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My name is Rahul Bhat. I am the Coordinator of Mentorship Programs and Mentorship Resource Content on St. George Campus
at the University of Toronto.
I was an undergraduate student here at the University of Toronto, and I
wasn't a very involved student in my first few years here.
I actually didn't like U of T very much.
And it wasn't until I really got involved in student clubs and student organizations
and student life in general
before I got a sense of belonging and then I really started developing
my own sense of what leadership meant,
which was connected to
what became kind of a social change in my role in leadership...
It was the idea that
I can work with other people to affect some sort of change at U of T
and help, just affect some positive change amongst
my fellow students as well as the community at large.
My idea of leadership, I think
is again, connected to
the concept of social change by a means of leadership.
Leadership isn't about position or positional titles
or a top-down approach like what
traditional leadership
was understood to be.
But instead, it's working with others to affect some sort of change.
I don't think I had that concept of leadership when I was first here at
U of T as a student. I thought it was all about positions and titles that you had.
But what I discovered is that it was about -
about making some sort of difference on campus, or in your community
And,
if you are introverted or quiet,
you could be as effective of a leader as the person who stands in front of the room.
Advice to students who are thinking about becoming leaders on campus or in their communities,
or embarking on their own leadership journey, is to not be scared off
by this very formal idea of what leadership or a leader could be
It's not necessarily the person who stands in front of the classroom
with the megaphone,
it can be the person who is more quiet or working behind the scenes
to affect some sort of change or to
help others in some sort of way.
You can be a leader
and also be shy and introverted.
The legacy that I would like to leave behind at U of T
is kind of my lived experience. I was definitely
a student that wasn't very involved, who didn't really find
a sense of belonging here at U of T
and it wasn't really until I became involved and found my sense of belonging
through student clubs and organizations and by meeting other people who felt like me
or had also found their community, that I really felt a sense of belonging here.