Introduction and Methods

Intro:
Some people are labeled as leaders from a very young age. This often based on how the kid acts, and the fact that others look up to them. But what makes other kids look up to these so called leaders. Is it because they are the best athletes or the smartest kids? Andrew Potter of Envision, one of the nations top college and career readiness organizations, says their are 5 qualities that make up great student leaders. "The best student leaders are Authentic, Open minded, Know how to delegate tasks, learn from mistakes, and seek knowledge." These qualities sound great on paper, but is this how we really choose a leader? This study aims to identify how we as students choose our leaders and to identify any patterns in the qualities of the students chosen.

Methods:
I chose to create a survey for freshman students from a variety of different groups at the University of Iowa to complete a survey about how they view leadership in their groups and how they identify leaders. 18 students completed the survey. Of the 18 students 10 were males and 8 were females. All of the students were involved in different activities such as athletics, fraternities/sororities, various religious groups on campus, and academic groups. I selected three students at random and interviewed them more depth on their responses. The questions were a variety of short answer and multiple choice with several questions asking for more depth on previous answers.