why they were doing things. Roles were not given out randomly and people were not just placed in command by accident. I then began to ponder my previous leadership experiences. Was I even aware of half of them? I consider myself strongly a firm believer of the follower leadership style. Although I wasn't always the center of attention barking orders, people looked up to me and people knew that if they ever had any problems they could come to me. After coming to Creighton, I started to take on a lot more extracurricular activities that consumed up much of my time. What I didn't realize was that I was putting a lot of the theories of leadership that I learned in this program into action. Starting last summer I took a position at Children's Hospital and Medical Center as a phlebotomist and since then have worked extremely hard to gain leadership positions there. I have since become a part of the lab week committee and the board of lab advisees.  I became a completely different person. No longer was I the quiet shy kid that was too afraid to speak. I had confidence, I had a sense of control on my own life, and I was ready to take on the next leadership role available.

 

 

"We cannot control the wind, but we can direct the sail."

                    -Unknown