Last week, I was tasked with writing my personal leadership statement for my North Carolina Fellows Program capstone class. The program allows college students to define and enhance their leadership styles throughout their time at UNC-Chapel Hill. The only rules for this assignment were that the statement had to take the format of NPR’s “This I Believe” series, started in 2009, and that it had to be recorded in our own voice. Here’s what I had to say: For those of you who’d prefer to read it, there’s a transcribed version below. I was born to a mother who taught me that empathy is the key to life. She taught my brother and I…

I’ve been fortunate enough to meet interesting people in the most serendipitous of ways. This is the story about how I got some powerful advice from one of them. When I was studying abroad in London, I spent half my week taking classes at UNC’s Winston House and half my week working in Reading for Bullitt Group Ltd. The commute to and from Reading took me about an hour each way, and my rides home would often involve looking out at the sunset through the train window. I’d often get to Paddington Station for the last leg of my journey and find crowds of people all trying catch the 5.30pm train home. On one particular Thursday afternoon, the…