1. Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes or contributed to group efforts over time. An example of my leadership experience would be my role as captain of the baseball team. I was captain for both the 2016 and 2017 season for our high school baseball team. We had players who had little to no prior knowledge and experience so as the captain I took a role not only a leader but a mentor to the less experienced kids. Throughout the season I saw these players Improving and it felt good knowing that I was a factor in their improvements. Our season record was 4 and 16 (4 wins and 16 losses) which isn’t the best, but I know that as a team we all improved and the players looked up to me not only as a player but as a person. There were multiple obstacles that we faced that season and I didn’t know if I would enjoy playing for a team with kids who had little to no baseball knowledge. However as the season progressed I decided to take a positive approach and took on my leadership role which I feel motivated the kids to follow in my footsteps and step up their game. We ended the season with a team of kids who grew so much and it makes me happy to know that I contributed to their success and growth.
2. Every person has a creative side, and it can be expressed in many ways: problem solving, original and innovative thinking, and artistically, to name a few. Describe how you express your creative side.
I express my creative side through art and comedy. I love to make people laugh, and I love to crack jokes. Whether it be at school, at home, or even on the baseball field I just enjoy getting a smile out of people. It makes me feel good when I can make someone laugh over what I think is a pretty clever joke. I also love to do art, specifically sketches that relate to baseball or musical artists. Another aspect of my creativity that I haven’t addressed is how I use creativity to solve problems. Whenever I encounter a problem I immediately try and figure out unconventional ways to solve the problem, and a lot of the time these unconventional methods result in my problem being solved. Rather than thinking of a solution to the problem that I've tried in the past I do my best to come up with new solutions so in the future not only will I have more ideas of how to solve a certain problem but it also pushes me to come up with new solutions. Switching gears, I feel that creativity affects my decisions tremendously and it’s almost always in a positive way. If I’m on the baseball field and I need to think of a location and type of pitch for my pitcher to throw to the batter, than I do my best to analyze how that batter has reacted and approached previous pitches. However, in the classroom I use creativity to expand my thinking, especially when it comes to brainstorms and story boarding.