Leadership Roles!

Colleges like to see leadership roles because they demonstrate a student's leadership capability. It's not a check-box on a rubric, it's a reflection of who a student is around their peers. While leadership roles in clubs/activities are never required by colleges, colleges like Columbia and Brown are looking for students with leadership qualities and students who will take initiative. If you don't have leadership roles you will need to find other ways to demonstrate your leadership qualities and your ability to not only take advantage of opportunities but create your own ones.

Leadership roles are never "required" by any college. Don't feel obliged to get a leadership position just to pad your resume. Applications aren't about what you think colleges want to see, they're about being yourself (admissions officers will likely know when you're being genuine and when you're not). Colleges know all people don't have the opportunity to become leaders. If that happened, "leadership" would be pointless as there would be no followers.

If reading the above paragraph didn't make you drop the idea of leadership, you're on the right track of becoming a leader. There must be leadership opportunities at your high school that you can apply for. Leadership can be in student government or in any cocurricular/extracurricular club at your school.

If you've exhausted all possible options, you can actually start a club/organization yourself. Leadership is about having a vision and taking the initiative to collaborate with others to achieve your goal. It can be something as simple as you, along with a group of friends, putting efforts to do something like raising awareness about clean fuels for making a positive impact on your local community. This is just an example; you can identify what challenges you feel need to be addressed.

Hope this helps! My apologies if the first paragraph seemed "too direct".