The best answer is find leadership role(s) in activities that individual already does. Yes, it is great to be a sports team captain, to be the newspaper/TV/yearbook editor/producers, student government, etc....those are all good! HOWEVER, my argument is don't do things as a "check in the box." As I stated, find leadership in activity that one regularly does. For example, if an individual is heavily involved in community service, then organize and setup multiple service projects -- organize it, plan it, manage workers/volunteers, etc. At one USNA Admissions Forum the same kind of question came up....as an example, one of the Regional Directors said they had one candidate who ran to become mayor of very small town (I think it was in the Midwest). The candidate couldn't legally become mayor because of their age (I am not sure how the person could run in the first place, but apparently they did). The Admissions Board was very impressed. The point the RD was trying to make was that you don't have to do the "traditional" ECAs. In fact, I think a candidate has a better chance of "standing out" if their leadership-based activities are unique and can "wow" the Admissions Board (and there are plenty of ways to do that) . That isn't to say that one should sacrifice other areas (i.e. sports) -- hence the whole person concept.
