Embody Leadership Everyday: Student Success & Student Leadership Series 4

Jonathan Medina "As a leader you should BE, DO, and THINK. As a Leader you must EMBODY Leadership" 

I love the level of importance Tom Brady puts on Embodying being a leader. 

Tom Brady "When you're one of the leaders of the team, there are no days off."

He says you must BE every single day. As a student leader you must realize that you have great influence. Those that are looking up to you are watching you. Some want to be just like you. Sometimes that can feel like a lot of pressure but I know that when you are focused on embodying they will follow you more. They will trust you more. They will support you more. 

With Great Influence comes great responsibility. That is sort of stolen from one of the all time great movies. Spiderman.

Uncle Ben, "With great power comes Great Responsibility"

The number 35 is the greatest award anyone could receive at Georgetown. 35 was given to the leader that Embodied the principles our coaches wanted us all to possess. This award comes from a great player that passed away inside the twin towers on Sept 11, 2001. While just about every 35 was a great leader, I will always remember 1 game. I had a very difficult game because we were playing one of the best teams in the country. They even won National Championship. I watched as #35 on my team (Kyle) took hit after hit. I still remember the sound of the collision. He kept getting up at sacrificing for the team. He kept getting up and pushing hard. He kept getting up and EMBODYING what it meant to be a leader. We drove down the field. We are down 3 and very little time left. We are going up the field but #35 is getting physically beat up. But he just continued to embody leadership play after play. Even when his back up offered to come in he decided to continue to take the punishment for the team. Just like previous lesson. Attitude Check team comes First. We go down the field and score a touchdown and... We lost the game. I said we were down 3 but it was 3 touchdowns. Maybe more. But the point is that as a student leader you have to Embody the leadership position you have. You have to embody leadership even if you have not been elected or appointed because we all are leaders and we all have influence. 

Overtime (Take Action) 

1. What are the characteristics that you would want to embody as a student leader?

2. Who are some of the people that are seeing what you are doing? 

3. Who are some people that you remember looking up to that Embodied characteristics of Leadership?

Author: Jonathan Medina "America's #1 Youth Motivator" & Top Hispanic Speaker

• Former GEAR UP Student 
• NCAA Division 1 Football Player
• Author (Student Success Playbook, Student Leadership Playbook)
• Former Class President, Student Council Officer, National Honor Society, FFA, Captain of Football & Basketball Teams
• Over 1 Millions Students, Staff, & Parents Reached

Former GEAR UP Student & NCAA Division 1 Football Player Jonathan Medina Learned many lessons Overcoming many at-risk factors (Poverty, Homelessness, First Generation, Domestic Violence, Migrant, & Fatherless) to become a Division 1 Football player at prestigious Georgetown University and first in family to walk stage at graduation. 

Today Jonathan "America's #1 Youth Motivator" has shared lessons from his books (Educational Leadership, Student Success Playbook, & Student Leadership Playbook) to MOTIVATE over 1 MILLION students, staff, and parents across the US at places such as Harvard, Texas A&M, GEAR UP National Conferences, and over 1,000 schools nationwide from New York City to Los Angeles. Over 15,000 students have attended Leadership Camps Jonathan has lead Nationwide.