Eta Sigma Gamma

Fall 2022 - Spring 2024

 

I joined Eta Sigma Gamma in August of 2022 and was officially initiated into the group a few months later. Eta Sigma Gamma is the national health education honorary, and I joined to connect and network with other students in my field of study. I quickly learned that Eta Sigma Gamma was about so much more than networking. The group was all about service and leadership within the discipline of health education. We both planned our own community events and participated in existing ones. This allowed me to observe many types of leaders in a variety of situations and reflect on the type of leader I would like to be. I was also able to observe leadership through many situations. 

 

Eta Sigma Gamma has an executive board composed of four Health Science students: a president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer. The four individuals holding these roles were very competent leaders. Our president was a great listener and was constantly asking for ideas and feedback. She embodied one aspect of leadership that I personally am trying to develop, and that is leading and working with the group instead of for them. The secretary and treasurer were very organized, they always had grant proposals turned in on time and communications to the group were clear, concise, and sent out in a timely matter. The vice president was very creative and always had great ideas for places where the group could volunteer their time. However, the vice president was never able to attend a meeting in-person, and that caused a disconnect between her and the group. Leading is much more effective when you can get to know the group better, and that isn’t easy to do virtually.

 

We worked as a team planning various events throughout the year. This required a lot of communication and organization. When we were planning our own events, we typically ended up breaking into informal committees to complete various required tasks for planning and executing our event. I discovered through this that I have a lot of difficulty being a part of a team that I do not hold a leadership role in. When we were planning some of our community events, I had ideas that weren't fulfilled because I wasn't in a leadership position, and that was frustrating for me. I enjoy leading because leading gives me the most opportunity to pull the project in the direction I want to go. As a leader, I am very good at uniting a group towards a common goal and supporting those who I am leading. But I need to work on listening to others and realizing that there is more than one way to complete a project correctly. In the future, I plan to work on being a better teammate and yield leadership to those who may lead better than I could, instead of assuming that I always know best.

 

From Eta Sigma Gamma, I learned that leadership is never one size fits all. As a leader, you need to be aware of the group you are leading and adjust your strategies to fit them best. When our executive board was running a meeting, they could discuss advanced terms and topics because the group they were leading was all health education students. When they were out in the community, they changed their language so those who were not health education professionals could understand. It was interesting to see how their leadership style evolved depending on the group. 

 

I was also able to observe leadership in difficult situations. On a couple of occasions, group members were not participating or cooperating with the planned activities. The leaders of the group were not accusatory or upset. Instead, they were respectful and understanding. They took time to listen to the group and understand why we did not want to participate in the activity. They also used those conversations and situations to better plan activities for the future. 

 

In my future leadership positions, I will take with me the observations I made from being an Eta Sigma Gamma member. I will remember to always listen to the group and to recognize that what I want may not be what the group wants. A good leader will take the time to get to know their group’s needs and skill levels. I also want to remember how well Eta Sigma Gamma’s leadership responded to conflict in the group and how they took it as a learning experience and used it to better the group in the future. I look forward to applying these skills to my own leadership positions.