GCD Area of Expertise - Leadership

My pathway to Leadership

In my eyes, a leader is always known to be someone who would be in charge of a specific task and push their team members to move towards accomplishing their vision, no matter the circumstances or difficulties they may face. Good Leaders have characteristics of integrity, communication, empathy, and the ability to delegate. Seeing so many amazing student leaders around our NIST community formed the idea of what it’s like to be a ‘good leader’ in my head, ever since I was in middle school. As I grew older, I realized that I wanted to become a leader of some sort. I wanted to have the ability to lead a group of people and support a community in order to achieve a specific goal. Not only was I able to achieve my aspirations in one area, but I have shown leadership in so many more. In this post, I will be talking about the three main areas of leadership that I have been a big part of and have made me develop the skills to be the leader that I am today.

I would like to start off by talking about the service groups that I have led in NIST. The NIST community holds a big value in all the community service that students take part in, and I have been the service youth leader for 2 different groups during my time in high school so far. Firstly, the Art Relief crew is a service group that aims to help Bangkok's neurodiverse community through the partnership with Steps with Theera. Steps with Theera is a vocational training center for the differently-abled community in Bangkok. They help young adults gain the skills they need to access a fulfilling career and lead purposeful, dignified lives. We want to provide them with an outlet for creativity and to support them emotionally and socially by creating a safe space that we can learn and grow together as a community. Our direct service (visiting steps) has been put on hold, due to the current situation of the coronavirus Pandemic, meaning that we have not been able to fully support the community through physical interaction and art lessons, but instead, we tried our best to support the group virtually, and through planning events that would help them, including our designing decorations for Steps’ annual Halloween party, creating and selling coloring books and handmade cards and finally annual auction, which was held on April 2nd, 2021.

I am one of the co-leaders of this service group, my peer Cadence. This leadership opportunity has not only allowed me to have a deeper understanding of who I am as a person, but how we are able to successfully work together in order to achieve our goals. As a leader of this group, I take the initiative to be in close contact with all our members. I am always open to discussion for new ideas and take initiative in keeping check of all our meetings or any questions that the team members may have. Our service group helps to host events, such as the Halloween party that was hosted last year where we made decorations and got to meet all the members of their community. We also hosted our annual auction and raised over 200,000 baht!

The jobs of a leader can vary from the small little tasks such as labeling the paintings for the auction or even improvising and taking charge on the spot. Being in this position during our biggest event; the auction has taught me the skill to think on my feet and solve unexpected problems as soon as they may arise. An example of this is when one of the easels broke during the auction. People were running

around confused and came up to me, so I snapped a cardboard fork in half and put it into the easel hole to keep the painting up, or when the speakers didn't work but we had a singer and so I improvised and put one of the microphones next to my laptop speakers to heighten the volume. Small situations like this teach me that leadership is not only being able to organize and manage a team or event but to truly immerse yourself in the situation at hand.

Although we have faced a difficult situation during the coronavirus pandemic and were forced to conduct our meetings virtually, we have taken this as an opportunity to enhance artistic learning and help steps through the pandemic. Toward the end of last year, I crafted a website to showcase art video tutorials that students could easily do at home as a form of therapy. The members of the team created their own tutorial videos and they were updated on the website. Being a leader of this service group has really enhanced my thinking as an overall student. I have a better understanding of the work that teachers do for their students and truly feel like I have a connection with my team that I will always cherish. This experience has and will always stick to me as an individual and I will keep the skills that I have learnt to further my academic career in the future.

Another service group that I am the leader of is secondchance@NIST. Our group works with an organization called SecondChance Bangkok. The organization creates jobs for women in the Klong Toey slum in Bangkok. They use upcycled materials to create products that can be sold to the public, as seen in the image. As a service group, we have helped them take charge of resources that they have and helped connect the group to the NIST community. We collect old uniforms which students can donate and plan sessions where we and our team members cut them up in specific locations, to be reused. In our service group, we also keep in contact with Second Chance and have previously asked them to create NIST-specific products, with our logo stitched onto it, and have proven to be very successful in the past. Pink and I are co-leaders of this group and we make sure to keep our second chance products in stock and are ready to sell and create awareness of the organization at every service fair or farmers market! Being a leader of this group has taught me the importance of resource management as well as the marketing of products in general. Although the pandemic also hit us as a group, we are now helping second chance create a stronger e-commerce platform by designing a new website for them to sell their goods during this time of need.

Besides the service initiative, I am also a part of the high school student council. As the communications officer, I am in charge of all relations with the student body. I am the main point of interaction for students who may have any concerns or feedback on the way the school works. Being a part of this leadership team has given me insight into the events that go around school and am a representative of our high school in general. I have helped create a tight-knit community within our bigger body of students. I have helped host events such as the spirit day (even on zoom!) and help to bring inclusivity all around as well.

By being a part of the student council, I feel that I have gained a better understanding of how to lead activities such as assemblies, create a safe environment for students to feel able to express their opinions and beliefs, and even just bring more spirit into the NIST community. I've created spirit videos (falcon times) and done fun interviews with students to bring everyone together and I feel that the skill of communication has really benefited me to understand leadership even further. This skill allows me to feel more confident in front of a big group of people and with my friendly and easy-going personality, allowed me to connect with a variety of students from different backgrounds and year levels (which as a leader is needed)

Lastly, I have also been a leader in sport. I was the captain of the softball team. By being a captain, I obtained the skill of supporting my teammates through rough times such as losses and kept a positive attitude to be able to succeed in the games that we played. I was able to motivate and influence others in a way where we could all come together and play the sport that we all truly loved. This taught me that leadership within all circumstances, sport, service, and others are extremely important and the small actions that we can take will lead to a better future.

My role as a leader has had a huge impact on me as an individual and has been a big part of me as a global citizen. I now have a deeper understanding of myself and others through the events held and teamwork as a whole. I will always use my skills as a leader to benefit me in many groups or events that I will be a part of and hope to create small steps of change, to lead a better future. In conclusion, I have become and will improve to be the leader I have always dreamed of.