Personal Statement

Directions: Select one of the topics from the instructions and develop a five paragraph
essay that addresses the prompt.

State the topic you selected:​ ​Describe an example of your leadership experience in
which you have positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes, or contributed to
group efforts over time

When I was hired for my first job at Taco Bell in February, I didn't think my
part-time job taking orders would result in me training a new employee weekly. What
started out as a part-time job turned into something much more meaningful in my life.
With 16 hour weeks into almost 40, I may have been one of the youngest employees,
but I was also one of the most valuable. When my manager promoted me to be a team
trainer a few months after being hired, I had realized my role was about to become
much more prominent.
My job was to train new employees and to correct any mistakes existing workers
were making. Through this, I had become a leader for the location when a manager was
not present. It took a lot of work, learning different tactics when teaching loads of
different people, all between different ages and ways that they learned. Becoming a
kind of teacher at 16 years old is something I didn’t expect would happen. However, I
learned along with the employees I was teaching.
When our entire restaurant system went down, from cash registers to order
screens, it seemed like there was no solution to our problem other than closing up shop.
The first few hours were stressful, with cars waiting about half an hour for their food
during the lunch rush. There were many upset customers, it felt like everything was
going wrong and they were no getting out of it.
However, upon creating a plan with managers, we had figured out a temporary
system to start getting our orders out. This plan consisted of writing down orders on a
piece of paper and setting up the drive-through window to put in the amount the
customer owes manually. My managers tasked me with training every employee that
day on how the new system was working. And though it was stressful, we prevailed and
met our sales goal for the day.
That day, I learned that being young does not prohibit you from being a leader,
but rather your mind-set. Being one of the youngest employees at my job, I was worried
that I would not be taking seriously. However, my work ethic can show my coworkers
that I was not just a sixteen-year-old messing around. And if there is one thing my
coworkers and I learned on that stressful day, there's nothing a free taco coupon can't
fix.