MEINIG FAMILY CORNELL NATIONAL SCHOLARS
EXCELLENCE IN LEADERSHIP AWARD
Dennis Adams
Hotel Administration '07
Approximately three years ago, I attended a Habitat for Humanity Build Day at a work site near me sponsored by the local Habitat for Humanity chapter. After spending eight hours of my Saturday taking part in building homes for the needy, I decided that my high school could benefit from its own chapter of this organization. So, I spent my junior year of high school meeting with administrators, pitching my ideas to the entire faculty, and even establishing ties with the national Habitat for Humanity parent chapter. The following summer and all of senior year were then spent making this a reality by beginning the application process for founding our very own Ranney School chapter of Habitat for Humanity. The process is an extensive two year process that entails three different application parts, establishing a system of by-laws, selecting a founding and operating committees, and many other details. Since I graduated while the process was incomplete, I have therefore devoted much of my first year at Cornell to continue the founding process of a Habitat for Humanity chapter at my former high school.
Over the past year, I have spent many weekends traveling the four hour trip to my hometown so that I could continue working on making my vision a reality at my high school. When I left the school last year, there was a board of 9 founding members, 6 of which were seniors. This year, the remaining members and I have worked hard along with newly elected members to further the application process. Each time I travel home to meet the group at Saturday morning build days, I am amazed at how much progress they have made on their own and the things that they can accomplish because of my guidance.
Part of the reason I decided to devote my leadership skills to this cause was because I come from a small private school with a population of very privileged students. Since these students and I are fortunate enough to live the lives that we do, I felt it would be appropriate to not just allow students to give back to their community and help build homes, but to also increase their awareness of the underprivileged families and hope that in turn they will greater appreciate their own fortune. While at the school, I was able to accumulate groups of up to 20 students (out of a student body of 180) to attend build days, but now when I go there are groups of up to 50 students that attend. I truly believe that a part of this increase in student involvement is due to the fact that students see that this organization is important enough for me to return from Cornell monthly, and that my encouragement to them as a graduate now means more to them.
Besides encouraging student involvement in the Build Days, I also have spent many hours working on the written application requirements via mail and email with my fellow board members and also the organization’s advisor. Even from my own dorm room, I continue to devote time to my commitment to Habitat. I have spent several weekends co-writing our chapter’s by-laws, editing the application questions our board has been answering, and even keeping contact with the national parent chapter to receive the most recent updates on my high school’s status as an official chapter. I can confidently say that I have done everything in my power to lead and inspire this group towards becoming a fully functioning and successful organization. I have witnessed them formulate ideas and deal with obstacles in a similar manner to how I would have. It is very impressive and even flattering to see such behavior, and I never imagined that I could have such an influence on so many students. While my initial intention was to help the less fortunate members of my community, I almost feel as though I have had a greater impact on the members of the student body who got involved with this organization. I used to imagine that after I graduated from my high school, I would return to the halls and have students bombard me with questions about college life. However, every time I return, the students only seem to want to know more about how they can get involved with Habitat for Humanity, because that is how I have impacted them over the past two years.
This experience did not just affect those students and those families that benefit from Habitat for Humanity. I gained a lot of knowledge and insights about leadership, as well as certain leadership skills that will help me anytime I lead a group of people. One of the most significant things I learned is the importance of getting everyone to work together. If I did not influence someone enough to perform his or her duties, then the whole group would suffer. I also have learned that sometimes being a leader simply means taking initiative. My idea could not have been a reality without the initiative to contact the national chapter. It requires a great deal of patience, cooperativeness, and an uninhibited person to successfully lead a group of people towards a goal. If you believe in something enough to work hard for it, eventually you will gain the support of others, just as I gained the support of more individuals than I ever thought when I first started out. In the end, I found out that many students have wanted to give back to the community but did not know how or where to get involved. The guidance and leadership that I provided them has allowed them to finally obtain this goal.
My leadership skills have made a difference in this organization because without them, the Ranney School Habitat for Humanity chapter may not have existed. As a result this has impacted many students to become involved in a cause that they did not have such easy access to before. I have learned that taking on the responsibility of a leadership can be one of the most demanding, albeit one of the most rewarding experiences that a single person can do. I could only hope that all my attempts at leadership yield the same success that this particular instance did.
