Cogi | Age: 22 | Jupiter, FL

Cogi | Age: 22 | Jupiter, FL

Major in Marine Biology | Blogger, Speaker

Leadership is... “the art of mobilizing others to want to struggle for shared aspirations” (Kouzes and Posner). While that’s a wonderful definition, I like to think of leadership as a way of life and an attitude, one that sets an individual on a course dedicated to creating positive change through clarification of self and through heartfelt service to all.

Leadership in Life... It was March of 2015 and I had just, that evening, completed my second and final term as a State Officer for Florida HOSA. I’d spent two years as a public figure alongside six other impeccable students, standing as a representative for about 14,000 professionals and students across the state of Florida. It was the end of the ceremony, and a new friend who I’d only met a few months before (and who was elected that day to begin his own term as a State Officer) told me that I was a role model to him and that my role and my attitude encouraged him to run for office. I’d been called a role model a handful of times before, but I never really believed it until that moment. I thought that, just maybe, I’d done more than I thought and that I was truly living up to the legend I’d always hoped for. Ever since that moment, I’ve accepted myself as a real leader and a role model and I’ve never discounted anybody else’s stories or efforts. I learned in that moment that each of us leaves an impact and that proper effort leaves a positive one.

Advice… Give everything you have to the things you prioritize. Work to exhaustion, give one hundred percent, don’t make excuses, tear yourself apart, do whatever it takes. Sacrifice yourself for a world that needs it.

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