The leader Within

Chapter 10: Miway Student Ambassador

The MiWay Student Ambassador Program is a creative and educational program that provides an opportunity for Mississauga's high school students to educate their school community about the benefits of public transit. MiWay Ambassadors are volunteers and must be registered at either a Peel District School Board or Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board high school in Mississauga. These Ambassadors are representatives that act as bridge between MiWay and their schools. Once selected by MiWay staff (with input from school administration), the Ambassadors receive a toolkit of transit information and promotional items, along with assistance and training from the MiWay Marketing staff to ensure each Ambassador successfully completes the program.

As a MiWay Student Ambassador I had to work with MiWay staff to educate my school community during school hours about the benefits of public transit and promote the use of MiWay in a fun and creative way. I had to make flyers, presentations and creative artwork to promote the use of MiWay. A Final Program Report was to be submitted by each Ambassador/Ambassador team at the end of the program. These submissions would then get evaluated by MiWay Marketing staff based on the following criteria: creativity, relevance, uniqueness and the overall quality.

While completing this program, I learned new ways to approach my followers and communicate with them. I realized that to get my point across to people or to get them to do what I want, I don't necessarily need to set directions only. I can also convey my point by making them see different sides of something. For example, in this case I used flyers and artwork to encourage my school mates to use public transit instead of just stating that they should use public transit. Also, I had to work with a lot of different people from other schools to make flyers and presentations for the student body. This required everyone to work together with each other as a team. Since a lot of different people with different schools were working together, we clashed on few things a lot. At that time, I would solve the conflict as soon as it arose before it got any bigger. This avoided much bigger conflicts between ambassadors and allowed us to save time and continue with our work smoothly. This taught me that a good team leader keeps a thorough look on their team members and if they are having any problem. The leader then immediately diffuses the conflict by talking it out or providing an effective solution. During a conflict, the leader needs to make sure that they are not taking sides, favoring anyone or making anyone feel out of the team, instead they should do what is beneficial for the team in the long run. For example, another ambassador from my school who was also my friend clashed with a student from another school because they could not agree on the formatting of our flyers. I had to tell my friend that she was wrong and politely explain to her why we should choose the other option. This avoided any further problems between ambassadors and prevented the from being hostile towards each other which kept the environment comfortable too. This experience taught me that a good team leader always needs to make sure that they are handling the root of the problem within their team immediately, so everything goes smoothly in the long run and their members work well together which would eventually help them attain their goal easily.