My name is Dominique McLeod and I reside in Atlanta, Georgia. I am one of four children, the child of two loving parents, God-fearing, a genuine person, and most importantly striving to be the leader I am destined to be. Attending college has never been just an option; it was a must. That is why I am making every effort to make that come true. “Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” This quote by American Scholar Warren Bennis, plainly states the goal of a true leader. A true leader has a goal, a vision as Bennis put it. The task set before that leader is to make the vision come true (a reality) by any means necessary. There are certain qualities needed to make sure the vision is successfully turned into a reality. Hard work, dedication, and perseverance are the three main qualities among many that act as a catalyst to the leader’s vision. When these qualities are put into action, the impossible becomes the possible and as Warren Bennis put it, the vision becomes a reality. One obstacle, that in my life I classified as the impossible, was attending the first charter school of Gwinnett County, The Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science, & Technology.
Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science, and Technology (GSMST) is a charter school that was established in 2007. It focuses on the higher end of the academic spectrum in providing exceptional students with challenging curriculum and extensive leadership responsibilities in order to prepare the students for their next step in education. The students that attend are pulled out of their home high schools to complete their high school studies. Essentially, the students at GSMST were thrown together in a melting pot that literally forced the students to blend and accept each other’s lifestyles. We have students from all over the word that attend GSMST with different lifestyles, attitudes, and