Briefly state the primary reasons why you want to be in the Comprehensive

Leadership Program in 200 words or less

As I walk around campus, I always see the blue banners hanging from the
light posts declaring: Find your passion. This is the reason I want to be in the
Comprehensive Leadership Program. The question of what I want to do, and who I
want to be is a question that I have been mulling over all throughout high school and
particularly since Ive been at Gonzaga. When I first discovered the CLP, I knew that
it was something I wanted to be a part of, and something that could help guide me in
learning who it is I want to be, and aiding me in exploring my passion in an
environment where people have a variety of interests. Finally, when I attended the
Opus Prize talk night, Bridging Cultures: Intercultural Competence and the
Challenge of Accompaniment, my desire to be in the program grew even stronger. To
be able to understand how and why certain cultures work together and are the way
they are is something that the program will teach me to reflect on. I want to be in
this program to explore who I want to be in a community of people with many
different passions.
Describe what inspires you in 200 words or less
The question to me is not a matter of what, but a matter of whom.
The woman that stands out in my mind is my family friend, non-biological sister,
Jennifer Elsea. Her story and perseverance throughout life has inspired me to be the
person I am today. Shes overcome many personal obstacles and through it all
always manages to be supportive towards everyone around her. Growing up I
learned the importance of working hard, being kind to everyone around me, and
that no obstacle is ever too big. Because of her I look at the world through a more
optimistic and positive lense, even in the smallest ways. Despite all her obstacles,
she went on to pursuit a career that I find inspiring and admirable: teaching. Shes a
special education teacher in West Richland. I am inspired to know that no matter
what I obstacles faced with, I can always go after what I want, and I am inspired to
always be positive and optimistic, even at the lowest points.

Select a person or event that has been influential in your life. Explain what has
made this person/event meaningful in 500 words or less.
In more ways than one, traveling to the Dominican Republic has changed the way I think
and understand the world we live in. During the summer of 2013, I went on what I
thought was going to be a hardworking busy community service trip to the sugar cane
bateyes in the Dominican Republic, but instead ended up being more of a voluntourism
trip and vacation. While I thought I would be putting in more hours of work, I learned
that while the intentions were good, voluntourism and cosmarketing are a growing trend
for my generation. This trip inspired both of my senior thesis papers, Fall thesis title:
Fraudulent Advertisers and an Image-Obsessed Generation: the Destruction of Authentic
Charity, and Spring thesis title: The Vicini Sugar Empire: An Analysis of Transnational
Free Trade Agreements and Unjust Labor Rights in Developing Countries.
Both of these theses meant the world to me to write during my senior year. When I first
left for the trip, my impression (as advertised by the volunteer/travel company) was that I
would come back having done a large amount of work, between running summer camps
and building a wall for the community space. While we did do these things, our total
hours of community service over the two-week trip amounted to less than fifty hours,
although we were credited much more than that. As one of the only teenagers on the
trip who spoke Spanish and knew much about the conditions of the bateyes, I felt alone
and began to question if trips like these really make a difference in small developing
communities. We were teenagers who were unaccustomed to the language and culture,
and couldnt handle the tools as well as the locals could. This trip inspired me to research
my generation and how not having intercultural competence can negatively impact
service trips into becoming voluntourism. While I may have not come away from the
trip how I thought I would, I am thankful for the experience because it has sparked a
passion in me that I had never felt prior to the trip. I am passionate about Spanish, unjust
labor rights, cultural understanding, and community service, which I first learned about
while in the Dominican Republic. Being able to write my two senior thesis projects
largely based on ideas sparked from the Dominican Republic allowed me to explore and
deepen my understanding of a world I knew nothing about prior to the trip. It inspired me
to study transnational free trade agreements because of the sugar industry, and in many
ways, it means a lot to me because it is part of the reason I came to Gonzaga University. I
came so I could study Spanish, learn about social justice, and practice community
service.

Pick what you think is the most important trait as a leader and explains why in 200
words or less
Immediately, the first and foremost important trait as a leader that comes to mind is
communication. The importance of communication is not only in speaking, but
particularly in listening. Being an open and active listener is an important trait of a
leader because it gives a person more insight and a better idea of how to lead,
instead of being close-minded. A promising leader has the ability to communicate in
a way that will improve their knowledge and understanding of how to further the
community they are in. Communication also creates strong relationships and bonds
between people, which in my opinion is essential to leadership, because leadership
is not affective without the insight and ideas of many different people.