Thoughts from Over the Hump

God, grant me the serenity

To accept the things I cannot change,

Courage to change the things I can,

and wisdom to know the difference


This simple proverb coupled with tonight’s BMF Meeting on the power and pervasiveness of the N-Word really got me pondering on what BMF’s role is in the grand scheme of things. A common theme throughout this young year has been exactly that: do we students have a moral obligation to go out in the world and “change it for the better”? The answer may be simple to some. But to others, it can be a bit more complex.

For one, how exactly should we go about being the agents of change we so often call ourselves? Is that manifested only in voter registration drives, mentoring programs and social justice campaigns? And how much of that energy should be channeled into our studies so that we can have a larger impact when we graduate?

While the answer is surely different for each individual (and hopefully I can hear a few in this blog), my experiences and relationships in the BMF brotherhood have taught me that ultimately we must strike a balance between aspiration and realism. We must come to grips with the fact that we won’t solve world hunger at every meeting’s conclusion. At the same time we most certainly can’t be complacent with the status quo.

Tonight's discussion provided very practical boundaries for the types of goals I believe we can achieve as an organization. We probably won’t be able to ban the word from our streets and airwaves, but we can set an example for what is and what is not acceptable in our communities.

Spencer Hardwick '11

Finding your niche

Becoming a senior in some ways brings many unforeseen emotions. Yes, we may complain about Harvard as soul-wrenching, unbearably cold, or unfriendly, but in truth, the good outweighs all that. This institution brings some of the best minds together to just talk and fellowship with one another. That we can casually discuss lectures in a dining hall or bury ourselves in our extracurricular passions both with like-minded peers is invaluable and in all reality a phenomenon confined for most to our four years in residence. This summer I had a similar discussion on a New York train with a really good friend asking what it’s like to be a senior. I replied with an overly emotional answer about how after graduation might not see each other again as people move to different states, countries, blah blah, blah… That all may be true, but since then I’ve realized there’s still a lot we can and should do. There’s still ways to positively impact this campus and this community (however one chooses to define theirs) and it doesn’t end with graduation. So, for me, the emotions that come to mind aren’t so much centered around reminiscing about my past three years, but rather being enthused about this last year, doing what I love and realizing the blessing of finding those passions.

The active pursuit of my role on this campus didn’t start until my sophomore year when I joined the David Walker Scholars Program. For those that may not know, DWS is an afterschool mentoring program started five years ago by members of the BMF to empower young men in under-resourced African-American communities by helping them realize their agency in achieving productive goals for academic and personal success. While one of those goals might be connecting them to a community that supports their personal and academic success, I was surprised that I found the same thing. Sophomore year, I tried about ten different activities. The other two that really stuck were the Kuumba Singers of Harvard College and SoulFood. Kuumba is a place to celebrate the creativity of Black culture and spirituality. For me that was important to find here—a place where who we are as a people takes center stage and we not only discuss collective missteps (which as critical Harvard students it is easy to do, just check our email lists), but also celebrate our triumphs as a people. SoulFood has been more than just a bible study. It’s about bringing restoration to us as complex individuals. Having someone to hold me accountable by knowing when to challenge me and when to support me has kept me sane and let me grow.

So, looking into senior year, I realize I’ll miss all the things that have made Harvard so wonderful for me, but find contentment in all that is happening in these groups. DWS beginning a new site, with a new eager and highly competent board that brings fresh new ideas and purpose to the organization to better carry it forward. Kuumba is celebrating our Fortieth anniversary and while learning about the history Black-/African-American students at this college is empowering, ministering through song, dance, and prose is indescribable. SoulFood is stepping into its own as a fellowship and building a network of people that can support each other in the application of scripture rather than just its reading. I also find contentment in knowing that none of the things we do here should end here. For me it will always be important to “prove myself a man by helping to make those who are weak as strong as I through serving my community to the best of my ability” as we say in our pledge. It will always be critical to remember to build each other up with the richness of our heritage in any way I can—song or otherwise. And finally, I’ll always be grounded in my faith and remember to surround myself with people that support that decision rather than undermine it.

Best advice I’ve ever received: “Intentionality. In all that we do, we must make sure that our actions match our words and our principles.”

7,
Justin Robinson ‘10

Equities Summer Analyst: A Day in the Life

As most of you all know, I am a big advocate of Investment Banking, however in order to come to this conclusion, I had to dabble in other parts of finance. My sophomore year, I summered in Sales & Trading and loved it as it provided me with perspective. My first three weeks of the job, I spent time on an Equities Sales Trading desk. I have written the following personal description of my first three weeks on the job to give you guys interested in finance an idea of how my experience in Equities went. Enjoy. Se7en.

"I wake up and wipe the morning crust out of my eyes only to realize that it is 4:30am and does not look at all like my ideal morning. There is a glaring, repetitive noise that wont seem to go away and the sky is the same color it was when I put my head down to sleep. Once I come to my senses and realize that this is not a terrible dream, but a reality, I wonder to myself why I chose to experience this unbearable feeling every day during my summer. After I snap out my trance, I realize how privileged I am to be working at one of the top investment banking institutions in the world and things begin to normalize. I then notice that I have a little under 45 minutes to catch the 5:15 train to place me at work by 5:45. I hastily get myself together leave the house in a dead sprint and catch the train in the nick of time.

The 30 minute train ride is often characterized by casual listening to my iPod and nodding off every now and then. Once I arrive at my destination downtown. I remember to make sure that I am the first in the office at 6am. Getting there before the first year analyst proves to be a very difficult task as they are fairly new on the job and have to prove themselves as well. I walk onto a dead trading floor that would soon turn into a lively scene with people yelling back and forth at each other, phones slamming, and all that other good stuff. The traders and salespeople usually walk onto the floor at around 7:15 am. I make sure that they all have the international market digest and 'The Gartman Letter' on their desks before they come in. Information is essential in the world of Equities.

The rest of the morning consists of me getting any and all relevant information to the traders in a form that they can easily digest. This means my skills of summarizing quickly and effectively are put to the test. Once the markets open at 9:30 am, I might as well go home for an hour because the traders are so focused handling all the names they are trading and talking to clients that my help is no longer necessary. In fact, at this point I am more of a nuisance than anything else and am best off just observing. Regardless of how confused I get or how many questions I have, I do not speak to any of the traders in this opening hour.

However, I do have to write down questions that I may have because after the first power hour, traders may have some down time. In this down time, it is my turn to shine and show off my intelligence. I have to strike a balance between asking the traders intellectual questions that keep their attention and displaying a great personality that is easy and fun to work with. Striking this balance is more of an art than a science and I get better as the day goes along.

Lunch time is not the traditional half hour break where one can leave the building to get away from everything. Instead, it consists of running from place to place picking up orders for guys on the desk. If you`re lucky, they may tell you to get something for yourself, if not then you run to the cafeteria, grab something and bring it back to the desk and scarf it down before anybody presents you with another task.

The rest of the day ebbs and flows with some really busy periods and some down periods for the traders. During the busy periods, I am working on multiple trade ideas and creating a model in excel that can predict option prices. During the down periods, I am trying to get to know the traders better on a personal level to figure out if I think that the desk is a good character fit for me. Once 4:30 hits, the traders begin to trickle out of the building. I stay around until my first year analyst leaves around 5:45. The day is not over here, next I have numerous power networking sessions where I have the chance to get in front of some of the most senior people in the firm. So yeah, right when my body starts thinking unwind, I have to turn the intensity all the way up. The networking sessions usually end around 9pm. I go back to the desk, pick up all my materials, tie things up, and head home. I reach home by 10pm and do a little reading before I go to sleep at 11pm. The next thing I know, the glaring, repetitive noise starts again."

Ndu Okereke, '10

Building America's Future

"Brothers,
This past summer I stayed here on campus working as a mentor in the Crimson Summer Academy. This program essentially gives the brightest low-income high school students of the Boston/Cambridge area a chance to do something great with their lives that they would otherwise be unable to do because of their background and the many obstacles associated with it.

The CSA is packed with many benefits for these students that essentially put them on the same track to greatness that a student from "better" neighborhoods and/or schools would be on. The students come here on campus for a total of 8 weeks for academic enrichment, taking classes taught by instructors brought in especially for them and guided through their thick workload by us mentors (Harvard students). They're afforded SAT prep classes and assistance with college planning, visits, and applications. They even get a stipend because they would normally be working over the summer to support their families. Despite the fact that I've only listed a few of their perks, the best part about the program is that it costs the students nothing once they're accepted into it.

Personally, I was excited when I heard about this program and learned much about it last summer while I was here taking Orgo. Once I finally got the job and arrived on campus, I went to work and began meeting the Scholars. I soon realized that they were truly happy to be here on this campus and they all appreciated the fact that Harvard students took their time to be with them over the summer. I also learned that many of these Scholars lead truly hard lives, some of them living far below the poverty line, some being the sole father figure for younger siblings, while others are the solitary money-earners for their household. Being around the Scholars was a truly humbling experience because you realize that, for the most part, as you may feel that you've led a tough life, there are those who have it much worse than you do yet continue to push froward to get out and away from the poor situation they've been brought up in. At the end of it all, all I could do was sit down and think about just how insignificant many of my complaints with life are in comparison with these brilliant young minds.

On a special note: we go to school with at least 5 graduates of this program. (There could be more of them that I'm not aware of)"

Rashaud Senior, '11

A Lesson Learned

When I recall my freshman year, I can only best describe it as a balancing act, trying to figure out how to fit things that I was interested in with what I had to do for my concentration with what seemed practical, etc... It wasn’t until this summer, though, that I began to realize and truly appreciate all that Harvard had to offer.

Over the summer I participated in the Program for Research in Science and Engineering (PRISE). It is a prestigious program on campus which forms an interdisciplinary community of scientists and engineers in order to learn and interact with one another through seminars, presentations, and social events (http://prise09.wordpress.com/). Moreover, my duties as Historian of the Black Men’s Forum (BMF) and Treasurer of the Harvard Society of Black Scientists and Engineers (HSBSE) had commenced over the summer as well. All in all, I had somewhat of a busy summer—but it was certainly a productive and enlightening busy. I thoroughly enjoyed the research that I was conducting over the summer; likewise, there was a particular excitement that arose as I lead my first projects for both the BMF and HSBSE.

Conducting research concurrently with the projects that I was leading revealed the surprising parallels between the fundamental lessons that these two seemingly different parts of my life this summer taught me. I learned how to efficiently and effectively lead a project; how to handle situations when they did not go exactly as planned; my flaws as a student and leader were made more tangible to me so that I could amend them. If I could give one advice to any student at Harvard, especially the freshman coming in, it is to take advantage of the many opportunities and resources that Harvard has to offer—from getting advice from upperclassmen to talking to big time professors; from joining organizations of interest to doing research. Don’t be afraid to try a variety of new things, even when they seem not to be related at all, because you may be surprised when you find out how related and complementary they can be.

7

Glyvolner Gabriel, '12