Beginning graduate students who are working in higher education can benefit from establishing a professional development plan designed to enhance leadership capacity. The challenge is to align personal goals with those of the graduate program, yet ensure that collegial socialization and professional competency development occurs. Professional socialization refers to the acquisition of values, attitudes, skills, and competencies pertaining to a professional subculture. In this paper, I describe an activity I designed and the process I used that address equity, diversity, and inclusion as one professional competency area in my socialization process as a strategy to become a more effective leader.