A500.2.3.RB_DiazBrian

In order for me to identify the standards that are most important in my life I first analyzed my personal beliefs and their origins.  It is my hope that I can offer a glimpse into the elements responsible for making me the individual I am today.  I have had the distinct privilege of coming from a loving, caring, nurturing family.  I am fortunate to have parents that have been married for almost forty years.  In my life I strive to be honest, honorable, trustworthy, respectful, loving, and kind.  I give my parents all of the credit for how I developed.  They always pushed me to be achieve more than them.  To challenge myself and become the best at whatever path I chose.  I owe a lot of credit to my wife and son as well for giving me a sense of purpose and direction in life. 

Growing up with three other brothers, my family didn’t have a lot.  I was born in the New York City borough of the South Bronx.  If you can imagine a community enthralled in utter devastation, poverty, and crime then you can imagine the community I was born in.  Abandoned buildings, graffitied subways, and cars set ablaze were a common sight.  In other words it was a slum.  In 1977 President Carter visited the South Bronx and witnessed first-hand the plight and poverty that made up this community.  http://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/2012/07/28/when-jimmy-carter-visited-the-south-bronx/   

Thankfully my parents realized that this was no place to raise children.  They moved us to Florida with the hope that we could live a better life.  Those first five years of my life left indelible images in my mind.  Not everyone knows what it is like to live in a building infested with rats and cockroaches.  To worry about the gang violence and drug dealers that infested our city like a plague.  Fortunately my son will never have to experience such a scenario.  Do I feel I could have had a positive, successful future given my environment?  Not for a micro-second.  At that time, in that era, that place was hell on Earth.

Moving to Florida gave me and my family opportunities I most certainly would never have had in New York.  I owe so much to my parents for giving us those opportunities that I try to honor them as much as I can.  I feel I am doing so by raising my family the way I was raised.  With unconditional love and nurturing.  To illustrate my point, had it not been for moving to Florida, who knows if I would even still be alive? 

My parents were not well educated.  My mother has a junior high school education (there was no middle school then).  My father served our country in the Korean War at the age of 18 and has a high school education.  I am the first in my family to graduate from college let alone attempt a Master’s degree.  To see the pride in my parent’s eyes at my achievements drives me to want to achieve greatness.  I know that I am fortunate.  I make no assumptions about the fact that some people are not as fortunate as myself to have both of their parents in their lives, to have values instilled at a young age that carry through to adulthood.  It is because of my mother and father that I hold my standards at such an elevated level.  My values are a direct reflection of the job they did as parents.  For that, I am eternally grateful for them.  Although we never had a lot growing up, we always had food to eat and a roof over our heads.  My parents taught me the meaning of hard work and how it pays off in the end.  Had it not been for my mother and father driving me to further my education I may never have attempted college. 

It wasn’t until I met my wife Candi, that I had a true purpose in life.  My values didn’t change so much as I grew older but I do believe they were finally given a purpose.  Having Candi made me want to be a better man.  For example, she drove me to finish not only my associate’s but my bachelor’s degree.  She encouraged me and supported me emotionally.  She has been a positive driving force in my life.  We were married in August of 2010.  Soon after celebrating our one year anniversary we learned we would be welcoming an addition to our family.  In March of 2012 Caiden was born!  I’ve always wanted to be a father because of how great mine is.  I always emulated my father and wanted to be just like him.   A provider, a nurturer, and a positive soul.  Becoming a dad is something I always dreamt of.  I often think “What can I do to make Caiden’s future better?  How can I better provide for my family?”  For the first time in my life I think more about the future than I do about the present and most certainly more than my past.  I owe it all to my standards.  I owe it all to my family.  I think of how blessed I am and I count those blessing daily.  

A500.1.5.RB_DiazBrian

Intellectual perseverance is the ability to draw tenacity from within, to set upon a well thought out plan or approach, despite any fears of failure or unforeseen difficulties that may arise.  These feelings of fear may be drawn from one’s own perceptions of the ideas or materials they may be challenged with.  Intellectual perseverance for me is an opportunity to accept that which I do not know and challenge myself to have a better understanding of a subject, thought, or idea.  When I began my Legal Studies degree I knew nothing about the law, its history, how it developed, and the different methods of research.  Over time and through hard work I was able to grasp the elements that go into establishing laws, how they are implemented and how they are applied in society.  I did not become discouraged, and accepted the challenge.  I adapted and established a plan of action.  I applied myself and set goals.    

Intellectual perseverance and leadership share many traits.  Both require one to consciously and effectively utilize critical thinking in order to achieve goals.  In order to be effective at both you have to be able to ask questions.  Planning is imperative to intellectual perseverance and to be an effective leader.  I feel this may be one of the more significant traits shared by intellectual perseverance and leadership.  Failure to have a plan of action in place can be a formula for failure.

Leadership can be describes as a planned approach that embraces the effective communication of expectations to achieve a common goal.  An effective leader should be responsible, positive, and an influential role model.  Furthermore an effective leader should be creative and have the ability inspire others while being an affective listener.  He/she should be goal oriented and cognizant of the importance of rewarding and acknowledging team members for their contributions and/or sacrifices with the use of positive reinforcement to achieve optimal results.  For example, I am fortunate to work for an organization that values leadership.  This is evident anytime we have monthly departmental meetings.  I am always impressed how my Director for Online Learning is prepared for these meetings.  He is always encouraging of my team members.  He presents goals for us to achieve as well as provides substantive and empirical data for us to review.  He inspires me to want to achieve greatness and goes out of his way to praise us.

Here is how I plan to achieve the qualities above:  

·         Ask to meet with various members of leadership within my organization.

·         Elicit information that has made them successful in their positions.

·         Set goals for myself (my first goal thus far is to obtain my Master’s degree).

·         Practice the qualities above to become a respected leader.

·         Empathizing with others in order to better relate.

·         Become a better listener (one of my weaknesses).

·         Be adaptable to change and open to idea of adjusting. 

As I progress in my studies I can use my current lessons to apply and incorporate these ideas I am learning to become a more efficient critical thinker. This will allow me to achieve the most proficient outcomes as a result of my critical thinking in order to accomplish my goals.  As I move forward with my studies I aspire to embrace this process of learning.  Will this be easy?  No, just as I imagined, it has been quite the opposite.  Am I going to be hesitant about this program or have self-doubt about failure?  Most likely but I understand that it is human nature to fear what you do not know. But I intend on overcoming those fears and move forward.  I think of this process much in the way one might build a house and the questions they might face.  

In order for a house to stand it must first have a solid foundation.  Once that foundation has been established you can begin to put up walls.  Once your walls are in place you can put a roof on.  But there are many other elements to building a house.  How much square footage?  What colors or materials am I going to use?  Do I have the necessary permits?  Besides the walls and the roof the house still needs electrical, plumbing, insulation, drywall, etc.  Just as our critical thinking needs extra elements.  In defining leadership I set the foundation for that definition by mapping out the process by which I would begin (much like an architect) defining the term.  Then I reflected on my idea of what leadership is.  From there I asked myself many questions.  I used reasoning to answer those questions and I believe in those reasons.  You see, I built upon my foundation of what I perceive the thought of leadership to be.  Much like one would might build a house.