Feeling empowered to organize a mock trial team at Mount Holyoke
“I don’t know if I would have had the chance or felt supported or empowered enough to do this had I not been here. 我非常感激.”
A commitment to making change.
That’s what drew Klara Grygo to Mount Holyoke College. The College’s mission of creating leaders 和 inspiring them to change the world was what she wanted in her educational experience, 和 she found the perfect place to stoke that fire.
从一开始, Grygo immersed herself in organizations that allowed for growth in a leadership capacity 和 a place to sharpen her skills 和 knowledge in career-focused spaces. 她被吸引到了 模拟联合国 early in her time at Mount Holyoke, an organization with a leadership structure that she was able to navigate, eventually becoming president during her senior year. Upon being elevated into a leadership role, she found the community within 模拟联合国 to be supportive of new ideas 和 open to quickly ab和oning the practice of top-down leadership in favor of collaboration.
The experiences she gained through the 模拟联合国 acted as a springboard, Grygo说, 扩大, 更广泛地说, 她的领导才能.
模拟审判小组 is another organization dear to Grygo’s heart — 和 something she has been involved in since high school. Grygo’s passion for public policy 和 the laws that shape it is evident. 这 led her to want to participate in a mock trial program while she was in college. The only problem was that Mount Holyoke didn’t have one.
But that didn’t stop Grygo from joining the team at Amherst College, an agreement between the two schools at the time. Grygo stayed with the group at Amherst for two years before she made good on putting a two-year plan into action: starting a team at Mount Holyoke.
The drive to Amherst prevented many Mount Holyoke students from participating in the organization. 这, coupled with the fact Mount Holyoke students couldn’t serve as leaders at Amherst, motivated Grygo to begin exploring how it could work in South Hadley.
Using the burgeoning leadership experience she developed during her rise through 模拟联合国, Grygo recruited a small group of students with varying experiences to be a part of the inaugural version of the mock trial organization. It grew into two teams by the middle of its second year of existence 和 claimed several awards in a regional collegiate competition.
The team was built on hard work 和 a passion for making a change, 和 Grygo credits Mount Holyoke for giving students the space to develop 和 act on their dreams.
“I don’t know if I would have had the chance or felt supported or empowered enough to do this had I not been here,格雷戈说. “我非常感激.”
Grygo is equally grateful for her MHC D学期.C. 经历 Weissman Center for 领导. 教授 安迪Reiter 和 亚当•希尔顿 provided much-needed support in developing networking connections during the semester in the nation’s capital. A well-connected alum network in the city also helped Grygo feel settled in a city she will likely grow more accustomed to as her career takes off.
As Grygo looks toward a future that includes law school 和 other politically minded pursuits, she will always be thankful for how Mount Holyoke modeled 和 defined leadership for her.
“Being a leader is about collaboration 和 innovation — implementing your own ideas of change 和 striving to better the spaces you are in but also engaging 和 boosting the ideas of others 和 taking action to work with them 和 achieve a collective vision for something better.”
