Every Columbia College student’s journey toward leadership is unique and builds on their personal experiences and dreams. Read about how the 4Cs of leadership are interpreted by a diverse group of young women, a new generation of leaders who are already making a positive difference.

Danielle’s Story

It all goes back to the Girl Scouts.
Danielle Renee Gillard, born in 1986 to a mother in the military, moved around in her younger years: from Flensburg, Germany; to Savannah, Ga.; to Colorado Springs, Co.; to Brooklyn, N.Y.; then to Goose Creek, S.C. When she was in fifth grade in Brooklyn, her younger brother died from complications after having his tonsils removed. When Gillard reached eighth grade in Goose Creek, she stopped moving, staying in South Carolina with her second stepfather.

Gillard didn’t play sports – she’s asthmatic – but in high school she participated in the math honors society; the Beta Club, which is an honors society; and continued with Girl Scouts, finishing 11 years in all. Among her Scout connections was the new public information officer for the city of Goose Creek. At the end of her junior year, Gillard talked her Goose Creek High School advisors into allowing her to shadow her Scout mentor. She chose an interesting time: a November 2003 drug raid of a rival school, Stratford High School, made international news when police entered the school, guns drawn, in a drug raid. The American Civil Liberties Union, representing 20 of the students, won $1.6 million for violation of the students’ Fourth Amendment right to be free from unlawful search and seizure. Gillard was interested in a public relations career, but that experience worried her. “I hated the way the media handled it. It was definitely blown way out of proportion.” Anyway, Girl Scouts had another adventure in store. Gillard also maintained a friendship with the Girl Scouts’ CEO for the Charleston area, a Columbia College alumnae. “When I visited, I fell in love with the campus. I found out about the leadership effort before I knew it was a woman’s college. I thought, ‘Go for it. Girl Scouts worked for me, and so will this.’”

Her freshman year, “I had always been quiet in high school. I had a circle of 15 friends. Socially, I completely changed. I realized nobody knew anyone; everybody was scared. So I knocked on doors. I became well known as the girl who does the rounds. That was my role my freshman year. I was a whole new creation.”

Gillard’s investment in meeting her classmates led to the dean of student affairs’ recommendation she join the Student Government Association as an at-large member. “That was a step of courage that somebody else made for me,” she observes. She remembers a meeting at which elected officers didn’t show up; “It was just me, and upperclassmen had to listen to what I had to say.”

A few fights with her mother – after all, she was becoming a different person – led Gillard to “a month or two when we didn’t speak. That was a reality check: I’m changing.”  She didn’t slow down. Instead, she deliberately looked for adventures that would ordinarily intimidate her.

Gillard joined the Columbia College Equestrian Club. She became a Student Engagement Mentor (STEM) team leader. She joined the Columbia College Communication Club. She joined Spectrum, a support group for gay and lesbian students. “I joined all the religious organizations. I worked on the newspaper for awhile. I was with Sister to Sista,” which focuses on women’s issues. “Anything that had to do with academics, I was interested in. If I was intimidated, I joined it. If it scared me, I joined it. Anything with social activism, I joined it.”

Gillard’s major is communication, her minors leadership and religion, so she joined in the exploration of Columbia College’s “4 C’s,”  leadership development that emphasizes courage, commitment, confidence, and competence. While inventing a fifth C is a common campus joke, Gillard says, “I haven’t changed the 4 C’s; the 4 C’s have changed me.” She keeps a journal and has discovered her own cycle through the 4C challenges.

“The first year took courage. I would try something new and get good at it, and then I would become complacent and need to change something. I now think of the 4 C’s as a lifestyle. Leadership is a lifestyle, not something that you do in a vacuum.” Gillard adds, “I guess it’s a philosophy, too. When I look back at my journals I see a spiral. Something changes; I change. And I can see it in other people, too.”

Between her sophomore and junior year, Gillard joined her mother in Washington, D.C. at the Army Corps of Engineers, where Gillard assisted in a general’s office, helping to develop a protocol guide. Between her junior and senior year, Gillard worked on a senior paper, a rhetorical criticism of a Spike Lee film, “Bamboozled.” After her May 2008 graduation, she will continue her education, working toward a master’s in communication at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. She hopes to use her communication skills in training and development for nonprofits.

“Leadership is a lifestyle,” says Gillard. “And it’s definitely relational. I think a big part for me is not using people to fill objectives; I look at that as management: ‘You’re good, and I’ll put you where you can do good.’ Leadership is more empowerment, helping people to explore themselves and develop themselves. Leadership should meet a goal or objective. You should always have a goal in mind when you’re creating change, but it’s got to transform the people working with you.”