Drew Brees

By in Celebrity Leaders, Leadership, Sports Leaders

  Drew Brees once said, “There’s not anything, I don’t think, that I can do or accomplish.”[1]  Brees is the heart and soul of the ‘Who Dat’ nation that gives great New Orleans and Louisiana as a whole.  On August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina hit the East Coast; changing lives forever.  Drew Brees assumed a leadership role by taking the saints to the 2006 NFC South title, keeping the Saints franchise in New Orleans, creating the Brees Dream Foundation, participating in hands on hurricane relief, and moving into the city to experience the recovery process with his fans. By doing these things he demonstrated his ability to support the growth of others, to make alliances, his openness,and collective leadership. Brees was born on January 15, 1979, in Austin, Texas. Later, he went on to attend  Purdue Univsersity where he was a two-time Heisman finalist, steered the...

Lech Walesa

By in Leadership

By Ania Gnidziejko, Wagner College’16  “I belong to a nation which over the past  centuries has experienced many hardships and reverses. The world reacted with silence or with mere sympathy when Polish frontiers were crossed by invading armies and the sovereign state had to succumb to brutal force” – Lech Walesa Lech Walesa was born on September 29, 1943 in Popowo, Poland. During World War II, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union occupied Poland Walesa’s father, Boleslaw, died in 1946 so he was raised by his mother Feliksa. Feliksa had a great effect on Walesa, because she was a single mother. The priest of their church said the Feliksa was the wisest women in the entire parish. Walesa attended vocational school in Lipno, where he learned the electrician’s trade, worked as a car mechanic at a machine center from 1961 to 1965. His training as an electrician and...

Margaret Thatcher

By in Leadership, Political Leaders

  “Margaret Thatcher: A leader, a legislator, a lady” By: Stefanie Angeli, Wagner College’16”   “Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It’s not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it’s a day you’ve had everything to do and you’ve done it.”   This inspirational piece of wisdom comes from none other than “The Iron Lady”, Margaret Thatcher. Thatcher spoke these words but also lived by them. Elected to Parliament at a young age, Margaret Thatcher became the first female leader of a political party in Britain in February 1975 and became its first female British Prime Minister in May 1979 (Garnett, 2007). She transformed the role of female leadership while achieving many substantial and noteworthy goals. As a woman in politics, Thatcher was first underestimated and at times seen as inferior to men, yet she proved everyone...

Theodore Roosevelt- Mr.America

By in Leadership, Military Leaders, Political Leaders

Matthew Kraus  Wagner College’16 “I don’t think any President ever enjoyed himself more than I did. Moreover, I don’t think any ex-President ever enjoyed himself more.”… “Success – the real success – does not depend upon the position you hold, but upon how you carry yourself in that position. (May 26th 1910)   Theodore Roosevelt evolved from a very sickly child who upon graduating Harvard University, into a man who lived one of the most interesting lives a president has ever walked. From his time in the Spanish American War, forming the first volunteer cavalry unit, called the Rough Riders. To his last gasp to claim the presidency in 1912 forming his own political party, Bull Moose Party, to challenge his successor because he disagreed with the incumbent’s policies. Roosevelt was able to have this long successful political career due to...

Gloria Steinem

By in Political Leaders

By: Michaela Wiberg, Wagner College ’16 “Law and justice are not always the same. When they aren’t, destroying the law may be the first step toward changing it.” – Gloria Steinem In the 1970s Gloria Steinem was a household name. At the time she was a journalist and women’s rights activist but she would become one of the most influential voices in the battle for gender equality. Gloria Steinem was one of the first women to question the expectations placed on women by society and the inherent misogyny ingrained into the culture of the time. She saw injustices and refused to stand for them. She founded the first feminist magazine and fought for women’s rights. Her writing and work for equality are world renowned. Gloria Steinem was instrumental in the success of the women’s rights movement in the 1960s and 70s, particularly because of her outspoken protest of sexist laws and...