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UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND

APPLICATION

Jenny Gao

Personal Data
Legal first name: Jenny Legal last name: Gao Preferred name: Jenny Student ID number: 2683132 Email address: findjennygao@gmail.com Phone number: 021 230 6799 Ethnicity: Chinese Year of study: Second year Programme of study: BAFilm, English Domestic/international student: Domestic

Jenny Gao

Question 1
What environment (university, community etc) are you currently a part of where you could practice and utilize your leadership development learning over the next 6 months? What is your role in this environment? How does it enable you to think about and practice leadership? What do you see as the biggest leadership challenge in this environment? What would you like to do and/or know most about leadership that would enable you to contribute more to this environment? How does this leadership experience relate to any longer-term dream or goals that you have?

Upon applying to be in AIESEC Aucklands programme management in Semester 1, 2012, I was selected to be and currently am the Activate Programme Manager. Activate is a leadership programme in which students come up with an idea from scratch for an event and implement its creation. My role focuses not only on managing the 75 students involved in Activate this semester, but the 5 coaches that will be in charge of mentoring the 15 teams through their journey as well as stepping outside of operational matters and striving to expand the programme with new ideas and better initiatives, solidifying ties with AIESEC Aucklands other functions and creating new ones with external NGOs and companies that share our vision. In age and in experience, I am comparatively young to those who I manage directly (Activate Programme Coordinatorscoaches) and those I manage indirectly (Activate participants). This enables my biggest leadership challenge as well as one that is most thought provoking. Leadership has become less about position and power: rather, aiding and encouraging the growth of others so that they have the motivation and the passion to influence. As of now, the main supplies fueling my growth as a manager are fellow university students with relevant experience and my own trial and error. The knowledge of professionals would be absolutely invaluable to gainnot only for myself, but for my team which would each grow uniquely from such fruitful information, in turn passing it down to an audience of 75 and each of the 75s own. Outside of my role as manager for the Activate programme, my big, hairy dreams lie in being published in OYSTER and RUSSH for my fashion photography, and being featured in festivals for my films. Art holds an unexplainable way of being able to sway human minds and can unlock or implant ideas and passions in the same way a good leader canand both, I think, are capable of facilitating world changing acts.

Jenny Gao

Question 2
Please describe a personal experience you consider as either A highlight or a lowlight in your leadership life Tell us what you learned from this experience e.g. What surprised you? What did you notice? What did it make you realize about yourself, others or leadership? What could have been done differently?

Running the Activate programme means plenty of long nights to ensure everything is done according to schedule, especially right after Activates launch. My team of 5 coaches, newly cast in their roles, were instantly propelled into sacrificing more than their fair share of time, energy and sleep for quality selection and allocation. A highly rewarding moment for me as their manager was witnessing the true passion and excitement they felt as they were given their three Activate teams that would be theirs to mentor and aid this semester. For the first time there was a lot of yelling, photo taking and dancing. It was then that I could say I truly understood simultaneously the nature of our work as well as why my team (and other similar teams) would be willing to put so much of their time into it. AIESEC is a youth-run organization, made up solely of young university students who clearly see enough in it to have the passion to dedicate a large portion of themselves into. It rings just as true for other any other student-run organization: there has to be something fundamentally moving to explain why a twenty year old would work hideously long hours for free. That being said, this also must be said alongside it: leadership is more about being for those you lead than commanding them what to do. Seeing my coaches feel genuine hunger towards the development of their 15 participants was one enriched with much personal pride. I knew that that passion they held towards their teams that night was the very thing that would get them through times of stress and pressure, and for that, I needed to elevate the amount of praise and appreciation I held for them as my team members as well as individuals.

Jenny Gao

Question 3
a) Please send/email a photo or image that creatively: d/email Tells a story of yourself in leadership right now, or Depicts why leadership is important enough for you to dedicate yourself to a 6 month programme at this stage of your life or Depicts a kind of leadership that y value you

b) Please explain why you chose this image and what it means to you in terms of leadership. This drawing illustrates a kind of leadership I admire. Status quo here means the way we are living when we do not think about any of our actions. This will be different for everybody, but this is what I like to refer to as auto auto-pilot. It is comfortable, easy and mindless. The pathway is e, paved smoothly and readily for us; big walkable cobblestones that take heed to our feet. The figure pointing towards the path less travelled is a leader. He doesnt force, dominate or demand. Rather, he explains the importance of looking at another way, a seemingly rougher importance road with dirt and rocks and one that you would have to pay more attention to in order to not stumble and fall. Some may not choose to take it, but those who do will end up knowing that it is valuable to better themselves and continuously gain skills. e

Jenny Gao

Question 4
Imagine it is the future and you have completed the 360o Leadership Programme. Describe the leader you are, the nature and impact of your relationships with others, and the difference you are making. Please describe in enough detail for us to get a strong sense of what you are thinking, feeling, doing, achieving as a leader (min 300 words).

I envision myself to be a leader that embraces diversity. Each of us comes into contact with a vast array of different people every day that we live, and a good leader should hold the ability to influence all of them in a differently and for the better. The vision of leadership being the ability to direct in a way to ensure tasks get done should be changed and substituted for an ability to inspire an individual to his/her core, so that they discover for themselves ideas unique to themand that is the kind of leader I aspire to be. As Einstein famously said: Everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid, I wish to be a leader that recognizes and encourages the development of everyone in my life. This takes what it means to be a leader outside of whatever may be my task (which will change within the next six months, and keep changing for the rest of my life) making the scope of influence I hold exponentially greater. More specifically, the kinds of attributes that hold particular value for me are creative and innovative thinking, the completion of tasks on schedule and to a high standard, and fueling personal growth/development. I see myself as being a leader that is highly passionate in the job I am undertaking and engaging with individuals who have the capacity to be just as motivated. There is always a demand for innovation in programmes, projects, organizations and companies, and when people are challenged to be more than who they currently are, that is where the ores of success lie.

Jenny Gao

Question 5
What motivated you to apply for the 360o Leadership Programme? If you are accepted on to this programme how will you demonstrate your commitment to make use of this opportunity not only for yourself, but for the university community and beyond? Is there anything that would impede this intensive learning for you?

My own knowledge thus far about leadership and what it means to be a leader has been either mostly from older, more experienced student leaders who have interests in similar passions, or distilled from my own experiences, mistakes and observations. While I consider this invaluable, I also cannot help but think it rather shallow. The aid from professionals and those who have years of wisdom in their fields is something I regard as so important as it gives insights and perspectives a student like me would otherwise never look to explore into. Simply put, I was motivated to apply for the 360o Leadership Programme because I am hungry to know more about the ways I can lead others and myself. I feel my gain in this programme would domino into the gain of othersthose I currently lead, those they currently lead, and those I will lead in the future. I was a participant in AIESEC Aucklands Activate programme in Semester 2, 2011, and since then I have been intensively involved in the organizationattending conferences, being involved in summer taskforces and now in programme management. AIESEC has underlying morals I believe in genuinely, and I know that the rest of my time in university will be largely involved with giving back through this organization and this is an incredible platform for me to demonstrate what I have learned back to students, here and internationally when I go on my OE+ and 360 exchanges.

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