The Features of a Leader in Angeline Jolie's Persona

What makes a great leader? If you ask one hundred people that question you will get one hundred different answers. A great leader can have many different traits that make them a good leader. For most, a great leader is someone who is committed and completes the goal set in place. One person who I believe is a great leader is Angelina Jolie because she follows those characteristics. With her commitment to stand up and provide support to refugees all over the world, and her courage to raise awareness for Women's health and Angelina Jolie is able to build relationships by motivating and providing compassion to people across the globe.

Angelina shows commitment to her work which makes her a great leader. Jolie shows her commitment by helping refugees all over the world. Her devotion to helping refugees began while Jolie was shooting for Tomb Raider in Cambodia and she realized the need for humanitarian acts throughout the world.To begin, on a two-day trip to Colombia and her 65th trip with UNHCR, Jolie traveled to the border of Venezuela to help refugees seeking asylum in Colombia.“This is a life and death situation for millions of Venezuelans”(Jolie, 2019) As she visited the Integrated Assistance Center which hosts Venesualen people coming into Colombia. With over four million venezuelans living in exile, Jolie used her influence to urge for more humanity and leadership in helping the millions of venezuelans seeking asylum. Jolie met with the Colombian president to advocate for the estimated 20,000 children not being allowed to cross with their families.

Aswell, Angelina proved her commitment to helping refugees when in 2005, she launched the National Centre for Refugee and Immigrant Children, which is an organization that provides free legal aid to children seeking asylum. She launched this organization to help unprotected kids. As she explained, “The point of all this is, when children cross into this country alone and they're scared, we must hear them out before we make the choice to either allow them asylum in our country or send them away,” (Jolie, 2005). Her dedication and commitment to bettering the lives of refugees without help proves how she is a great leader because she takes the time to create ways for them to gain guidance. Before her program thousands of children looking for asylum, were forced to represent themselves in court by themselves. They were in a new scary place where they did not know the language, with Angelina's help, they were able to get the legal guidance they needed.As a leader, she never commits to anything she does not believe in and she continues to accept and finish new challenges. We see her commitment when she traveled to the borders of Venezuela to greet and assist refugees, also, when she launches the National Centre for Refugee and Immigrant Children. Her commitment to completing tasks allows her to build relationships with the people she works with as they trust that she will keep her word. The dedication she shows through commitment to her work makes her a great leader.

Along with her commitment to her work with refugees, Angelina Jolie again proves to be a great leader with her courage to speak up about women's health. In 2013 the activist and actress announced that she carried the BRCA1 gene which had put her at an 87% risk of getting breast cancer, and a 50% risk of getting ovarian cancer. This petrified her as she had just lost her mother to the disease. Angelina then took the controversial step of having a double mastectomy. She said “I do not feel any less of a woman, I feel empowered that I made a strong choice that in no way diminishes my femininity.” (Jolie, 2013). This step leads to more awareness surrounding breast and ovarian cancer as well as how over 458,000 women die of it every year in low income situations because they cannot afford to get tested.

Furthur more her courage helped her to reach out to the U.S. Supreme Court, about a case that challenged a Utah company’s patent of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes which made costs for breast cancer screenings almost impossible for low income women to afford. Wendy watson the woman who founded the UK’s National Hereditary Breast Cancer Helpline greatly appreciated Angelina's decision to speak out about the issue saying, “It raises the profile for other women to look to if they have a family history and would benefit from being screened more frequently, or having surgery or having a genetic test,” (Watson 2013). Angelina's courage to speak out about her personal relationship with cancer allowed her to build relationships with women all over the world who looked up to her and helped more women realise they needed to be tested. With her major influence she helped remove the stigma surrounding breast cancer and removal. It also encouraged the supreme court to help women get checked affordably. Her courage to get the double mastectomy and speak up for women in poverty and encourage them to get checked helped her to build relationships and is why she is a great leader.

To conclude, Angelina Jolie proves time and time again that she is a great leader because she has courage and is committed to her work. She shows her commitment thought they help of refugees, like when she visited the border of Venezuela to provide relief and when she launched the NAtional Center for Refugee and Immigrant Children. Her courage was presented when she spoke publicly about her double mastectomy, removing some stigma surrounding that topic and when she encouraged change in the supreme court helping women get more affordable cancer screenings. With these points it is proven that Angelina Jolie shows characteristics and builds the relationships of a great leader.