July 2014 Leadership Reflection

Developing Leadership Skills Through Hobbies

I like to encourage the students in the ACES James Scholar Honors Program to have hobbies and interests beyond the classroom and laboratory. Why? Not only because outside interests help us to expand our horizons, nurture our minds, and introduce us to new people – but also because hobbies can empowers us to learn to exercise our leadership skills in the company of family members and friends who share our interests in the “real world” that lies just beyond the “Ivory Tower” in the Grove of Academe.

My first (and still favorite) hobby is astronomy. As far back as I can remember, I’ve been enamored with the night sky, and I started to have an early interest in observing the Moon during my preschool days. With binoculars, I was able to explore the night sky in greater detail, and I learned to watch for the visible planets and spot the brightest stars as they trekked across the sky from one season to the next. Starting in third grade, I began to read “grown-up” books about astronomy and spaceflight, and during my middle school years, I took astronomy classes at the St. Louis Science Center on Saturday mornings. I was also an enthusiastic charter member of the astronomy club at my high school. Sharing my hobby with others through taking classes and attending “star parties” with the astronomy club introduced me to a wider circle of friends and whetted my appetite for more knowledge and insights about humankind’s place in the cosmos, thus broadening the perspective from which I exercised leadership in other clubs and activities, both at school and beyond.

My first hobby is still with me today. Even though I never became a professional astronomer or a NASA astronaut, my interest in the Universe has never waned. I enjoy leading field trips to the Staerkel Planetarium at Parkland College for members of the ACES James Scholar Media Team and reading articles on all the latest discoveries about our amazing cosmos. Astronomy has indeed expanded my horizons, provided fertile ground for nourishing my imagination, and introduced me to myths and legends from around the world about the stars and planets, thus providing a doorway for me to discover the similarities and appreciate the differences among worldwide cultures.

What is your hobby? Do you have outside interests beyond the four walls of your home and/or office? If not, I encourage you to seek out a hobby that will help you connect with new people, edutain your brain, and broaden your perspective on the human condition – all of which will enable you to enhance the leadership skills that you can use in the everyday world.

Photo of Yours Truly and ACES James Scholar alumna Kathleen Li (Co-President Emerita of the James Scholar Media Team): We are standing in front of Billy Morrow Jackson’s famous mural at the Staerkel Planetarium, showing the great scientists who paved the way for our exploration of the cosmos. (Photo Credit: Kendall Annetti, ACES James Scholar alumna & JSMT Co-President Emerita.)

In conclusion, I’d like to share one of my favorite poems about the sky – a classic verse that I first encountered during my childhood days, which I rediscovered a few years ago. It reminds me of another leadership-related reward that hobbies can give us: They can help us to keep alive that childlike sense of wonder at the world around us, ensuring that we remain young at heart and eager to embrace new ideas and new people for as long as we live. :)

“Escape at Bedtime”

By Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)

Excerpted from A Child’s Garden of Verses (1885)

The lights from the parlor and kitchen shone out

Through the blinds and the windows and bars;

And high overhead and all moving about,

There were thousands of millions of stars.

There ne’er were such thousands of leaves on a tree,

Nor of people in church or the Park,

As the crowds of the stars that looked down upon me,

And that glittered and winked in the dark.

The Dog, and the Plow, and the Hunter, and all,

And the star of the sailor, and Mars,

These shone in the sky, and the pail by the wall

Would be half full of water and stars.

They saw me at last, and they chased me with cries,

And they soon had me packed into bed;

But the glory kept shining and bright in my eyes,

And the stars going round in my head.