Give us an example of a time when you displayed leadership.

Throughout my years at the University of Arizona’s School of Architecture, I was very involved with the Design Build Team, a student initiated program that revamps low-income neighborhoods through design and construction. Specifically, I was engaged in the overhaul development of the 12,000 sf Eastside Community Garden. I first became involved with this project during my research for nonprofit development in Phoenix’s Chinatown district. Upon speaking to the local residents, I learned that the garden, due to its perilous condition, had become a focal point for drug dealings and prostitution. I felt strongly that an improved community garden would be highly valued by the district residents and decided to initiate a program that could revitalize this land.

I was excited to take on this project, but also acknowledged the enormous challenges ahead. In addition to the site’s grand scale and steep landscape, I had never assembled such a large group of volunteers for these types of tasks. Accordingly, my first priorities were to demonstrate sufficient community benefits for the Chinatown residents and secure funding for the project. To address these challenges, I created a video proposal based on conversations with the local residents and drafted a report outlining the green benefits for urban communities. After presenting these findings along with intense lobbying, the diligence led to $30K in grant funding from the City’s Department of Neighborhood. With the money in hand, I established a small core leadership team made up of trusted classmates and faculty and finally began to recruit and mobilize teams of volunteers. The core team was excited about the project’s potential and was able to recruit 25 student volunteers.

I soon realized, however, that the most difficult part in directing a large group of designers was providing a unified perspective and instilling a common value. During the planning discussions, students enthusiastically shared their individual visions, but the group struggled to effectively assemble an integrated solution. At one point, a dialogue about improving the community turned into a heated debate as students begun trading criticisms about each other’s designs. Recognizing that we lacked a unified vision for the garden, I decided to organize a community presentation with the local Chinatown residents and facilitate a dialogue that could enable them to express their excitement for the community garden project. Through these interactions, students began to understand that our core objective was not to exercise individual skills, but rather to assist this deprived neighborhood in unity. Thereafter, the group became highly motivated, efficiently came to consensus on the master plan, and slowly sculpted the once rough landscape into an accessible garden space. The renovated Eastside International Garden vibrantly serves more than 150 residents today.

From this experience, I realized that successful leadership not only values individual talents, but also instills a common vision that unifies diversity. Although the students each had preconceived visions about the garden, my leadership team was able to unite their spirit through revealing the underlying values of this task. I also learned that good leadership is contagious as many volunteers from this project subsequently took it upon themselves to begin revitalizing other deprived neighborhoods. I am now ready to make an even bigger impact and hope to continue seeking leadership opportunities within Berkley’s passionate student community.