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Leadership Philosophy Statement

John Mejia
Department of Educational Leadership California State University, Fresno
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As a current professional in higher education, I am still adjusting to this new role and the

world inside a community college setting. It almost feels like it has become more challenging for

me to be the leader I am used to. But that may not necessarily be a bad thing. This change might

just be because it is now time to change my leadership style, and this assignment is the perfect

opportunity to do just that. My leadership philosophy statement combines multiple strengths,

beliefs, styles, values, and characteristics. I want to continue to build upon my current leadership

style and grow as a professional that values social justice, equity, inclusion, holistic wellness,

lifelong learning, and community.

The Higher Education, Administration and Leadership (HEAL) program has reinforced

and expanded the importance of social justice, equity, and inclusion for higher education

practitioners. I aim to be a leader that includes these values in my current and future work.

HEAL has taught me the history and injustices in higher education. As we have learned, the

United States' higher education system was not designed for everyone and was created to

exclude many populations of people. Over time, the U.S. has created change and removed

barriers to providing more access to everyone. However, it was not done inclusively and

equitably. There are many gaps and disparities in our system that I firmly believe all institutions

need to recognize and correct. As a leader, I will keep and expand my social justice lens to

promote an equitable and inclusive education for everyone (Arminio et al., 2012). My work

currently serves that purpose since I help the Latino/a student population at our school gain

opportunities in STEM that are often not obtainable when searching for them on their own.

Holistic wellness is a strong value that will continue to guide my work and how I help

others. I believe that emphasizing holistic wellness can lead to a greater standard of living for

both educational professionals and students. What this means is understanding the many areas of
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holistic wellness. This means creating a healthy life and work balance that allows me to help

students the best way I can. I understand that this profession is tiring, but at the same time, we

must not sacrifice so much to help students. Instead, we should demand the support we need

from our education system to meet the demands of both students and higher education

professionals. This means expanding resources for students who would benefit from the

additional support and providing the support staff and tools for educators to succeed in their

field. Otherwise, we risk more educators burning out from too much work, decreasing work

quality, and creating an unpleasant work experience. This does not mean that I am not committed

to my work. It just means that I want to respect my time and efforts while slowly pushing myself

in the work that I do for others.

Lifelong learning will continue to be a strong value of mine because the world around us

is consistently changing. Students deserve the best version of us, including being a leader who

can understand and adapt to the new changes happening in life and in education. Being a lifelong

learner also means that I am open to new ideas and consistently review different areas of growth

for myself. My current strengths lie in my ability to be a positive support person for others,

having a high level of knowledge, and being social justice and equity-minded. But

acknowledging that I need to work on my confidence to lead conversations, learn not to

overthink things, and become a more well-rounded individual will only make me a better

educator. One that cares about students and gets to know who they are, demonstrates a

commitment to difficult dialogue regarding underserved students, and strives to be empathetic

(McNair et al., 2016). Being a lifelong learner runs deep in me, and it allows me to become a

better version of myself that can find even more solutions for students who have problem needed

to be handled. I would also like to add that while I will work to help students, I am also coaching
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and empowering them to become their own advocates and to become lifelong learners who will

think critically for their own best interests.

Empowering students is essential because the efforts many of us have been achieved

through a collective effort. To be more precise, a justice-centered effort can build a strong

community. Being a justice-centered and community-oriented leader means that I understand the

injustices within certain environments, and I will be a good community member in correcting

these injustices that affect our community members. Building community with our students,

staff, faculty, admin, and the whole nation can significantly impact the way we treat and support

each other. This can be done in many ways, but I like to use education and open dialogue as two

methods towards building community. Learning how to become more effective listeners with

one another can allow us to grasp a greater understanding of where we all stand, the hardships

we face, and how we can come together to create solutions. Of course, it does take empathy and

the willingness to take action to build a stronger community. Nevertheless, once we start to build

more community, the more we try to push our efforts towards common goals that benefit us. This

will ultimately lead to many more positive changes. In higher education, building community

allows us to cultivate a thriving environment (Quaye et al., 2020).

Lastly, I am a leader of balance. What does this mean? It means that I must maintain a

healthy balance in all aspects of life and my work. I understand that balance is subjective based

on each individual. However, if I use data, research, feedback, scholarly studies, and practices, I

believe I can better understand where that balance truly lies. My current work and studies have

shown me that there is a huge imbalance when it comes to wages, workloads, educational

attainment, educational resources, and much more. Therefore, we must sometimes push past our

limits of what is considered balanced and do something huge so that we can potentially obtain
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the balance we want to see. I try to maintain this balance by practicing mindfulness, gratitude,

self-care, and reflection. These practices allow me to recollect myself whenever I feel off-

balance or overwhelmed by everything. Modeling these values will only help further leaders

learn and develop these practices into their own (Kouzes & Posner, 2018). This is why I always

emphasize practicing self-care, especially in education, or any job for that matter.

In conclusion, my leadership values hold many elements learned and expanded from my

experience, mentors, and educational program. These values guide my decision-making and

leadership style in higher education. After reflecting, I can now see that I can continue many

aspects of my previous leadership style, but now I can implement newer elements into my

practice. Perhaps this means I need to be bolder, or I need to step back some more to have other

people's voices heard. Many changes are happening all around us. But one thing is for sure is that

I was built to adapt to these changes and become an even better leader for my community.
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References
Armino, J., Torres, V., & Pope, R. L. (2012). Why aren’t we there yet? Taking responsibility for

creating an inclusive campus. Stylus.

Kouzes, J., & Posner, B. (2018). The student leadership challenge: Five practices for becoming an

exemplary leader (3rd ed.). Wiley.

McNair, T. B., Cooper, M. A., McDonald, N., & Major, T. (2016). Becoming a student-ready college: A

new culture of leadership for student success. Jossey-Bass.

Quaye, S. J., Harper, S. R., & Pendakur, S. L. (2020). Student engagement in Higher Education:

Theoretical perspectives and practical approaches for diverse populations. Routledge.