Congrats, Leyda!
We are pleased to announce this year’s winner of the G&G Foundation Scholarship is Leyda De La Cruz. Leyda’s accomplishments during high school, her community service, her vision for the future, and her belief in the value of teamwork were all aspects that make her deserving of the G&G Foundation Scholarship.
The Foundation focuses on the community through striving to achieve our core values of inspiring change, community enrichment, and empowering people.
Leyda is providing community enrichment through her volunteer work with the Miracle League and Tim Tebow Foundation, empowering people through the Model United Nations and inspiring change by being trilingual in English, Spanish, and Basic Chinese to be able to communicate with people of many different languages.
Leyda’s Essay
A core value that I put the most importance on is teamwork. Working together to achieve a common goal can be one of the most difficult and time-consuming things if not done considerately. For this reason, teamwork is something that needs one to put some effort into, it is something that people need to dedicate themselves to and be involved with. Teamwork can help achieve amazing things, from marching at a halftime show to even possibly saving a life.
One of the biggest ways that teamwork takes place in my life right now would be in my favorite extracurricular: band. During football season, we participate in the marching band where every single student has to learn their part and learn it well. Not only is it so that we all stay as one cohesive unit but so that we move in a way that will not hurt anyone as we all face the sideline. Not being able to turn your head and look around is nerve-wracking, and almost running with an instrument while blowing any extra air you have left into anything ranging from clarinet to my instrument, the trombone, is extraordinarily difficult.
We rely on each other to be aware of our surroundings, to anticipate the next move, to remember their place in their music, and to put in the same amount of effort into all of our rehearsals before and after school. We all multitask together and having the same level of excellence instilled in us by our director, we are able to be successful at every Friday night football game.
Learning to trust in my peers was difficult, to say the least. Sophomore year we all barely knew each other but we bonded over time and were closer than family. We work together for each other because we know that we are only as good as the weakest player. Actively encouraging one another to play out, to stay in step, to hold the instrument up higher, guided us to a more unified instrument section compared to other larger groups. Putting work into how we carried ourselves and approached others has paid off. It has become easier to speak out and join in with others in classes outside of band, it has made me more confident in myself and more receptive to other’s thoughts and opinions. Though compromise is important, it is also significant that one does their work and be confident in their answer.
I believe that I will continue to use teamwork in nursing, my chosen career. It may seem like going to a doctor’s appointment is just seeing a nurse and going over questions but it’s important to recognize all the people that make it possible. From receptionists who schedule the appointments, nursing staff who take temperature and blood pressure, technicians who take CAT scans, and doctors who diagnose and ask for blood tests, the cooperation between all of the individuals taking on a patient becomes vital as it may be a life or death situation.
People seeking guidance from a health professional may not put much thought into all the work behind the scenes, but each person plays a key role in relieving one’s worries. Being able to depend upon one another is a key factor in any work environment. I believe that it enables individuals to work as a group and save lives regardless of factors that may make one unique like race, gender, or age. Because of the major that I chose, teamwork will remain an important part of my daily life, and it’s something that I continue to value in any personal or professional relationships that I make.
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