Wednesday, May 8, 2013

The Pursuit of Purpose


By Nikhill B. Intern

Rachel Sottile, Executive Director
of YES Institute 
As a student at the University of Miami, I am a member of the Delta Lambda Phi Fraternity for Gay, Bisexual, and Progressive Men (DLP). The organization was recently founded on our campus and requires all of our brothers to be leaders in creating our presence on the campus. Some of my fraternity brothers and I had the opportunity to take YES Institute’s Leadership in Action™ course.

We used what we learned from the course to start a new conversation with the rest of our fraternity - a conversation about how we present ourselves and enroll others in our organization.  What we learned helped inspire our brotherhood to take action and share about our organization with other people on our campus and in our community.  These actions have already proven integral in getting sponsors and students to participate in our upcoming fundraiser. One of my brothers said,“I feel like I can solve so many more problems and really make things happen for DLP because of today.”  These leadership skills opened up my eyes to so many more possibilities for my fraternity to make a difference on campus.

Another powerful moment in the course was learning from Athena, an intern at YES Institute.  Athena is working on a project to bring the work of YES Institute to her home in Cyprus.  In the course, we discussed the importance of language when creating a mission statement and applied those insights to the mission statement for her specific project. We dissected it word by word, looking up definitions and synonyms for words that would make a more powerful impact. What started off feeling like an exercise in semantics helped me realize how vital language is when establishing your organization, project or business strategy.

Lauren, a YES Institute intern and course participant, shared:  “I realize that my thoughts create my reality, and I want to lead with certainty and commitment.”  For me, Leadership in Action™ helped me understand how I can become my own leader and be purposeful in anything I pursue.

Rachel Sottile, leading Leadership In Action™ course