Jack Hume
- ALA Portfolio -
Leadership Log: Virtual Team Challenge
This log was the culmination of the Virtual Team Challenge, a computer program that required students to combine business and ethics principles while solving a problem: a massive oil spill in a fictional town's river.
The VTC was one of the most unique academic experiences I've had. Combining knowledge from many different areas allowed me to get a feel for how I will apply the ALA lessons I've learned to "real-life" scenarios.
What Is Leadership?
My definition of leadership has changed continuously throughout the past two years. When I moved to Chapin, I thought I had a good handle on what leadership was, and over the course of my Sophomore year, that definition has definitely changed.
I've learned leadership is unpredictable: that your role changes every day as new obstacles rise up. I've learned that leadership isn't always being heard; that sometimes, the quiet person in the room is the greatest leader. I've learned leadership is something you see in your friends, in their interactions with others and the way they act when no one's looking. I've learned leadership is accepting what you cannot change and making the most of each experience, and I've learned that leadership is combining all of those experiences and taking them with you, no matter where you are (especially as I head into my third high school...) No one could ever define leadership in its entirety, and I don't think I know enough to try, but my experience in ALA has taught me more than I would have ever imagined, and maybe one day, I'll know the answer.
Leadership Log: George Orwell
This unit, the study of George Orwell, was my favorite unit of the year other than the very last. Orwell's insight into a decadent society provides a grim warning to every generation, and his novels are understandably a staple in American literature.
This unit was unique in that it was an illustration of something other than the often-banal "good leader" picture; instead, Orwell's novels show a world under effective, yet immoral leadership.
Too often, people blanket leadership under two garbage-bag terms: good and bad. However, what makes the pigs in Orwell's novels "bad" leaders? After all, they're certainly effective.
This unit taught me to include "effective" into my definition of leadership. To be a good leader, one must combine ethics with effectiveness, and Orwell's novels embody this idea.
Leadership Logs
