The Kravis Leadership Institute recently sponsored me to attend a 4-day leadership conference at the University of Texas-Austin. The conference was put on by the Center for Ethical Leadership by the Lyndon. B. Johnson School of Public Affairs.

I left Claremont early Thursday morning (like before the sun came up early) and started my adventure to Texas. This was the first time that I had ever been to Texas and having been born and raised in southern California and then chosen to stay for college, I was excited about experiencing the great state of Texas! I arrived, made my way to the hotel and then hopped on the bus that would take us to our first day at the conference.

There were about 140 of us attending from all over the United States, Mexico and Canada. We were divided into smaller teams of about 15-20, and my team named ourselves the "donkey sparrows." (at the time there was a good reason for that name, but I am not sure why now...) We had dinner and team bonding activities and then we had our first speaker Thursday night; Mary Robinson, the first female president of Ireland. Hearing her talk about the challenges she faced and the tough choices she had to make was fascinating.

Friday morning we got up early to start our first full day at the conference. We had two speakers Friday morning. Dr. Howard T. Prince, the man whose inspiration is what made the conference possible and Dr. Raj Sisodia. Both spoke about ethical leadership, the conference theme, and Dr. Raj focused on ethical leadership in the business world, more specifically, "conscious capitalism."

I have a stubborn amount of CMC pride. As a high school senior I visited three out of the 5-C's, but in the end, even after my mom had turned in the application fee to Pomona, I refused to apply to anywhere but CMC. Something about the combination of CMC's very practical approach to learning and our community of ‘work hard play hard' students just has always struck a note with me. Even three years after making the decision to attend CMC, I can't see myself being this happy with campus life or satisfied with my education at any other school. Yet ironically, if it weren't for the existence of Pomona, Scripps, Harvey Mudd, and Pitzer right next door, I probably wouldn't have even considered CMC, and still today I believe the consortium to be one of the greatest strengths and unique advantages of the school.

With that said, I'd like to give you an example of the kinds of opportunities there are to get engaged with the greater 5-C community. Pomona hosts an awesome 5-C club called On the Loose (OTL) - an outdoors club that helps students organize camping, climbing, surfing, skiing, and any other outdoor adventure trip you can think of, all the while providing subsidies for these trips and giving students access to a wide variety of free gear to temporarily check out. Every year OTL coordinates with Skeeze, the 5-C skiing/snowboarding club, to organize a trip to Mammoth Mountain over Cesar Chavez weekend. The trip includes subsidized lift tickets for two days and two nights of room and board at a beautiful cabin in Mammoth. On this year's trip, there were about 30 students representing the Pomona, Harvey Mudd, Scripps, and CMC campuses. I didn't know the majority of the non-CMCers, but what better way to bond and get to know people than over two long days on the slopes, riding up countless lifts together and commiserating over the occasional wipeout?

I'm extremely loyal to the Tahoe resorts I grew up skiing, but I have to admit that Mammoth blew me away with the combination of thick, fresh powder and the shear number of wide open bowls on the top of the mountain. Through the course of the weekend I discovered that Pomona has quite a few very avid skiers, so it was an added bonus to ski with a group that knew the mountain so well.
After each tiring, but exhilarating, day on the slopes, we drove ten minutes down from the main lodge to our beautiful cabin in the Convict Lake Resort. I'm not sure how the trip leaders managed to get such a good deal on this place, but with the cabin's cushy beds, big screen TV, and hot tub out back, I definitely felt like my $30 for two nights of room and board were well spent. Plus, I couldn't think of a better way to hang out and unwind with my new ski buddies than over a spaghetti dinner, taking turns relaxing in the hot tub, and watching as our back porch was invaded by a number of mischievous raccoons. All in all it was one of the best ski weekends I've had in a long time; not only was the skiing at Mammoth amazing, but I had a blast meeting so many fun new people, and once again reminding myself that as much as I love the CMC bubble, every once in a while it's refreshing to break outside of it and take advantage of all the incredible opportunities the consortium has to offer.

What's up future frosh?! First off, I'm looking forward to meeting all of you next year and please feel free to email me ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) with any questions about life here at CMC. I'm sure you already know by now that CMC is where it's at! It's the only place I've ever lived with a National Academic Decathlon champion, debated economics over dinner, and partied the night away with hundreds of half-naked coeds in a quad full of foam. I'm sure between Kyle (see below) and I, we will be able to answer whatever questions you might have.

I, like many of you, was that kid in high school that never accepted the mentality that "you can only have two of the three: a strong academic preparation, a cornucopia of extracurricular activities, or a satisfying social life." Can you say overachieving perfectionist? When people told me, "you can't have it all," I did my best to prove them wrong: I graduated cum laude, led the student branch of our admission's department, played four years of varsity tennis (twice state-championships), chaired Model U.N., captained a squad of our state-winning Knowledge Bowl team, was the first ever freshman in my high school to be invited into "Advanced Art," and was in Sports Car magazine. How did I do it? Well, I trained myself to sleep around three hours a night and was notorious for sleeping less then five hours total during finals week. I traded sleep for extra time and created my own reality.

After an absolutely amazing first month at "Camp Claremont," my reality was shattered. Medical complications arose from an injury I sustained one summer in a freak accident at sailing camp where I had shattered my orbital socket. A couple of titanium plates, a few surgeries, and eight years later, I found myself in feeling the effects of an old ordeal. I was miserable. As the migraines worsened and the fatigue set in, my focus waned and my three hour nights were replaced with much longer ones. One day my roommate taped a sign above my bed which read, "New record for consecutive hours slept - 18!" I think you get my point - I was screwed!

However, I believe there is a silver lining to everything. While I might have had a rough first semester, it was only then, when I was down-and-out, that I realized I couldn't keep living the grind lifestyle - toiling away for an untold amount of time, striving for perfection. Not only was it unpleasant when I was healthy, but it was crippling when I was ill. I resolved to leave the grind lifestyle behind and figure out a better way to get the grades without the back-to-back all-nighters and crazy perfectionist lifestyle. This is where Cal Newport comes in.

On the first day of freshman orientation, I sat with my brother and dad while I listened to President Gann’s address to the class. Eventually, Dean Huang stepped to the podium.

“We have great leaders in the Class of 2011,” he began. My brother nudged me. Not being particularly good at any sports in high school, I had thrown myself into extracurriculars and held a few leadership positions by graduation time.

“There are club presidents,” My brother nudged me.

“Class presidents,” Again, a nudge.

“School presidents.” Another nudge.

“One third of your class held a president, captain, editor-in-chief or other leadership position in high school.” …No more nudging from my brother.

CMCers are dynamic. It should come as no surprise that so many members of my class were actively involved in everything from debate to lacrosse to student government, but the thought of being with so many other big fish--no longer being in a small pond--kind of frightened me.

I found out really soon, though, that it is still possible to find your niche at CMC, not despite of, but because of, the many other amazing and qualified CMCers. It’s a supportive community of students. Since that day of orientation, I’ve been involved with ASCMC and was elected Junior Class President last spring.

As 2011 president, I have the opportunity to bring the class together. Sometimes campus life gets crazy with everyone’s classes, practices, meetings, and conferences. It's easy to fall into a routine with a group of friends and get lost in the cycle of day-to-day work. I try to make unique events that deviate from the norm in order to connect the class. Like last month, we went to a filming of the Price is Right, and the other weekend there was a class brunch. Last semester, as many CMCers were abroad, we mailed them letters overseas so juniors could have a taste of CMC wherever they were, all the while remembering what they were coming back to. Being class president also allows me the chance to create new CMC gear. As a fundraiser, I sold customized CMC wayfarer sunglasses--and all 600 pairs sold out within 10 minutes!

CMC is known for producing outstanding future leaders in government (Washington) and finance (New York), but lately they have tried to increase their reach in Silicon Valley. Two weeks ago, a group of 20 students spent a week in Silicon Valley, touring companies, meeting alumni, asking pointed questions and learning about what it's like to work in the technology industry. We met CMC alumni from Microsoft, Google, Electronic Arts, Lockheed Martin, Meebo (chat software), Applied Materials (solar panel manufacturing), Atlassian (corporate software), Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (private equity), and EMC (data storage and other products). At night we met more alumni, some of whom have started their own companies, at dinners. Nearly everyone discussed the importance of doing what you love, and the importance of making friends and being someone that other people like being around. Those aren't skills that every school sets out to teach, but you're more than likely to learn a lot about at CMC, because it's so small and because the quality of life at CMC is so good.

The trip was outstanding, and if you'd like to hear more about it you can read my blog (http://kburke.org/kburke/itab), but the important lesson here is that this sort of opportunity is not available at a bigger school, even a prestigious one, or a school without such an organized alumni network. We got to see what it's like to work in Silicon Valley, and talk to lots of young (and old) alumni about how they picked their careers, what sort of work they do on a daily basis and a little bit about business strategy. CMC alumni loved their experience and try hard to give back to current students, and we definitely benefit. An experience like this is unique to have at an undergraduate college. It is only one of many ways that CMC works to reach out to their students to provide them with unrivaled experiences that will help them to succeed.

--Kevin Burke is a junior economics major from Alamo, CA. This semester he is working for Seva Mandir, a nonprofit in Udaipur, India. He writes for the CMC Forum (a href etc) and on his own blog.

Best,
Kevin