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. April 27, 2022 

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION 

This prompt poses several questions; I shall attempt to answer them in a coherent, logical, and structured 

manner – with a constant, overarching focus on the explicitly mentioned concept of reflective leadership. I 

shall begin with how I would interpret my purpose and role here at Notre Dame, followed by my personal 

wishes and goals that surround the reflective leadership I hope to embody in my professional career.  

 

MY PURPOSE AT NOTRE DAME 

This University is, first and foremost, a university; by virtue of this fact, any discussion of my purpose at Notre 

Dame must necessarily begin with a reflection on learning. My primary purpose here is to learn – for instance, 

our very first week of class addressed the topic of Studium. And I do certainly possess such a zeal for learning 

and enlarging the mind, painful as it may be. I rarely question the idea that I should learn, instead asking 

myself what I ought to learn. What learnings shall be the most important? Where should I focus my time?  

I believe an answer to this issue may appear in the form of a classic aphorism frequently employed by this 

very University, which delineates a clear distinction between the education of the heart and an education of 

the mind. Regarding the latter of these educational types: I cannot freely make a strong argument against the 

learning of facts and other pieces of important information. One may certainly imagine a scenario in which a 

deep knowledge of the calculations involved in capital budgeting may be quite relevant – or perhaps an 

instance when I might have to attempt a second-derivative calculation. And yet, I am not at all satisfied by this 

form of learning, simply memorising mathematical formulae and key functions of business. I am sure that the 

‘four P’s of Marketing’ shall certainly be of some help come what may, but this information (as is the case for 

everything I have previously mentioned) may easily be accessed in any of the thousands of textbooks that have 

been published on every imaginable academic subject.  

If I may therefore find in an examination of a textbook all the information covered in my classes, why have I 

decided to commit myself (and huge sums of money, I hasten to add) to four years of strenuous study that 

might otherwise be replaced by a library card? During our fourth week of the course, we discussed mentorship 

– how can a mentor claim success when they only ever recite facts from a book? I seek a mentoring 

environment akin to that which was described by Sharon Parks, not an environment of recitation.
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One may argue that professors provide additional expertise and knowledge not found in any textbook – 

however, anyone willing to make such claims has certainly not even begun to understand the true depth of 

academic literature, regardless of how mundane or obscure the subject. If there exists a 500-page textbook 

 
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 Sharon Parks, Big Questions, Worthy Dreams: Mentoring Young Adults in Their Search for Meaning, Purpose, and Faith.   

Enlightenment and Reflective Leadership 

How an ‘Education of the Mind’ can lead to reflective and positive leadership.  



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discussing the history of the pencil,
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 then I would submit to you that any knowledge conveyed by any professor 

in any class must concurrently exist within a textbook.  

I would therefore rather assert that I have come to this university with the hope of primarily educating my 

heart – learning in abstractly meaningful ways and engaging in a process of discovery predicated upon genuine 

experience. I hope to learn that which cannot simply be conveyed by small black lettering on a white page; I 

hope, Paul Blaschko asserts, to learn to subject my “beliefs to critical and rigorous modes of thinking,” or to 

learn how to ask profound questions, like those posed on “the nature of love, justice, and virtue.”
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 I want to 

be taught how to live – to not be instructed on what to think, but how I should go about thinking. When I 

encounter true challenges later in life (the most important challenges: those of an existential or deeply personal 

nature) I hope to have learned these practices, as we discussed in our sixth week of class, which shall help me 

to grow beyond. I would therefore hope to call my Notre Dame education more than simply educational, but 

enlightening.  

In no small part, I hope to derive significant lessons from my experiences – and I may cite my work in the 

Student Government as an example. I intend to dedicate myself to the service of others, and I have already 

begun this task here, at Notre Dame – hoping, in part, to solve the several issues enumerated by William 

Deresiewicz, who I have already greatly referenced in my several reflections. I remember reading his 

composition and nodding in agreement; many of the problems he describes seem so real and pervasive on 

our campus – his assertation that college students of a high calibre (like those at Notre Dame) are often faced 

by feelings of “emptiness and aimlessness and isolation,”
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 for instance. I hope to improve the quality of life 

for my fellow students and help stave away these negative emotions.  

 

MY FULLER VISION OF LIFE & REFLECTIVE LEADERSHIP FOR SOCIAL CHANGE 

In essence, I hope to improve the world; I wish I might look at myself at the end of my career and satisfyingly 

claim that I, too, managed to take several wild leaps until I managed to reach the abyss of freedom – not just 

freedom for me, but for the rest of mankind – described during our final week on transcendence by Annie 

Dillard.
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 I hope to surpass myself and find true transcendence in the assistance of others, allowing people to 

find personal freedom, meaning, and contentment in their lives. Put simply (and using Reifenberg’s language) 

I want to accompany others. As he says, “we are all in this together.”
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2

 Henry Petroski, The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance 
3

 Paul Blaschko, The Good Life Method: Interview with Meghan Sullivan and Paul Blaschko  
4

 William Deresiewicz, Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite  and the Way to a Meaningful Life  
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 Annie Dillard, Stalking, from Pilgrim at Tinker Creek 
6

 Steve Reifenberg, Teaching Accompaniment: A Learning Journey Together