Care's Role in Servant Leadership

“If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.” —Maya Angelou

One of the most important things I gathered from the STARS LEAD presentation given by Dr. Patrick Green this past Friday was the definition of ‘servant leadership.’ Servant leadership according to the findings of Larry Spears (presented by Dr. Green) is defined by ten characteristics:

1. Listening
2. Empathy
3. Healing
4. Awareness
5. Persuasion
6. Conceptualization
7. Foresight
8. Stewardship
9. Commitment to the Growth of People
10. Building Community

At least half of theses characteristics relate to Maya Angelou’s quote because caring for others is important in servant leadership. As a developing leader I hope to master all of these skills but mostly focusing on caring for others. I believe that social justice can only be accomplished if we look out for others and learn to care for them. If we do not care about other people, we are more likely to make decision based on our selfishness. When decisions are made based on personal interests social barriers are created. And these social isolations stunt the growth of social justice. 

Currently, I am a student at Loyola (Chicago) studying Forensic Science. I chose the path of Forensics as a career because of my interest in promoting social justice. While I was in 8th grade I participated in a program held at DePaul University where we were introduced to the basic procedures of Forensic Science. Then during my senior year of high school I took a Forensic Science class. In the class we watched a video on the Innocence Project which is an organization that helps exonerate wrongly convicted criminals though the use of DNA Fingerprinting. The video documented the lives of those who were exonerated. While watching the video I was able to see the difficulties the exonerees faced when returning to the community. They had troubles finding jobs, people viewed them as if they were criminals even though they weren’t, their families experienced the pain of their absence and many other things negatively affected their lives. I felt the pain of these people, and even writing about it now makes me emotional. No one should have ever experienced what those innocent people did. Their lives were ruined because of an unfair conviction, families were broken. This made me want to do something to help and since I had an interest in forensics it was a no brainer that I wanted to do DNA analysis. My hope is to provide a service though this medium to free not only those who are innocent but to also assist in the conviction those who are threats to society.

I know that I will not be the sole deciding factor in court rooms as to if a person will be convicted or not, but I want to be available to provide the service of DNA analysis as an option. To make the technique of DNA fingerprinting widespread and available to all people to promote justice within our courtrooms is my goal. The day I learned about the Innocence Project was the day I found it in my heart to care for someone else, to succeed in promoting social justice.

Here is a photograph I took a while ago that is perfect for this post:

Trees are our communities. The roots are social justice. Without strong stable roots we can not grow together or produce beautiful fruit.

Lauren L. Adams