A Way to Become an Inspirational Leader

By Nikesh Prajapati

Phi Theta Kappa, a widely recognized international honor society, provides many educational benefits. I believe being a member of this society is just a starting point of my ambition to become a ‘search engine specialist’. As a matter of fact, I am an introvert, and talking with strangers is not my thing. But, my goal is to become a professional, which is entirely different from who and what I am. It’s not possible to become a specialist if I remain the same way as I am. Becoming a search engine specialist takes a lot more than a mere effort. To achieve that, I need to challenge myself to become more competitive. This is possible only if I become a member of PTK because I think it helps me to get outside of my own small world, and teaches how to enjoy ‘the real’ outside world. When I went to the orientation class organized by PTK, I came to know about various leadership workshops and scholarship opportunities. That’s when I told myself, “Leadership training is what you need to become a professional regardless of the difficulty level.” I also came to know that participating in community services, and volunteering activities is a key part to become a good leader because you get to know about different people, and their lifestyles.

Currently, I am majoring in Computer Science in LaGuardia, and planning to take as many computer courses as I can. I also plan on transferring to a good 4- year college, and pursue my career. But, I know just attaining an academic knowledge is not enough to get accepted in top schools. Even in a good 4-year college, they search a ‘leading’ quality on student before selecting them, and qualifying for scholarships. Therefore, leadership qualities in students have become a necessity to be selected in top schools. While working on my aim of becoming a search engine specialist, I believe a new ambition of being an “inspirational leader” has started to emerge. PTK has become an important part on my ambition because it made me to look through my aim, and filled with hope that even I can achieve it by providing the opportunities to students like us. I have also seen many successful person and all my role models have one qualities in common and that is ‘leading’. They all started their career from technology field, but ended up being an entrepreneur. I don’t know what will I end up with, and I leave that to the future. But right now, being a recipient of scholarship, achieving the leadership skills, and doing different research about the software, programs plays an important part in my career. I know it is tough, and I choose to achieve it by getting involved in PTK. Therefore, I believe PTK is where I belong, and I am grateful that I got to know about it.