I AM WHAT I MAKE ME

BASIC STATEMENTS 1. I am a high school student, a campus leader. First as a student, then as a leader. I have serious responsibilities to my family, to my friends, to my classmates, to the student body. 2. I have a unique, irrepeatable temperament that has its positive and negative forces. I also have natural endowments contributed by my parents genes and my environment. The forces of my temperament and endowmentthese I have the responsibility to manage. 3. When I am able to manage these forces, no matter insurmountable they might seem to be, then I grow in character. Heredity + Temperament + Environment + Character = Personality. In this equation, Character is the most important because it primarily determines my Personality and I have full control over it. 4. I have natural strengths and weaknesses. To carry out my responsibilities, I have to make my strengths productive (so I can make good use of them) and my weaknesses irrelevant (so they do not get on the way). This implies having to know myself well, to be aware of my strengths and weaknesses. 5. I have to fulfil my responsibilities well. This means doing them with the right intention, balancing them, carrying them out with patience and perseverance, giving importance to little details and finishing them with enthusiasm with which I started them. This also means being aware of the responsibilities of my position as student and as student leader. 6. I become aware of myself by studying the things that happen to me and how I react to them, by studying my intentions for doing things, by reflecting on the admonitions and opinions of others and by learning from them. To learn means to use my experience in guiding my future decisions and actions. 7. Self-knowledge is bolstered by asking credible and mature persons for their guidance and counsel. This requires docility (carrying out the advice given to you as your own) and especially in the case of leaders, intellectual humility (recognizing ones capacity to commit mistakes and to learn even from subordinates). 8. I take on and carry responsibilities freely. Thus, I would want to excel in them. To do so, however, I have to grow in human virtues by simply doing good acts repetitively, with noble intentions and motives. I grow in human virtues gradually, through constant personal effort. 9. In the end, my education in virtue begins NOW, at all times. It begins whenever I do what I have to do in the best way that I can. This seminar is one of those good beginnings. 10. Any seminar is as good as how I make it: that is, how I take advantage of each moment of the seminar and how I optimize its fruits in my personal life.

Reference:

Ad Continuum. University of Asia and the Pacific, School of Education Quarterly. Fourth Quarter, 1999. Inkwell Publishing Co., Inc.: Pasig City

BUILDING BRIDGES, NOT WALLS (Leadership and Teamwork) BASIC STATEMENTS 1. Leadership, at bottom line, is about having goals and achieving them together with people who share your vision, but without compromising in the way core principles which you and your group stand for. 2. As a student leader I have realize my members unique talents and limitations. It is my job as a leader to put their strengths to productive use and render their weaknesses irrelevant. 3. I aspire to have others follow me not because of my position, but because of my personal integrity. 4. I cease to be a leader when I use my position to take advantage of others. On the contrary, I become a leader when, even at the expense of my personal interest, I serve others for their own sake. 5. My work as a leader is similar to that of a conductor of an orchestra. Each instrument player has an important role to play. The conductors task is to enable each one to play his role in harmony with others and thereby produce excellent music. 6. As a good decision-maker, I have to consider the good, not only of the people who will make the decision with me, but also of those who will be affected by it, whether favourably or adversely. 7. Before I lead, I first have to know how to follow. Leadership, after all, is about service before anything else. This is something my followers should see in me. 8. In delegating tasks, it is worthwhile working not only on the existing talents of my members, but also on their potentials. Yes, there is a certain degree of risk, but isnt there always one anywhere else? 9. As a leader, I am at the forefront, whether or not confronting my group as a friend or an enemy, victory or defeat. 10. In the final analysis, the test of my leadership is in how I walk my talk. I become credible as a leader if I am able to do what I ask my followers to do. My capacity to demand depends on my ability to meet all of my expectations of others.

Reference:

Ad Continuum. University of Asia and the Pacific, School of Education Quarterly. Fourth Quarter, 1999. Inkwell Publishing Co., Inc.: Pasig City

A Leader's Checklist
Instruction: Make a self assessment of your personal strengths and weaknesses by checking appropriately the traits you possess as a student leader. Mark the item with if you consider yourself having (possessing/showing/practicing) that trait and

if

you do not possess it or you need to develop that trait in the succeeding days. As an elected officer of my section/organization/ Student Council, I am a leader ____ worthy of trust. ____ who is willing to take risks. ____ with worthy motives. ____ sincere in my involvement. ____ with high and steadfast moral and spiritual beliefs and behavior. ____exercising a sound philosophy of life(written down somewhere). ____ seeking to encourage others to achieve their best. ____ willing to recognize strengths and weaknesses of others in myself. ____ who is helpful to others ____ who demonstrates appropriate citizenship. ____ who exercises cheerfully my good manners. ____ with regard and respect for regulations. ____ who is organized- personally, professionally, and functionally. ____ who shows humility. ____ who shares enthusiasm tempered with responsibility. ____ who exercises my sense of humor, who can be a good sport. ____ trying to build a compassionate attitude. ____ who is tolerant and understanding of differences among people.

____ who is consistent and faithful. ____ who is punctual. ____ who is friendly to all. Reference: http://www.knology.net/~ctwalker/leader.html#check