Fozia Amirul Haque Perveen

Student ID: 004197321

Enhancing leadership through TLC

The Tukwut Leadership Circle Program gave me a great opportunity to learn, develop

and enhance leadership qualities. The worthwhile experience of the program helped me to

deal with many of the real life situations at a personal and professional level. I did explore

many characteristics that a great leader should possess and key concepts to be an effective

leader. My idea about leadership has always been about practicing the servant leadership. The

workshops of the program introduced many other ideas and tools to demonstrate leadership in

professional fields. I learned that one must be flexible, adaptable and resilient to become an

efficient leader. It also taught me to effectively work and interact with diverse groups and to

respect cultural differences. One of the workshop was about documenting our leadership on

our resume which is very important for our career. It provided a basic overview of the key

components to build up a successful professional resume.

There is no denying the fact that leadership and conflict go hand in hand. What I

learned about myself through this program is that I am uncomfortable about engaging myself

in difficult conversations because I do not want to get involved in a conflict. I usually try to

avoid it, being terrified by the consequences I create in my mind. The workshop helped me

gain a better knowledge about successfully navigating difficult conversations. This idea has

greatly influenced my thoughts and practices and now I believe that short term discomfort is

much better than long term dysfunction. I use to make several assumptions in my mind

creating a barrier to be able to talk about the problem with a person. So instead I usually

always end up in silent compromise from my side without even letting know the other person

about the issue. It helped me to understand different perspectives about a problem and how to

have a right mindset and specific plan to deal with it. This idea has influenced my beliefs and

now I try to acknowledge the other person’s perceptions, feelings and values and at the same

time that I also acknowledge my own perceptions, feelings and values.

Furthermore, I had a wonderful opportunity to work with kids at pre-school through

this program as a civic engagement. It was an amazing experience volunteering in the school

and playing with the kids. I appreciate it because it gave me chance to interact with different

people outside the campus and made me confident to travel around. It was very different to

deal with the kids, to console them, to play with them and to teach them good practices. As I

want to become a professor in my future, this activity helped me enhance my teaching skills

and interacting ability. I also had a chance to participate in the cultural performance in the

Church where I performed traditional dance from my country-India. This added to a great

experience of culture sharing and a wonderful moment to cherish about.

As a campus engagement activity, I enrolled myself in Global Partnership Program

which added to my worthwhile learning experience. This program provided us with the

opportunity to interact with the international students and to share our cultural experience and

food from different countries. We discussed about our ideas and beliefs on different topics

and got to know others beliefs, practices and traditions. We came up with the problems and

issues we are facing inside the campus and the program leaders came up with the solutions. It

also helped us to build a strong bond between students on campus and an everlasting

relationship that is shared even outside the campus. I made many friends around the globe

and shared contacts that might help me professionally in my future.

As I look back on my goals, I also did make a good progress towards achieving my

SMART goals. In the summer of 2016, I want to be involved in the community service in an

educational program for teaching children under the age of 16 about the general education.

And through this program I did learn many communicative techniques that aids in achieving

my goal. To be an efficient teacher I need to be a great leader and the TLC program indeed

did its best to guide me. My other goal is to learn the environmental sustainability techniques

used here in CSUSM and to share and apply these methods back in my home country. I am

passionate about spreading awareness on environmental issues and to work towards solving

the problems. To achieve my goal, I got enrolled in the environmental studies class at

CSUSM and I did also join the sustainability club. However, since I was engaged in the

university hours for GPP, I was not able to attend any of the club meetings. But since now I

have successfully completed TLC and GPP, I have enough time to engage myself in club

activities.

Through the TLC program, my leadership ideas were greatly influenced and it helped

me in certain ways to be a great leader at both personal and professional level. The interactive

workshops gave me a better understanding of leadership concepts, it guided me to build an

impressive professional resume and gave me worth experience of interacting with different

people. Through on campus and off campus activities that I did as a part of this program, I

did build strong connections with people from different countries and got to know about

Campus life. This program truly helped in my overall personality development. I am jubilant

to have been a part of TLC!