Leadership: Up Front and Behind the Scenes
             Leadership is an essential skill that one must have to succeed in life. For many, leadership is a matter of title, but leadership can also be any demonstration of responsibility and taking charge in a plethora of situations, and successfully managing activities. I have demonstrated leadership in a variety of the activities I have been involved in during the past year, but while in some I had an official position of leadership, in others, I was a sort of behind-the-scenes leader who took the initiative. Of my myriad activities, the ones I have chosen to discuss my leadership roles in are Open Clinics, The Suitcase Clinic, and volunteering at Marian Medical Center.
             One activity in which I have used my leadership is Open Clinics. Open Clinics is a primarily student-run project that is associated with The Suitcase Clinic, and is basically a type of research project, as well as an internship. Our group this last semester consisted of about ten students, and we all worked together, and are continuing to work together, to make this project happen, so all of us have had to bring leadership and administrative skills to the project. Our first task was to take the medical records of all clients who visited The Suitcase Clinic since the year 2000, and fill out a medical form that specified the client's general information, such as past medical conditions and birth date, as well as the diagnosis. This required use of management and leadership skills, as I had to work with the other students in the group to coordinate times when we would meet and work on coding the records. I also had to figure out how to divide the records so they would all be coded by the end of the semester, and when we would get together and work, we often had to guide each other when there was confusion over what to code for certain diagnoses, and because of my work experience in the hospital and a doctor's office, I w...