Finding the Leader in Myself - My First Two Years with NSHSS

I remember the day that I was accepted to NSHSS in August of 2018. I was sitting in the Ronald Regan Airport in Virginia, almost asleep in my chair after a week’s worth of national security conferences, and all I could think about was how I was leaving something so great, never again to see the people that had become my close friends and colleagues.

It was then that I got the acceptance email from NSHSS. I am not sure if I read the whole thing, I just saw the words welcome and accepted and rang my mom as fast as I could. And now when I think about it, I have to think that it might have been the beckon to my call of being a part of something greater.

Today I am proud to be a student leader in NSHSS in multiple different ways from being an Ambassador to an executive board member of the Student Council. It seems that with every new leadership role I take on inside of NSHSS the more I am inspired to achieve and become. I started as an Ambassador doing social media takeovers, where quite a few of you may recognize me from, and keep in contact with many NSHSS members from those days. Being able to connect with these members and create a place for questions and interconnectedness made me want to do even more.

Then in December of 2019, I traveled to another week-long conference, this time in Stockholm, Sweden. It was here, at Nobel Week, where I saw my natural leadership flourish, and I think Mr. Lewis did as well. Again, on my way home, devastated thinking that I might never get to see the people that I came to think of as family, is when I received another email from NSHSS. This email asked me to step up as a leader of NSHSS and become a part of the Student Council Executive Board along with many other talented members. Before I knew it, I was in the first Executive Board meeting running full speed ahead towards a multidimensional betterment of NSHSS. It is here that I not only began to work with students from the Nobel Week trip but with many other accomplished members from all sectors of NSHSS and the world.

And I think that’s the best part of NSHSS. It’s not a one-time event. It doesn’t end with high school or college-- it’s a lifetime membership. To this day I have not only kept in contact with those I met along the way of my NSHSS experience but even traveled to Switzerland to see them. As for the future, my ‘family’ from the Stockholm trip is planning a ‘family reunion’ within the next couple of years. Then, when the time comes that we graduate college, if any of us can ever stop our educational ambitions, I believe we will all gladly take on the role of becoming a Fellow; it is within all of us to “Be Honored and Be More” as the past, current, and future scholars of the world.