Over the next couple of months, City Year Boston senior corps members will be contributing their own insights to the City Year Boston blog. This week’s theme is “Learning to Lead.” Senior corps members share their experiences on what it takes to be a leader, from how far they have come, to where they want their journeys to take them. Jack Korpob shares of how his last team’s leadership helped him grow to become a Team Leader at the English High School.
By Jack Korpob, Team Leader, serving at the English High School.
My experience as a Corps Member last year has definitely prepared me to be a Team Leader serving at the English High School in Jamaica Plain this upcoming year. Through countless trainings, workshops, and learning through my everyday service at the Jeremiah E. Burke High School last year, I have gained leadership experience that is invaluable and will help me lead a team of corps members this next academic year.
Navigating through my first City Year was a challenge, but I had incredible mentors and true leaders to follow. When I came into City Year last year, I knew that I would be doing full-time service, but a big part of City Year is the leadership development portion. My Program Manager, Julia Leb, and my two Team Leaders, Kayla Faust and Renaldo Mili, challenged me to step up and be a leader amongst a team of leaders. They constantly encouraged me to do more for my team and to always strive to make our team stronger.
My Program Manager always checked in with me and coached me constantly. She had high expectations for me, which led me to have high expectations for myself in service.
Julia Leb and I after City Year Boston's Graduation (photo credit: Jack Korpob)
My Team Leaders really pushed me last year to not fall into a comfortable place and to always stay in my challenge zone. Therefore, I was encouraged to seek leadership opportunities both on the team and through the larger Boston site.
I found myself as a part of the City Year Boston Corps Council as my team’s representative, on the Recruitment Department’s Ambassador Team (or A-Team) where I helped run open house events, and a part of different speaking opportunities that helped represent and speak about the service we do in schools and in our communities. Now, I find myself as a senior corps member as a Team Leader and I was recently asked to be one of two City Year Boston Dean’s Council Members, which means I will help represent the site across the network this upcoming year.
I credit my leadership experiences last year to my leadership team because they helped me navigate my City Year experience and helped me find my niche. They always built me up and prepared me for success in all the work that I did.
Renaldo Mili and Kayla Faust stop to take a picture before graduation as Senior Corps Members from City Year Boston (photo credit: Jack Korpob)
It’s not a surprise to me at all that both my Team Leaders are now Program Managers (Kayla is continuing at Boston and Renaldo has moved over to New York) alongside my former Program Manager Julia, who helped lead such a successful team last year. Even better, my former Team Leader, Kayla, is now my Program Manager of the English High School Team.
I believe that leadership is best attained and learned through the experience and leadership of others. I thank Julia, Kayla, and Renaldo for allowing me to learn so much from them.
