Learning to Lead

My main goal is to not only graduate from City on a Hill, but to also get into the college of my choice and then graduate from that college. My guidance counselor has advised me that participating in outside programs will help me stand out when applying, so she suggested the Summer Search program because she thought it would be very beneficial and a great experience for me.  Summer Search Boston provides mentoring, summer experiences, and college advising to Boston high school students, so they gain the skills to succeed in college and dramatically improve their life prospects.  The goal of Summer Search is to help young students gain their independence, change for the better, and much more.  Therefore, I gladly took the opportunity to be a part of the program.

During my amazing and life-changing three weeks with Summer Search, I was able to overcome many challenges and learn about myself.  On this trip I went rafting and backpacking in Utah, spent community service hours with a Navajo family in Arizona, and embraced nature in Colorado.  A few challenges that I overcame were my fear of nature, the anxiety of being apart from my twin sister, the challenge of being on my own in an unknown environment, and the challenge of working on having patience.

When I first went into this trip my mentor and I talked about what I wanted to get out of it, which was to gain patience.  In my point of view patience is the key to life, and I lacked it majorly.  As a Summer Search representative, I knew that I had to keep cool and remain patient.  Only a few days into the rafting trip in Canyon Country, we came across copious amount of tamaris beetles that bothered me tremendously.  These beetles would fly around and land on humans and crawl their way around one’s body.  At the time, bugs were one of my biggest fears, and another camper found it funny to tease me about it.  He would lie and tell me there were bugs on me, when there really weren’t.  He would laugh and make side jokes about them when I was showing frustration, and I snapped.  I told this camper to shut up in a very sharp tone.  I wanted to continue with words that would make him feel bad, but I knew I had to keep my composure, and this was the skill that I was coming here to master.  So instead of telling him off, I took some time to cool down, drank a lot of water and continued on with my share of work.  After this was over I sat back and reflected on what I did.  I could see the change already and that this trip was transforming me.  Back at home this would have ended with a huge argument, but there I knew that an argument wasn’t going to solve anything.  I knew that I had to keep cool because not only would I be hurting the other camper but also the rest of the campers in the boat with us.  I knew that in order to keep going we had to all work together and tension was not going to help.

I also learned that I could adapt to new places, no matter how different an environment is from my home in Boston.  I learned that I’m actually more helpful and a better leader than I thought.  Last summer I had the opportunity to become captain of City on a Hill’s cheerleading squad, but I didn’t try to get the position because I thought I wasn’t good enough for it.  At the time, I didn’t think I was a good leader, but I was completely wrong.  In fact on my trip I was chosen to lead a day hike and also to help out with an emergency evacuation.  During the second week of the camping trip, a camper got injured and the camp leaders had to pick two people to help climb back out of the Dark Canyon and walk a few miles back to the road.  I was one of the two chosen.  At that moment I felt so much elation because it showed that the other campers saw me as not just a good leader, but an awesome leader, and I felt like I could take these leadership skills back to CoaH and master being a cheer co-captain.  From that point on, I knew I could change anything I wanted to as long as I set my mind to it.

Summer Search gave me the amazing opportunity to learn about myself, a chance to be an individual, and the opportunity to grow and overcome challenges!  Summer Search opened my eyes and gave me the confidence to take risks.  I’m grateful for this because Summer Search helped me find the strengths in me, and helped me overcome my weaknesses.  I look forward to taking what I’ve learned and applying it to my life at CoaH and my future in college and beyond.

Daeshiana Howard is currently a junior at City on a Hill Charter Public School. She is a three-year member of the Blue Storm cheerleading squad and recently became co-captain of the team. She is also a two-year member of COAH’s National Honor Society, along with being one of City on a Hill’s newest class representatives for the Class of 2013.