Serra’s Global Leadership Program Sample Narratives
David . . . Narrative example #1: David is a sophomore who developed a major interest in health while in his biology class. As a result, he is planning to take the Diseases and Human Physiology course as a junior. David also loves football and, at an unfortunate moment last year, tore his ACL during practice. He has recovered and learned as part of the recovery that there are many things about ACL injuries that he believes others his age should know. One of his coaches sees leadership potential in David and encourages him to consider a project to help other student athletes learn what he knows, pointing him to the Global Leadership Seminar as a way of exploring the possibility of pursuing the project. In the Global Leadership Seminar in the fall of his junior year, David encounters stories of those who took their passions to start organizations and companies. He took this opportunity to follow his interests to learn about a team in Ireland working on cutting edge treatments of injuries similar to the one he experienced. This became the basis of a project in the Diseases and Human Physiology couse, in which David developed a poster with information about the physiology of joints for student athletes. He then used the project as part of an application to Serra's Global Leadership Program. In the spring, David applies and is accepted to the Global Leadership Program and begins building a collection of short videos to be shared online about how to care for yourself following an ACL tear. These videos become part of a presentation he makes during his senior year. He uses what he learns through user testing techniques shared by his mentor to talk about which videos seem to be most effective based on his audience data.
Mark . . . Narrative example #2: Mark is a freshman whose mother is a venture capitalist, and from her he has developed an enthusiasm for innovative businesses. His father is from Colombia, and Mark has had several opportunities to visit family living in Cartagena. On his last visit, Mark took a “graffiti tour,” allowing him to learn how local artists were giving tours of the city and telling visitors about the relationship between artists and indigenous people in Colombia. Mark wants to develop an online business that allows people anywhere to meet with Cartagena artists to learn about Colombian culture and the challenges faced by members of indigenous communities there. Mark takes Serra’s Global Leadership Seminar and is introduced to those who founded Himalayan Global Expeditions in India. He learned about those who visit to trek in mountains assist with efforts to build solar grids for remote villages lacking electricity. He begins researching organizations in Colombia working with indigenous communities, with an eye toward developing a relationship with art tours operators to provide programs that would be interesting to teens in the Bay Area. He applies to and is accepted into the Global Leadership program. Over his junior and senior years, Mark takes AP 2-Dimensional art, along with the Business Marketing and Entrepreneurship classes. Chris Houle serves as his project mentor, regularly asking Mark about his progress, and working with Rushton Hurley to connect Mark with alumni and others who can help him with website prototypes and marketing advice. Mark completes the beta version of his project early in the fall of his senior year, and begins developing presentations of his work to share with the Serra community. These in-person and recorded presentations also prove useful in passing his work along to a community organization in Colombia, as well as giving him the opportunity to consult with an organization working to build on his model for similar work in the Philippines.