Balancing Leadership With Relationships
Deanna Trail (’11), political science with a minor in Spanish and leadership studies
Brian Larson, director, President’s Leadership Program
Deanna Trail has come into her own at Christopher Newport University. Gearing up for freshman year, she was anxious about Setting Sail orientation. She quickly met Brian Larson, who served as her academic advisor and helped Deanna embrace the CNU experience, not just the semester ahead. “He told me it was baby steps that would get me far, so I shouldn’t overdo myself from the start,” says Deanna, who hails from nearby Chesapeake, Virginia.
During President’s Leadership Program (PLP) Adventure Week, she found herself intimidated by the large number of outgoing, confident students. “I pulled Brian aside and told him how nervous and self-conscious I was feeling, how I was worried I wouldn’t be a great leader like everyone else, but he assured me it would all be OK,” she recalls. “He looked at me and said, ‘I see big things in your future, I believe in you.’ That’s all it took — knowing someone believed in me from day one when I wasn’t so sure of myself.” “When she first came to CNU, Deanna was tentative and did not exude the confidence she does today,” Brian recalls. “All it took was a small bit of encouragement in the right direction, and she took off like a rocket.”
Brian challenged Deanna to move beyond her comfort zone. She worked with Class Council, joined InterVarsity, eventually became a resident assistant and gave 100 percent to her studies. He even encouraged her to pursue Greek life, something she hadn’t considered. Yet by sophomore year she joined Alpha Phi sorority. “I wanted to just be one of the sisters, but he told me if I was going to get something out of that experience, I needed to put my all into it.” A year later she was an interim vice president, and a few months after that became chapter president.
During Deanna’s junior year she was selected to be a freshman orientation student director, for which she collaborated with Brian to create PLP’s Summer Leadership Adventure Program. “The staff treated the student directors as if we were colleagues and equals, asking us to do tough work but assuring us we could handle it,” she notes. Such experiences increased Deanna’s passion to pursue higher education professionally, preferably within leadership development.
More than anything, the CNU experience has shown Deanna how much leadership requires giving of oneself. “While there have been many leadership positions she has assumed over the years, I think the biggest impact she has made has been through the relationships she has established while in those roles,” Brian says. “She has the ability to make others around her feel special. She is a natural encourager. She has the ability to ‘light up’ the room due to her contagious, positive outlook on life and possesses a smile that warms the heart.”
Beyond their affinity for CNU, Brian and Deanna share something else in common: Both are huge Minnesota Vikings fans. Over fall break 2010, Deanna’s family traveled to Minneapolis for the Vikings-Cowboys game. Brian was envious, to say the least, so Deanna and her sisters created a “Flat Brian” paper figure similar to the “Flat Stanley” character in children’s literature. They took pictures with the character everywhere they went, including the Mall of American Vikings store and spots around the Metrodome. “He’s now tagged in all of those pictures on Facebook, and we brought back a mini-football for Brian’s kids and a Vikings tie for him,” Deanna says. “It was such a fun adventure, and I was glad ‘Brian’ got to be a part of it.”
