Being a leader in my community is an amazing opportunity and a privilege I cherish. Every day, I choose to commit myself to a life of service. I firmly believe that getting to meet and help a variety of people is crucial to improving the community. I also try my best to make my school a better learning environment for fellow students and a better workplace for staff members. From tutoring and mentoring underclassmen at my school to balancing rigorous academics with community service and extracurricular involvement, I do my best each day to be a pillar of hope. I’m an active leader of my community in that I uphold and maintain standards that align with my values, tailoring my expectations to the situation at hand. I constantly strive to do better than I did before, and I resolve to be resilient through any difficulties I might face. While it is unrealistic to exert the same amount of effort every day, I continue to academic excellence despite any difficulties I face. I have so far had nothing but great experiences when it comes to community service. The NJHS meetings I had attended in middle school caused me to realize how much I enjoyed it. The activities we did were all small, fun ways to be involved in our community, whether it was collecting food for a food drive or making toys and blankets for the local animal shelter. When I became a high school student, I tried to take whatever opportunities I could to volunteer. Something I enjoy a lot about being a community leader is that I have the power to help facilitate change. I feel like it’s so easy, especially as a teenager, to feel like you have no control over the world around you. While that may be true in certain situations, I found that I can solve a lot of problems that I have, as well as other people’s problems. The drive I have to be a leader in my community has put me in situations that taught me to be flexible, forgive easily, and be a better communicator, and I am grateful for these lessons every time I try to do something. Being a good leader requires a lot of trial and error to figure out what works, and oftentimes it can be difficult to accept that. However, a good leader accepts that, solves the problem, and moves forward as though nothing was ever wrong. In February and March of this year, I devoted a lot of time to a service project where I was helping others create a trifold poster, and we had to present it during our lunch period. I was the only person in my group who showed up to present the poster. Not only did I do what I had volunteered to do, but I was also able to delegate another poster that was unoccupied to another classmate, making it so that both posters were occupied and nobody was stretched too thin or overwhelmed by having too many helpers. In June of 2022, I went to the Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership Conference hosted at Kean University. During my time there, I took the opportunity to meet intriguing new people, learn about how to be a better leader, and make many happy memories. One of the most important lessons I learned there is that there is no such thing as a universal leadership style— everyone has their own way of leading. As a leader of my community, I encourage my peers to play to their leadership strengths.