My leadership philosophy has guided me through my work in administration as the WAC coordinator of the Writing Center at Purdue, the president and professional development coordinator of the English as a Second Language Graduate Student Organization (ESL GO!), and the head of testing in the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at University of Sharjah.
My philosophy has been inspired by the following principles:
- I mentor, provide help, and share my experience with others, but I do not micromanage.
- I want to be consulted, but I encourage my team members to make their own decisions and bear responsibility for the consequences too.
- I delegate because I see great potential in team members’ different approaches to work.
- I encourage team members to be autonomous thus preparing them for leadership positions.
- I inspire my team members to regularly communicate with each other in efficient ways and to focus more on agenda implementation and task completion.
- I cope with different working styles through communication, negotiation, and collaboration.
WAC Coordinator of Purdue’s Writing Center
By collaboration with the Writing Center Director Dr. Harry Denny, the Associate Director Tammy Conrad-Salvo, and the writing tutors, I facilitated sustained communication and negotiation with faculty in the disciplines who reached out for support with WID workshops. In my position, I have worked on a new model that avoided the ‘training lectures’ so-called workshops with PowerPoint presentations (Bergmann, 2008). Instead, I implemented peer review workshops which engaged both students and faculty in a collaborative space where they could work together and become more autonomous writers and mentors. The informative and interactive dual nature of workshops involved faculty, students, and the Writing Center in negotiation, assessment and diagnosis of needs, and contextualization of writing in alignment with learning outcomes.
ESL GO! President
As the former president of my student organization, I worked with all organization members to support them in the execution of their agendas. I also raised funds by writing grants and working on alumni outreach in order to support students in the program to participate in conferences. I organized workshops and professional development events in addition to social events and team building activities for professionalization purposes and to foster a community support system. In addition to facilitating communication and resolving conflicts, I worked on promoting visibility for the organization and the SLS program by publishing a monthly newsletter and working with faculty and administration in both the English Department and the College of Liberal Arts at Purdue.
ESL GO! Professional Development Coordinator
I worked with the organization members to provide professional development opportunities by inviting featured speakers and organizing speaker series events and social dinners. The purpose of these events was to build relationships with faculty and researchers for learning purposes and potential collaboration. I have also organized workshops for graduate students in the Second Language Studies program at Purdue and held preconference warm-up training sessions where graduate students received feedback from faculty before they presented at national and international conferences.
Head of Testing
In my capacity as the head of testing in the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, I worked with a team of three faculty members, the head of the English Department, and the Vice Dean of the College. Our main tasks were:
- Communicating with faculty members and supervising midterm and final exam weeks
- Designing a proctoring schedule for midterm and final examinations
- Handling confidential distribution and collection of exam packets
- Supervising conduct in exam halls for both midterm and final examinations
- Preparing for exam logistics
- Reserving exam halls and rooms in addition to scheduling of exams
- Dealing with cheating reports and resolving conflicts between students and faculty
Hadi Banat 