Fred - Champions Journey in the Making

Fred joined the Champions 2025/26 pilot programme at an early but important stage in his leadership journey.

A sophomore at American University in Washington, DC, Fred was studying International Studies, with a particular interest in foreign policy, national security and the Middle East.

Originally from New Jersey, he describes himself as having been a “very bookish” child — drawn from a young age to history, ideas and the bigger questions shaping society.

For much of his life, Fred imagined becoming a teacher. He saw education, especially civic education, as a way to serve others: helping people understand the world around them, think more clearly and participate more fully in society.

That instinct did not disappear when his academic interests shifted toward international affairs. It simply found a new path.

Through CIMEA — the Collegiate Institute for Middle East Affairs — Fred became involved in student leadership, supporting chapter development and mentoring younger students.

Even before Champions, there was a strong sense that Fred wanted to help others grow. His motivation was not simply to build his résumé, but to become someone who could make a meaningful contribution.

Fred also brings a personal understanding of the value of opportunity.

He is a triplet, with two sisters also in higher education, and all three are first-generation college students. He speaks with appreciation about the way his parents encouraged education because they wanted their children to have possibilities they themselves had not fully been given.

That background helps explain why learning, mentoring and leadership matter so much to him.

When Fred joined Champions, he was honest about what he was looking for. He had grown as a leader during his freshman year, but wanted to strengthen both his confidence and his practical leadership skills.

He was beginning to move toward “upperclassman status” and asking bigger questions: Who do I want to become? How do I want to lead? What kind of impact can I have?

Fred did not arrive lacking ambition. Quite the opposite. He was already a thoughtful, capable and engaged young leader.

But he also carried an assumption many young leaders absorb: that leadership means being constantly “on” — always assertive, always pushing, always proving oneself.

In his own words, he had thought that if a student leader was not aggressive or forceful, they might be seen as weak.

Champions challenged that belief.

Fred began to discover that leadership is not one-size-fits-all.

He saw that different people bring different energies, strengths and styles; that delegation is not weakness; and that relaxing into leadership can make a team stronger, not weaker.

Good leadership was not about dominating a room, but understanding people well enough to help them contribute.

Fred particularly valued the group-based, interactive nature of the programme. He had expected something closer to a classroom lecture. Instead, he found himself building trust with other students, reflecting on team dynamics and thinking about how to take practical models back to his own team.

One of his immediate intentions was simple but significant: to ask better questions — “Why are you here? What are your interests?”

It marked a shift from leading by assumption to leading through understanding.

Fred’s growth also reached deeper than leadership technique.

The Four Stages of Humanity model gave him language for something personal and uncomfortable: the unconscious bias and unconscious ignorance he recognised in himself as he entered the field of international affairs.

Rather than treating that as a failure, he saw it as part of a process of unlearning.

That matters because Fred had already noticed a problem in his chosen field. In international affairs and Middle East policy, he observed that people can become overly focused on credentials, background and policy expertise while losing sight of the human beings they are ultimately meant to serve.

Knowledge and expertise matter. But policies affect people and decisions affect lives.

The early results are encouraging.

Fred describes the change in his leadership as “night-and-day.”

Perhaps more importantly, the impact has moved beyond formal leadership roles. He says he has become more relaxed, happier, better in class, a better friend and more grounded in his family relationships.

He has begun to see that leadership is not confined to organisations, titles or professional settings. People lead in friend groups, classrooms, families and everyday interactions.

Fred’s Champions journey is still beginning. He is not being presented as a finished story — and that is part of the strength of his example.

He represents the kind of young person Champions seeks to support: thoughtful, curious, ambitious, open to challenge and willing to grow.

Already, Fred has begun to move from pressure to confidence, from assertion to trust, and from a narrow view of leadership to a fuller understanding of the person he is becoming.

His own commitment captures the promise of the journey ahead: to keep an open mind, to keep growing with the cohort, and to remain open to opportunities he may not yet be able to imagine.

What Fred’s story means for us

Fred’s story is still being written — and that is why it matters.

Leadership does not begin when someone has all the answers. It begins much earlier: in curiosity, uncertainty, ambition and the desire to make a difference before we fully know how.

Fred’s experience also challenges the idea that strength means always pushing harder.

Sometimes growth means learning to relax, delegate and trust. A confident leader does not need to dominate every room. They create space for other people to contribute.

His willingness to recognise unconscious bias carries another lesson. Self-awareness is not weakness. Growth requires us to see what we did not previously see and sometimes to unlearn what we thought we knew.

Humility gives leadership strength and depth.

That matters in international affairs, politics and public life, where knowledge, credentials and expertise are important — but never the whole story. Behind policies are people. Behind decisions are lives.

Fred’s journey is just beginning. But his experience already suggests something important.

Becoming a better leader is not simply about acquiring more skills.

It is also about becoming the kind of person others can trust, work with and grow alongside.

And that is where real change begins.