Dr. Ben Wilson

1.Dr. Wilson spoke about the effect working in Student Leadership at BYU had on helping him become a "grown up."  Please describe the ways that your involvement has helped you develop as a leader from when you started serving until now.

I spoke about this briefly in my last post but I always say that BYUSA has taught me to take initiative. We aren't necessarily always told what to do, how to accomplish a task or even that a task needs to be completed. I learned to trust myself and have the courage to act. It is such a fulfilling experience. I have also learned in turn to trust others with tasks. That is something I've always struggled with. I usually want to just do things myself so I can be sure they get done, but in BYUSA I have learned to delegate and the power in that. I have also learned so much in interacting with so many individuals and to have the courage to meet and talk to new faces even people in authority.

2. Dr. Wilson shared his experience serving an internship in Jerusalem.  This experience was not part of his program, but was approved because he was willing to do additional work to make it possible.  Please describe the ways you can be effective in advocating for change or making improvement in existing programs.

I feel like I have experienced this a lot this semester. I believe the biggest program I have felt that with was planning Captain America. It was completely new and we hadn't done anything like that for Honor Week before. It was such a rewarding experience to see the visions and ideas my committee and I had come to life. I have also experienced it in Honor Campaign. This program was completely new. Everything Shawn and I have done has been new ground and new experiences. It has been so great to see it be successful and I can wait to see it continue to grow in years to come.