Leadership among Students for the overall Development of EARTH

Earth University is not just outstanding because of the cultural diversity among the students but also because of the outstanding leadership qualities each student possesses. The vision of Earth University is to alleviate poverty, promote social justice and build a future where the communities will achieve sustainable and shared prosperity. Therefore to fulfill this vision as an agricultural institution, it seeks to prepare leaders with ethical values who will contribute to sustainable development and social justice and progress in the society. So it is obvious that good leadership qualities is an integral requirement accessed by Earth University during its admission process.

Succeeding to bring a whole bunch of leaders of change together is no small task. There is a saying that goes that every good leader is a good follower. One of the obvious traits of leaders is that they have followers. These two statements may seem contradicting at first but on a closer look each one has a truth from its own viewing point because a good leader is expected to be visionary, accessible by the people, attentive to the ideas of others, flexible to change, firm on decision taken and overall capable of motivating others to do the right thing. A good leader should be someone who has a leader who he or she is following, that motivates him or her to be a good leader in his or her own area of interest. By so doing, a person can gain the trust and confidence of others to lead them to do the right thing because they know he understands what it means to be a follower and a leader. So we can conclude that a leader is someone who leads others and as well he is a follower.

Earth University has dedicated itself to raise potential world class leaders of change but it is clear that leadership is demanding because it puts one´s life on the assessment scale of others for scrutiny. This mounts a lot of pressure on young people who are trying to discover who they are as well as finding their life purpose. They find themselves in a situation where they have to carry their own burden and that of others and are not sure of how to achieve the goals of leadership. Every student in earth University is a leader, this is true, but that leaves us with a question, who is following who then? As a result we are faced with a situation where a student is trying to prove to everyone his or her leadership qualities and expects others to listen and follow him or her but he is then reminded the sour truth which is- everyone else is a leader. So we are faced with a puzzle which is how do all the leaders in Earth University demonstrate their leadership qualities. The answer is very simple –interdependence. We are all wired differently with varying gifts and talents, some people are very good at organizational works, analytical issues, art, science, management task and many more. These differences allow students to show varying interest in things and enjoy the skillifulness of theres where they are not as well as demonstrate their own talent comfortably so what can be the passion of one person might be a disinterest for another and vice versa. So leadership qualities are meant to be demonstrated in our areas of talents and interests.

EARTH students are gifted and talented to do various things, so there is no need for the tousle for power and control which is sometimes seen among students. Some students always want to be the only voice heard without caring to listen to others. The idea of leadership is to learn first what it takes to follow someone else, before you can lead others. If you cannot listen to the ideas of others respectfully without discrediting it who should listen to your own idea? In this life the top has enough space to accommodate everyone so is that of leadership. But on the other hand, there are some student who do no take any leadership position the leave the work for everyone else to do but themselves. They will let time pass away without anyone ever knowing what talent they had. Such persons act this way because of lack of confidence in themselves and the fear of been ridiculed by others. Being a leader who leads no one but always being the follower is just as bad as being a leader who is always wanting to lead others without following anyone else. As EARTH students we should discover our areas of interests, develop them and be the leader there that raises other leaders after us. We have being called to the leadership squad so everyoneshould take up their responsibility and become the leaders of change the world needs.