Hello,
a bit about me:
My name is Avan Alleyne and I am from Chicago, IL. I am a sophomore majoring in accountancy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Freshman year I came to the University looking for ways to be involved and build my network and one way I did that was by joining the leadership certificate program. I decided to not only join to be involved on campus and network but to also figure out my strengths and how to be the best leader that I can be. I knew that companies were looking for those leadership qualities and I wanted to be the one to take full advantage of strengthening these qualities. Through this program I was able to build my leadership skills by being assigned a leadership coach, taking leadership courses, I-programs, 10+ hours of leadership programming, team experiences and more. At the beginning of the program I was assigned to a leadership coach that I met with regularly and that became a resource for me throughout this process. Besides meeting regularly with my leadership coach, I was required to take two leadership courses which is very valuable in the aspect of understanding the differences in leaders and how to adapt to different people. The I-programs are day long workshops implemented for students to interact with other students while working on their individual leadership development. The hours of leadership that I participated in was through being an orientation leader for incoming students at the University. Lastly, my team experiences pertained to the organizations that I am involved in such as serving as enterprise chair for National Association of Black Accountants, a coordinator for Volunteer Illini Projects, and Treasurer of Glam Squad. These requirements helped me to build more on my character and taught me valuable lessons on what it takes to be not just a leader be a great leader. This program also opened my outlook on leadership. Every program or organization that I participated in I worked towards applying my lessons, such as: being a keen listener, knowing when to delegate, and building meaningful relationships. Throughout my website I further elaborate on all of these experiences as well as describe how they have helped me gain more leadership skills. Also, be sure to look over my personal development plan. This plan is something that I wrote at the beginning of my program about things that I wanted to focus on to grow and I have updated it to show my progress once I reached my completion of the program.