Classes were cancelled yesterday for the holiday, so instead in the afternoon I went to MIT for an alumni function. A Cal alumni function. Alums in the area had been conscripted to help review applications for a leadership scholarship for incoming Cal students.
It was an interesting thing to do, and not something I'd ever done before. The only somewhat comprable experience I could think of was perhaps grading the journal write-on competition last year. The exercise gave me some insight into what applications must look like to admissions committees, along with related insights for things I should do to make sure I stand out the next time I have to submit an application somewhere. All the students whose applications we were looking at were bright, accomplished students, but some came across better than others. Each application had an essay component, and all of them were reasonably well-written to some degree. But some really did stand out. Sometimes it was because the student applicants had already found that nice, delicate voice in their writing that was evocative without being overbearing. And some stood out because they contained true insight into what leadership really is along with a solid understanding of how the student's experience had demonstrated it. And some applications exemplified both.
There was no set definition for leadership put forth by the scholarship organizers. It was left up to each candidate to define it for themselves and then explain how their experience related. But I was less impressed by those who simply talked about their years of being on student council as being the perfect illustration of leadership. In some ways I thought these students demonstrated the least grasp of what leadership was, as if they expected that by simply having attained these positions they had perfectly epitomized it.
It was the students who had done other things and could extrapolate from them what it was that exemplified leadership that were much more compelling applicants. Particularly the ones that recognized that leadership was not best reflected in simply asserting their own talents but rather through how they empowered others to assert theirs.
Of course, that could be my own bias. Other readers could value other things more, and I wasn't the sole reader of any of the applications (three people read each). Also there will be interviews for finalists before the scholarship is awarded. My understanding is that this process was designed to help narrow down the applicant pool.
But it's to the credit of the Alumni Association that I was able to be involved in the first place. I take my connection to my school very seriously, but it isn't always easy to stay connected to it, especially living so far away. Efforts like these to keep its alums connected and contributing serves everyone connected to that fabulous community.
Dated when written. Posted 2/26.