The Importance of Outreach in Leadership

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Kevin Saludares giving a WISE presentation to high school students

I am always looking for find ways that I can give back to the community. Last year, when I heard about the opportunity to join the high school outreach (HSO) ambassador program at Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) at U of T, I didn’t hesitate to join. As a developing leader, this is when I started to realize that outreach is important to leadership.

I chose to join WISE as a male engineering student because diversity and commitment are two of my core values – something I discovered by participating in ILead programs. So I made the commitment to use my knowledge and experience to encourage high school students, especially women, to pursue science, technology, engineering, and mathematics related fields. By joining WISE, I want to commit to a movement that promotes diversity in the greater community through outreach.

My work with WISE gave me the opportunity to work with other ambassadors to showcase what science and engineering are all about. In addition, it gave me the opportunity to further develop my communication skills through engaging with high school students. So far, I’ve visited three high schools with fellow ambassadors and talked to over 200 students. We would talk about real-life examples of the different disciplines of science and engineering to the students. At the end of each presentation, we would then spend time doing an activity where students are split into small groups to build bridges out of newspaper. This is where we give them the opportunity to apply some thinking and teamwork skills to design and build a solution to a simple engineering problem. At the end of the presentation, students and teachers often tell us that they enjoyed the presentation while learning something new. I would feel a sense of achievement because inspiring a class of high school students to think about science and engineering can often be challenging.

In conclusion, outreach is an important aspect to leadership because it empowers others to take action. With outreach, an organization can promote diversity and commitment in order to inspire others to contribute to a cause. Being an HSO ambassador with WISE helped me appreciate the importance of women in science and engineering to society while allowing me to live my passion of being involved with high school outreach. It has been an amazing ride so far. I would encourage every one of you to become involved in something you are passionate about, and committing 110% of your effort to encourage others through outreach to follow your footsteps to make an impact for society.

-Kevin Saludares