LDRS Podcast Episode 5

The host of the Senior Season Podcast, Allie Peral, discusses her experience with a leadership and social change minor at college. She explains that the minor provided her with opportunities to reflect on her personal experiences through a leadership lens. It helped her understand the type of leader she is and how to work efficiently with others. She also mentions the importance of challenging oneself and making a social impact. Allie chose this minor because it is more applied and practical than just reading textbooks. She believes it will benefit her in the post-grad world by strengthening her leadership skills. She includes the minor on her resume to show future employers her dedication to becoming the best leader possible. She highlights her study abroad experience as the most beneficial part of the minor, as it taught her adaptability and working in unfamiliar environments. Overall, the minor has given her a better understanding of herself as a leader and an appreciation for impac Hi, everyone, and welcome back to the Senior Season Podcast, Leadership Edition. This is Episode 5, and I'm your host, Allie Peral. Please pardon my voice. I'm getting over a little bit of a cold, but obviously, I could not not record for you all. I'm so excited to touch on today's episode, which is an interesting perspective, because we all come to college, and we come to college to get a degree and eventually find a job and work for the rest of our lives. To get a job, you have to interview. So today's episode, I'm kind of going to go through a mock interview. I was going to an employer, grad school, whatever it may be. I don't even know where I'm going to be in a year, but say I was going to an interview, and they saw this minor on my resume, on my transcript, and they were curious what it's all about, why I took it, today's a great opportunity for me to reflect on this minor and what it's kind of done for me and how it's prepared me for the future, so I'm really excited to talk to you about it today, and let's go ahead and jump right into the episode. So first off, an employer asked me, what is the leadership and social change minor? That's a huge question. I've taken it for over two years now, close to three, and what have I done over these past couple of years? So I would say that it was a way for me to take my personal experiences and reflect on them through a leadership lens, so through every single class I took, all the experiences, even this class, it provided me so many opportunities to genuinely reflect on my time at Virginia Tech, and not only as a student, but also as a leader, and how I was able to grow from those opportunities, so more of the concrete stuff, I was able to learn what type of leader I am through a variety of tests and utilizing the results of those tests to then be the best leader possible and know how I work more efficiently and how I work best with those around me, and finally, I challenged myself to be the best version of myself and how I can make an impact on the world around me. That's really the social change piece of it is when I studied abroad, which was a huge part of this minor for me, it really pushed myself to be the best version of myself, not only for myself, but for those around me, which was really exciting and a really moving part of this minor for me. So why did I choose this specific minor? Why did I decide to graduate from Virginia Tech with a minor in leadership and social change? So for me, I thought it would be so beneficial in the post-grad world, and when in the workforce, it is more of an applied major than just reading textbooks and memorizing information. It really allowed me to grow and strengthen a soft skill in leadership. It's hard to teach leadership. It's not something you can just read on and naturally do. It takes practice. It takes time. It takes experience, and I think that this minor really allowed me to grasp onto those concepts and really reflect on my time at Virginia Tech as a leader, and this minor really put in perspective how much goes into every little time I have called myself a quote-unquote leader. So I think this minor really just allowed me to take a step back and really think about everything I've done as a leader at Virginia Tech. So why did I choose to include it on my resume, my cover letter? Why would it be there? I thought it would be beneficial for the future employers to know that I desire to be the best leader possible, and I put time, excuse me, towards that goal. So I don't just want to call myself a leader. I want my future employers to know that I really push myself to be the best version of myself, and through that, challenging myself in this minor and really kind of stepping out of my comfort zone, I feel like it would have been easy for me to include a minor that is very social media or digital-based or production, something that goes along with my major in sports media and analytics, but I think this minor really is a whole different side of the workforce and leadership and trying to make the world a better place. So I really think that it was important for me to include my minor on my resume because it is a whole different side of me that I think could benefit me at a future job. So what specific courses or concepts through this minor will be beneficial and help me succeed in the position or a future grad program or job? So I think the biggest topic that I can touch on in this minor is my study abroad experience. It is heavily driven by the leadership and social change minor, and it was absolutely life-changing for me. I think specifically through my time in Rwanda, I think if I was in an interview and someone asked me about this minor, I could go on and on about this, and I think my studying abroad and my time in Rwanda would be the source of a lot of my passion from this minor. I learned so much about myself, but also how I can adapt and work with those around me in unfamiliar environments to put out successful lessons and products when in a foreign continent and genuinely somewhere that I've never been before. It can be intimidating, but just taking a step back, taking a deep breath, leaning on those around me, but also leaning on my own strengths and utilizing my weaknesses, knowing what those weaknesses are, to then have those around me help when I need them. So I think my study abroad experience was the most beneficial thing I could have done for myself in this minor, really growing as an individual overall. It was such an amazing opportunity that I'm so grateful for. So overall, why would any employer or someone interviewing me care about this minor? What value does it add to me? So I really see a lot of value for my post-grad life coming from this minor. I now have a better understanding of what type of leader I am and what qualities I work best with, and in knowing this, I can better work with individuals in a workforce or a project setting, genuinely knowing who to surround myself with and what type of people I can collaborate with the best. I also just have a new love and appreciation for impactful and selfless leaders because through the social change model specifically, which is something we touched on a lot through this minor, I know how much goes into a leader from an individual to group think, and I respect when leaders take the time to evaluate each level and operate to the best of their abilities. So I think through that social change model, I just really have a greater understanding and appreciation of leaders and good leaders because not every leader is a good leader. So I think I really just have a new appreciation for all those leaders and in the workforce, really finding those good leaders and the qualities that they have and how they can utilize those to also help me grow as an individual within the job. So if I was in a little interview, I think these would be some great points for me to hit on. I think they really sum up the minor in a nutshell, and I think that they can really showcase everything that it's done for me at my time at Virginia Tech and in the post-grad life, whatever that may be for me. So I hope that you all enjoyed this episode of Senior Season Podcast Leadership Edition with your host, Allie Perl, and I will see you all next week.