By Lianan Armil
Coming from high school into freshman year of college, I had minimal leadership experience relating to engineering. Most of the experience I had came from lifeguarding and teaching swim lessons at the local pool. I decided to get my lifeguard certification in junior year because swimming and diving had become a large part of my life. An important aspect of leadership is taking initiative, even if it means taking a risk. Although lifeguarding and swim instruction were completely new to me, taking that step and signing up for the courses helped build my leadership skills. If there was no risk taken, and I had just continued without the training, I would have missed out on a multitude of learning opportunities. For example, I learned the importance of organization during swim lessons. If the class was not structured and controlled, the kids would start misbehaving, and they would get bored. Having a lesson plan written out with many different skills to practice helped keep classes under control, and it also helped them be more productive.