Question

Describe an example of a situation where you have significantly influenced others, took on a leadership role, helped resolve a dispute, or contributed to a group’s goals. What was your role, what responsibilities did you take on? Did you encounter any obstacles, and if so how did you respond, were you able to overcome them? What would you do differently?

Answer 1

Answer:

Here, Virginia Tech wants to see how you respond to ethical dilemmas, specifically discrimination. You want to write about an instance in which you responded in a positive or appropriate manner, meaning you do not want to be perceived as being the one who is discriminatory.  

 

For instance, if one of your friends made a racial slur towards another individual, perhaps you responded by telling your friend that that behavior is not acceptable. Maybe you decided your moral values were more important than that friendship, as you realized that you do not want to maintain relationships with narrow-minded individuals.  

 

For another example, perhaps someone directed a discriminatory comment towards your immigrant family. Maybe at the time, you decided that silence was the best response, causing you to ignore that individual’s remarks. However, looking back, maybe you wished you had been more vocal in order to defend your family and validate your family’s pride. From this, you learned to speak out on these issues rather than taking a spectator perspective.  

 

Cases of discrimination are not limited to racial discrimination, however. You can also discuss a case in which you were involved in discrimination based on gender, weight, or appearance. No matter the situation, you want to ensure that the situation served as a learning experience and allowed you to grow as an individual.

Explanation:

Answer 2

Answer: I had to take on a leadership role in a community project in which I was assigned as a team leader.

The aim of the project was to educate community members who are illiterate, the project was initiated by myself after seeing a need in our community where old people find its difficult to even write their names.

The first thing I had to do was to bring everyone in the team into the same mind and goal; encourage them so that they see a bigger picture of how crucial this project would be and how essential their roles would be.

Since we had different backgrounds educational and cultural wise it showed that it was going to be very challenging trying to bring everyone into the similar goal without escaping the feeling of I am too educated to be doing this kind of job.

So I had to organise meetings and incentives which will make everyone eager to be part of the group but mostly I had to bring people of different educational and cultural background together and make sure we treat each other the same and equal.

In order to deal with this obstacle we had to all come together and talk about uncomfortable topics in which some individuals felt it was beneath their pay grade to go and help old people who can't read and write

After everyone has raised their concerns , I wrote them down on the board we then discussed on how we will tackle all the differences and together came up with bets approaches after everyone was convinced that this was a worthy cause; following a long discussion which had scenarios that showed the suffering that people face due to illiteracy. Finally the cultural and educational differences were put aside and we worked all together harmoniously.

It would have been diffrent to consult before deciding to putbthe idea into action especially when it concerns the cultural differences and educational background that is different too.