Honestly, I did not know what LeADERS was until a friend told me about it. Once I looked into it, it made sense to get involved. LeADERS stands for Learning through Active Discovery, Engagement, Reflection, and Showcase. It is ODU’s distinction program where students complete real experiences across five categories including leadership, applied learning, research, writing, and diversity, and reflect on how they connect to their professional growth. I am graduating with a Gold distinction, which means I completed all five.

The more I got into it, the more I realized I was already doing most of what it asked for. I was leading organizations, doing a Cybersecurity internship, taking writing-heavy courses. LeADERS just gave it all a structure and pushed me to actually think about what I was getting out of each experience.

How it shaped me

My five experiences are pretty different from each other, and I think that is the point. Through my cybersecurity internship I was building real hands-on technical skills. As a leader in multiple student organizations I was learning how to bring people together and get things done. My writing and research courses pushed me to communicate complex ideas to people outside the technical space. And my involvement in cultural leadership taught me a lot about community, identity, and what it means to genuinely represent people.

Altogether it built a version of me that can do more than just the technical work, and that is what I am bringing into my career.