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.

KB’s Story

In her first year of high school, Kristin Marie Bowman’s basketball coach renamed her KB. “In college, hearing ‘Kristin’ seemed odd and foreign. It didn’t fit,” she says. So she became, to all concerned, KB, “just two letters, no periods.” She adds, “Frankly, if I could get away with it, I’d be only KB, like Cher is ‘Cher.’”

Born in Aiken in 1986, KB lived in just two houses her entire childhood. As graduation from Midland Valley High School loomed, “I had pretty strict criteria for college. I wanted to get lost in college. I wanted to be alone in the crowd,” but KB didn’t want a large public school like the University of South Carolina. In high school, she played basketball, volleyball, and softball, continuing with the last two through her junior and senior year, participating in all-state and all-region teams. She also belonged to the Beta Club, an honors organization; the Latin Club and other social clubs and organizations. Columbia College offered KB an athletic scholarship in volleyball, and that plus other financial aid made the women’s college “just seem right,” (except the campus wasn’t in the mountains). KB, whose father is a machine operator and whose mother worked at home, says, “Financial aid was pretty much a big deal. I told my parents, ‘I want to do everything I can; you don’t have to pay,’ and I’ve kept my promise.”

She thought she wanted to study biology; she had envisioned a career as a doctor, flying medical missions into remote places. She changed her major to religion, then to English, then to contractual studies, in which a student builds her own major. KB ultimately combined women’s studies and leadership studies into a major, with minors in art (photography) and religion. “What would have excited me would be to have graduated with four or five minors. I had a hard time thinking, ‘I’ve got to spend the next four years on one thing.’ I’d rather dabble and be a jack of all trades, an activist and intellectual with other work on the side.” When KB managed to combine her interests, she produced projects and papers that led to ten presentations, with travel to California, Florida, Georgia, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Texas.

KB credits her advisor with getting her off to a fitting start. “I think she saw I was out of the box, that I wouldn’t make it if things didn’t start off a certain way. She didn’t confine me to gen ed (general education courses, which are the core curriculum). She helped me get into religion and photography. Taking classes all over campus helped me find out what I wanted.” Over time, women’s studies became KB’s passion. “Women’s studies helps me make sense of the world and figure out how to live my own life, which is self-serving in some sense but also helps me give back. It allows me to work in the grey areas of reality because the majority of life it happens is grey.” On campus, KB became a student engagement mentor or STEM; she became a STEM team leader and developed a STEM training course. She joined Alpha Lambda Delta, an honor society for freshmen; Omicron Delta Kappa, a national leadership honor society; Spectrum, a support group for gay and lesbian students; and C’ster, which is composed of students who assist the Office of Admissions with recruitment of prospective students and assistance to first-year students.

In her junior year, KB was introduced to the 4C’s, leadership development that emphasizes courage, commitment, confidence, and competence. “When I got to college, I was looking for my own activism and personal outlets and trying to find myself, who I was, what I was, what I stood for. Columbia College had been the only institution I looked at that said, ‘Everyone can be a leader; we will make you a leader.’” She enjoyed the theoretical side of leadership studies, but says the personal and intellectual growth were realized when theory backed up one-on-one experiences. KB offers a conversation during which she noted that she handled stress and crises differently. She realized, “I feel a well of strength and resilience, even when I say, ‘I can’t do this.’ There’s something that keeps pushing me. My experiences say, ‘Okay, you can do this, so that’s the confidence part.’” And for her, the assurance of competence arises when “I’m given time to think about my experiences and go deeper and explore the process of the experience.” The listener responded, “You’ve hit the competence stage,” and KB adds with satisfaction, “She hit the nail on the head.”