Meet Nikki, Community Service Leader and Advocate From the Midwest

Some high school students create a combination of leadership roles in academic, athletic, arts and community service organizations. Each high school year provides a new opportunity to contribute to each club or organization and to grow as a leader and as a member of an organization. This describes Nikki Vlasic, a former Cranbrook Kingswood student from Michigan. Nikki and I met when I visited her high school throughout my years of admissions travel in Michigan for Johns Hopkins University. She was interested in a university where she could immerse herself in a rigorous curriculum and balance it with meaningful leadership, and she selected Johns Hopkins University, which is also a summer pre college program partner with the Joyce Ivy Foundation. Much of her leadership has been shared with community service organizations at Johns Hopkins and in the local neighborhoods of Baltimore as well as Metro Detroit.

I invited Nikki to share her thoughts about the importance of being involved on a college campus and the significant role community service has played in her development as a collegiate leader and in her next career steps. I think her thoughts and experiences are meaningful for young high school women. She provided her advice.

Out of the countless clubs and organizations at Johns Hopkins I immediately became involved in a few that are very significant to me, namely Art Brigade and Best Buddies. Art Brigade organizes and administers weekly art projects with inner-city elementary school children in Baltimore whose art programs were cut due to funding, and Best Buddies is a program that cultivates friendships with peers in the Baltimore area who have intellectual disabilities. Community service has provided such a positive opportunity for me because it is not only inherently rewarding but has also given me opportunities to express my personal values and share meaningful experiences with others. It is extremely gratifying to offer children an environment for creativity and self-expression through Art Brigade and I truly value the relationships that I have built with our buddies during monthly Best Buddies activities and field trips. The key to my leadership opportunities at Johns Hopkins was selecting clubs and organizations of personal importance. I naturally ascended into leadership positions because I was enthusiastic and dedicated to my areas of involvement. I learned that it is important to apply oneself to areas that are personally meaningful because leadership is not only a result of ambition but also of passion.

I have met many wonderful and interesting people through Art Brigade and Best Buddies and feel closer and more a part of the Johns Hopkins and Baltimore communities because of it. Additionally, my leadership and involvement in community service has helped shape my future direction and greatly influenced my choice of graduate school in the area of social work. I will attend Penn in Fall 2013!  My extracurricular experiences have not only provided a solid foundation for my future pursuits, but have also been the essence of my exciting and fulfilling college experience.

Young women from the Midwest bring a unique perspective and voice to college campus communities.   Their experiences and value systems add to effective and visible roles as campus leaders on college campuses across the country. These roles provide an excellent leadership development experience which transfers to future career and community leadership at the state and national level.