This artifact, titled Connecting Personal Narrative to Theory: A Critical Examination and Reconstruction of Path-Goal Theory and Authentic Leadership, was submitted for ELPS 419: Leadership in Higher Education.  In this assignment, I interviewed a current professional in the field of Higher Education and discussed the various leadership theories discussed in the class.  For this paper, I interviewed Alan Acosta, who served as my supervisor during my ACUHO-I internship at Florida State University during the summer of 2014.  Using our hour-long conversation about Alan’s leadership style, I was able to apply his view of leadership to the course content and reconstruct some of the theories that I had a difficult time understanding in class.  Specifically, this paper focused on the path-goal and authentic leadership theories, using Alan’s conversation and experiences as a lens to view the various understandings of leadership.

            This artifact shows my emerging understanding of reflective leadership and how to apply theoretical understandings to practice.  During our conversation and in the construction for the paper, I reflected a lot about my positive and negative experiences with leadership.  Alan explained that our leadership lives at the intersection of these experience and we should seek to grow to develop a leadership style that is most authentic to ourselves.  This theme of ‘living on the intersections’ emerged throughout my time at Loyola and caused a lot of reflection on my own leadership style.  Consistent among many theories of leadership was the importance of knowing your own skills and talents that can inform your leadership style.  Alan and this paper reinforced that idea for me and inspired me to take a deeper, more critical look at the skills that I bring to the table and the areas where I would like to continue my development.  This artifact demonstrates my ability to engage in continued reflective leadership that examines theory and my own personal experiences, identities, and biases.