RRL OF LEADERSHIP SKILLS

Being a leader usually starts at a young age, and they tend to

show perseverance towards every task assigned to them. All

leaders cooperate with their members, and they support each other

through challenging obstacles. This statement further emphasizes

an article written by Jambunathan, S., Jayaraman, J. D.,

Jayaraman, K., & Jayaraman, A. (2019) because their study states

that workshops that focus on crafting leadership through helping

one another. Moreover, the results of the study concluded that

four main concepts of leadership teach and educate the students.

These are the traits of good/bad leader, public speaking, self-

confidence, and problem-solving, which showed different effects

on the student's speaking ability and the influential impact of

each. The only variable that is affecting the study is the age of

students. Leadership skills can come in naturally to some, but

for others obtaining it can be a challenging task. An article by

Lester (2015) says that programs that focus on leadership

development have taken a challenging step mainly towards students

because it is a mandatory course throughout their curriculum.

Students are obligated to take this to enhance further their

ability to communicate to adapt to situations when they are an

employee in a work field. Pearson et al. (2019) stated that all

could learn leadership, although some are just natural leaders.

There was an understanding that some people have a knack for

leadership. Others find the courage and then learn leadership

while some need longer to learn. Some have confidence in one area

but not in others – for example, a sports leader may not have

social confidence. It is possible to learn leadership through:

observing good leaders, identifying mentors, spreading leadership

skills throughout the curriculum, creating small activity groups

to enhance individual involvement, and providing more peer

teaching.

Collado et al., 2020. From Hardship to Leadership: The Success

Stories of Philippine School Doha Student Leaders. Int. J.
Adv. Res. 8(01), 491-507
https://www. Journalijar.com/uploads /321_IJAR-30214.pdf

Students can develop leadership skills by applying to and taking

part in youth programs that focus on acquiring leadership

techniques, ideas, and qualities. These programs are often

spearheaded by organizations, after-school program

administrators, church groups, organizational development teams,

clubs, and other activities related enterprises. Students can

participate in these programs beginning at a very early age: Boy

scouts of America, for instance, teaches leadership skills to

children and educates and trains them well into adolescence.

Students can also grow their leadership skills in schools by

taking part in student organizations and other extra-curricular

activities, such as athletics, drama, music, debate, etc. The

research indicates that students are open to new experiences

because they are defining their own identity and their own

principles as they mature and apply themselves to the real world

(Larson and Tran, 2014).

Larson, R., Tran, S. “Invited Commentary: Positive Youth

Development and Human Complexity.” Journal of Youth
Adolescence, vol. 43 (2014):1012-1017
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essay/leadership-essay/

Problem Solving Skills: This skill is defining the problem in

real terms, determining appropriate information or limitations,

presenting possible options or solutions, solving the problem,

controlling the solution and sharing the results (OECD, 2014)

Mihriay M (2020). A Comparative Study of the Leadership Behavior

of Freshman and Final Year Undergraduate Students. Asian
Journal of Education and Training Vol. 6, No. 4, 627-635,
2020
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1275112.pdf
 Review of Related Literature of Student Organization

Sethuraman and Suresh (2014) defined a leader as a person with

the responsibility to influence one or more followers and

directing them to achieve a set objective. As seen throughout

human civilization, a leader plays a vital role in the

development of humanity (Ogurlu & Emir, 2014). The presence of

leaders shook the very core of each community and its impact the

perspective of followers unto shaping their personal beliefs as

leadership is a kind of power where one person has the ability to

influence or change the values, beliefs, behaviour and attitudes

of another person (Ganta & Manukonda, 2014; as cited by Hao &

Yazdanifard, 2015). Affecting each one of the followers to their

common goals in the process.

As such, student leaders are students involved in leadership

activities within an organization. Involving students in

leadership positions, which allow them to take part in decision-

making in their education endeavors has been considered to be one

of the elements necessary to boost their performance and concept

retention rate (California State University, 2012; Office of the

Institutional Research, 2011; as cited by Irsheid 2018). This is

supported by Kambuga and Omollo (2017) as they discuss that

student leadership refers to education principles and practices

that give young people the opportunities and support to find

their voices, to participate in decision-making, understand their

rights, and responsibilities as active citizens. Advancing a

similar view, a study on how to Improve the academic performance

of students in Jordanian schools concluded that students need to

be involved in leadership positions. The study further

highlighted that engaging students in leadership make them more

responsible which can ultimately boost their academic achievement

(Nannyonio 2017; Stave et al, 2017; as cited by Irsheid).

Additionally, student organizations are critical to cocurricular

involvement and have a long history within higher education.

Partey and Acquah (2014) states that it is clearly worthwhile to

expose learners to a wide range of experiences that display at

least a reasonable resemblance to the reality of conditions in

the outside world where they will have to study, live and work

once they leave school. To support this, a study found that about

40% of college students have significant educational experience

gained through out-of-classroom activities (cited in Han & Kwon,

2018). Before the achieved success of student leaders, they have

experienced a lot of challenges beforehand in their organization.

Ibrahim (2016) discusses that the role leadership constantly

presents challenges both to the leader's abilities and a person,

things and change; change brings challenge, and no matter how

good a leader is, can't stop that from happening. How one handles

those challenges will define one as a leader and have a great

deal to do with how effective one can be. Some challenges come in

the form of people or problems that present obstacles to reaching

a goal. Far more come from within the leader, or from the

situation of simply being a leader. Every leader must face many

of them and learn to deal with them in some way. Subsequently, it

was stressed that leaders, whose work is to make a difference,

might face many challenges in their competition and success which

causes a lot of discomfort. Therefore, in making a change,

leaders must have an intellectual strength and sharpness in

analysis to develop a vision and enable themselves to outline the

goals clearly (cited in Almaki et.al 2016) The activities

students engage in through their involvement with student

organizations teach them skills that help them succeed inside and

outside of the classroom. Student organizations help to both

educate students and provide them opportunities to grow as

people. Identity development, for example, is one area in which

students report as a high area of growth as a result of

involvement in student organizations (cited in Leopard, 2017).

This study was chosen for the researchers believe the need for a

focused research on behalf of the young people and what they

perceive leadership to be and how they would see it being

important. Furthermore, Atkins and Shrubb (2019) discusses that

listening to students’ experiences provides student affairs

practitioners with some insights into the complexity of

leadership development and will develop skills will serve them

well on-campus, but more importantly, as future leaders in

negotiating the challenges associated with a diverse, global

environment and the complex issues surrounding social change.

Hine (2017) states that leadership experiences contribute

positively to student improvement, school environment and the

level of the school’s involvement within a community. Many

scholars and academics have long been interested in the practice

of leadership in students, however, less attention is being given

to the perspectives of the students themselves and only a handful

of studies have sought to understand their point of view (Sessa

et al., 2014). Common assessment or research design is a simple

two-stage repeated-measures study, where program participants

complete a pre-test prior to their experience and a post-test

immediately after. However, these studies have long been

recognized for their lack of validity, based on a strong

response-shift bias and their lack of opportunity for students to

apply their learning in any meaningful way to better self-assess

the outcomes of their participation (cited in Rosch & Collins,

2017).

Student organizations face a difficult decision this semester.

When and how to hold meetings is something each group must

consider due to COVID-19 restrictions. If groups meet in-person

members must wear masks and practice social distancing. If they

meet online they may not be able to maintain personal, community-

based elements of their meetings. Many groups opt for hybrid

meetings that incorporate both online and in-person interactions.

In a memorandum to student organizations, the Center for Student

Enrichment provided guidelines for in-person meetings this

academic year. Organizations are allowed to schedule in-person

meetings as long as social distancing guidelines, precautions and

room capacities are followed. The CSE encourages the use of

hybrid and virtual formats (Sherbinow, R., 2020).

Sherbinow, R., 2020. Student Organizations Embrace Hybrid Meeting

Format
https://thenorthwindonline.com/3885679/entertainment/
student-organizations-embrace-hybrid-meeting-format/