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To Boost My Resume or My Community?

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Vanderbilt chapter.

Hello readers. It has been awhile since I’ve updated and I do apologize. If you have followed along with my previous articles then you know that I try to address real life issues. With that being said, in this article, I want to discuss the importance of building your communities instead of your resumes. I really do not understand why, but there seems to be a problem with a lot of today’s “leaders.” The title “leader” is being so quickly given to anyone who stands out in the crowd. Our “leaders” are social figures, not true leaders. What I mean by social figures is someone in the community who is particularly well known by others. They are commonly known for:

1. Being popular

2. Coming from a family of wealth

3. Maintaining a reputation (whether that reputation is good/ bad depends on the person)

4. Being a busy body (A.K.A. NOSY!)

5. Simply wanting to be on the board of everything

6. Being the beggar who manipulates votes by asking for them

7. Etc., etc., etc., etc.

My point is that a lot of “leaders” are not leading because they are not qualified. All of the people who have one or some of the traits above also have one major thing in common: they are all looking to fill in a blank on their resumes. They forget that their job is not being done to the best of their abilities, which causes the organization to suffer.

If unqualified “leaders” are elected to frivolous organizations that make no impact, then so be it. But when unqualified and uninterested “leaders” are elected to positions that could make a difference or majorly impact someone’s life, and they fail to do anything because they are not dedicated to their position, that is a problem. Over the last few weeks, I have realized that a lot of our “leaders” are failing to take positive action, and the only way to change that is to stop voting based on popularity. Instead, think about the candidates you’re electing, and ask yourself if they can take care of themselves, let alone an organization. For those who never make a peep… STAND up and run for those same positions so that this can stop! So I leave you readers by saying build your communities (whether that is your college communities, your hometown communities, your high school communities, etc.), BUT STOP THINKING RESUME FIRST!

Jessica Pawlarczyk is a junior at Vanderbilt University where she is majoring in Sociology and Spanish. Besides Her Campus, Jessica is involved in newspaper, APO service fraternity, math tutoring and youth mentoring. She enjoys playing tennis, reading Jodi Picoult novels and finding new "pins" for her Pinterest page in her spare time. Jessica is incredibly excited to be a part of the Her Campus team!