Leadership Through Compassion
By Megan Gilbert
"Whether I shall turn out to be the
hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else,
these pages must show."
- first sentence, David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens
Whenever someone asks a child what
he or she wants to be when they grow up, the typical response is “a fireman,”
or “a lawyer,” or occasionally even “a garbage man.” The answer is always a
particular profession or specialty, never a trait or quality like “a virtuous
woman” or “an honest man.” Why is it that society determines a person’s worth
based on what happens between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.? For many in our society,
success in life is all about how we appear and not about who we are on the
inside.
1 
2 
3
As children, we
like to imagine what we will eventually become.
Even in our childhoods, we are
ingrained with the idea that our lives amount to what job we eventually hold,
how successful we are, and what type of lifestyle we live. We are never asked
what kind of life we wish to lead or
what characteristics we will strive to possess. As a young girl, I told people
that I was going to be a doctor. As I discovered my love of children and my
desire to bring healing and comfort to them, I started telling people that I
was going to become a pediatrician. But now, it is no longer sufficient to just
be a pediatrician; I strive to be something more. What good is a doctor if he
or she is not kind and compassionate with a strong sense of what is right and
wrong? A doctor who only thinks of himself as a doctor “cuts [himself] off
access to empathy, potentially a source of great comfort and counsel”4
and becomes no more than a bearer of bad news and an executioner of hope. As I
continue on my journey to “creating myself,”5 I want to cultivate my
compassion and empathy for others. I still want to be a pediatrician, but I
want to be seen as a “good person” first. A “good person” is one who is
altruistic and compassionate and works for the common good of the people they
wish to inspire and lead.
As a doctor, compassion is necessary
to present patients with what needs to be done about their medical condition,
and, most importantly, to give them hope for a healthy
future. Not only do I want to develop a doctor’s concern for her patients, but
I also want to foster compassion for those I meet on a day to day basis. I want
to be able to interact with people from all ethnic, medical, and religious
backgrounds and encourage their personal growth as individuals who will come to
be leaders in their own right. My guidance will be in the form of compassion –
one that inspires others to reach inside themselves and find their own inner
strength and leadership abilities.
A doctor must be
more than just a good diagnostician. 6
This summer, I will be given the
opportunity to affect those who come behind me and hopefully inspire them to do
the same. Starting in May, I will be implementing my leadership through
compassion as a staff member at Camp John Marc, a camp that gives children with
special medical needs a chance to have a real camp experience. Children come in
each week with different conditions such as spina
bifida and muscular dystrophy to swim, participate in the challenge course,
ride horses, and simply be children. I wish to take this summer to practice my
compassion and to pack their week with joy and love, laughter and good
memories. I want to show these children that they are an important and that
their medical conditions do not define who they are. I want to show them that
just because they bodies may be affected by genetics and disease,
their spirits do not have to be.
For the children at
Camp John Marc, their week of camp will be one in which they learn who they are
on their own, away from watchful parents. 7
In my position as counselor, I will
be able to pass on the compassion and leadership abilities that I learned as a
camper from my counselor and role model, Stephanie Jordan. When I attended
summer camp as an elementary and middle schooler, Stephanie was always the one
counselor that everyone loved. She was the leader that gave everyone the
confidence to have fun being themselves. Stephanie was loud and energetic,
funny and caring. She was the one that everyone wanted to be around, the one
that everyone wanted to imitate. Each year, Stephanie brought a smile to my
face and showed me that I can do anything that I truly wish to achieve. It is
now my turn to be that counselor, my turn to affect children a few years
younger than me, my turn to be a leader and impact the future. I want to show
every child that steps foot on the campgrounds of Camp John Marc that they can
become whatever their hearts desire. I want to show them that they have a
fountain of potential hidden beneath the surface just waiting to be discovered.
Camp counselors are
instigators of growth and leadership in their campers. 8
One of the aims of Camp John Marc is
to provide these children with a chance to be on their own for a week, out from
the watchful eyes of their parents and caretakers. In a sense, they are “free to simply to be.”9 During this week, they must form
relationships with other campers and counselors on their own, overcome
challenges, persevere, and in essence, find out who they are separate from the
stigma of disease and protective parents. As they search for themselves, I will
be there to encourage their growth, to help them when they stumble, and to
praise them when they triumph. This will be an important week in each child’s
life, a critical period in which their character will begin to be formed and
specific qualities will emerge. I plan to encourage their growth as strong,
compassionate individuals who put others before themselves and aspire to being
out the best in others. As the Activities Director, I will be teaching the
campers to play volleyball and other sports, showing them how to make a certain
craft, and teaching them to play crazy games like toilet tag and sharks and
minnows. Through these activities, I will be able to demonstrate my concern for
their well-being and consideration for others. In each activity, I will set an
example of good sportsmanship, which is a starting point from which to enhance
the children’s concept of compassion. It is through these small, everyday
activities that care and consideration become a natural part of daily life and
make these children more compassionate towards their fellow man.
As a leader, I want to encourage
qualities in those that follow after me that make them good people, full of
kindness and mercy. But most importantly, I want to show the people I come into
contact with and the campers of Camp John Marc that is not how much money you
make or whether you wear designer clothes that define who you are. It is your
compassion for others and how you affect them that matters. This summer, I will
have the opportunity to guide hundreds of children to encounter the best that
they have to offer and the opportunity to better my leadership through
compassion. It will be a stepping stone – a marker that I must pass on my way
to becoming a caring and concerned doctor. The compassion that I learn this
summer will be one that furthers and enriches lives; it will inspire.
Endnotes:
1. Image
from www.tinypineapple.com.
2. Image
from championcarnival.en.alibaba.com.
3. Image
from nacho.princeton.edu.
4. Ram Dass and Paul Gorman. How
Can I Help? (
5. Quote found on Professor Bump’s class website. 2 April 2007
<http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~bump/E603B07/P4A.html>.
6. Image from www.piperreport.com.
7. www.campjohnmarc.org.
8. www.girlscouts-kickapoocouncil.org.
9. Ram Dass and Paul Gorman. How Can I Help? (
Initial
Total Word Count: 1178 words
Initial
Word Count Without Quotes: 1138 words
Word Count
After 210 Words Cut: 968 words
Final Word
Count With Quotes and Captions: 1308 words
Final Word
Count Without Quotes and Captions: 1193 words
Discussion
Boards:
Medicine
and Compassion 1: 548 words
Medicine
and Compassion 2: 449 words
Poetry: 420
words
Bluest Eye:
666 words
Alice Skit:
400 words
TOTAL:
3,010 words