Leadership for Change

Hello ALL,

I go by the name of Jessica Cole. I am currently a senior at University of Illinois at Chicago. I am currently enrolled in a course called African American studies 294: Leadership for Change. I am taking this leadership for change course 1. Because I heard it was a good class/could be a gpa booster (just being honest :-D)and 2. Because its a 200 level class and I needed more 200 level classes (seeing that I'm trying to graduate on time with a good g.p.a.). Upon completely/passing this course I hope to get a better understanding of what I really need to be doing as a career, also learn what it may takes to operate in a certain career.

One of the first assigments consisted of speaking on who we were as a child. As a child I was fascinated with extra-curriculum activities/sports that seemed creative and people who I felt were important. The activities/sports that I considered creative was gymnastics, modeling, acting, track-and-field, volleyball, cheerleading and dance. The people that I've always felt were most important were doctors and actors. As a child I felt doctors basically had your life in their hands and had the ability to make someone feel better, whatever the case may have been. I felt actors were important only because they were on television. I basically lived through each extra-curriculum activity, except gymnastics, modeling, and acting. I always wanted to be a gymnast but was scared to attempt certain behaviors/moves that was required to be one. I wanted to be a model and actor, but was always shy when it came to performing by myself. I loved learning new dance routines/moves to perform in front of a crowd, shy and all. I always wanted to be the best at what I did and looked the best in doing it. I would spend my entire day after practice at home in the mirror re-enacting everything that we went over and working out more to get the title as the best. Although those activities took up most of my interest, I always said that I was going to be a doctor (pediatrician). I would daydream about performing surgery on younger children, and even being an doctor as an actor like Bill Cosby on "The Cobsy Show." I enjoyed learning choreographed dancing and stunts in cheerleading, so secretly I emailed Oprah asking her if she could help me in becoming a cheerleader/dancer that perform on tv. Of course there was no response but that was how bad I enjoyed doing it.

As I got older, I saw younger girls who looked up to me and I began to be a role model/teacher in the cheerleading/dancing world. I liked being like a big sister to younger girls and helping them through things I knew they have and will face as a young female in the world. In high school, I put all my time into qualifying for state in track-and-field. Track-and-field was a sport i participated in all my life and I felt it was the easiest thing to become known or the best in. I became captain of the track-and-field team my junior year in high school, and qualified for state my junior year/gain 1 city champs titles/placing in top 10 in the Chicago Public Schools. Placing in city was a big accomplishment for me, but I felt it was a goal that I met and that my next goal was to be the doctor that I've always wanted to be.

Today i still enjoy watching anything that has anything to do with those extra-curriculum activities/sports. I do feel that I still am capable of performing and participating/and or teaching any of those extra-curriculum activities/sports that I participated in. I feel that these abilities and talents point to me being a coach or school teacher of these activities and or a regular school teacher, preferably high school. I have a strong belief in education for all and I believe high school is a point in a child's life where they actually make the big decision of which rode to take in becoming what they want to be.

Ending this post with a quote I have a firm belief in that i recently saw (forgot the author name) "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted."