Who are you and why/how did you become a student leader?
My name is Chisom Okafor and I am a Product Manager. I am Nigerian and my first time being in the States was when I came for college which means I needed to adapt. It was important for me to find a community where I belonged and I'm thankful for organizations like the Black Students Union (BSU), National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), etc. that helped provide such communities.
After my freshman year, I got inspired to give back and ensure that other students like me also found a community they belonged to. Hence, I became the secretary of the Black Students Union (BSU) in my sophomore year, Vice President in my junior year, and President in my senior year.
What impact did you have on your organization?
I attended WPI - Worcester Polytechnic Institute (MIT’s rival, at least so we claim lol), a Predominantly White Institution (PWI). The Black and African population made up a small percentage (less than 2%) of the total student population. Given how small we were, we stuck together.
While we had weekly BSU meetings which were fun and engaging, I felt like there wasn’t much for us to do as a community on campus outside of those meetings, and this feeling was not unique to me. We didn’t do much when it came to organizing events so it began to feel repetitive and boring. When I joined the leadership board, one of the goals was to expand the reach of BSU to become a household club. At that time we had a very small club budget of less than $500 for the whole year.
By my sophomore year, we had successfully established more events for our community at large, the biggest one being a fashion show with a budget of ~ $3200. The show was so successful that it won the Diversity Program of the Year award. The next year, while I was Vice President, we went bigger and 10Xed the show’s budget to ~ $30,000. This time we won the Program of the Year. At this point, we knew that we were on to something because we went from being a relatively unknown club to becoming a household name in the school community in just 2 years (achieving our goal), but it didn’t stop there.
In my senior year, while I was President, we again took it up a notch and threw a show with a budget of ~ $50,000. It had become the biggest event in the school bringing together students from many other campus organizations and backgrounds under one room to celebrate ourselves. It was even known outside of the school and students from neighboring schools attended in numbers. The show is still ongoing to this day and it has been 5 years since I graduated.
How Were You Able to Raise $50,000 for Your Club?
Raising $50k for my club was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do. Initially, I thought I could raise the entire amount by going the conventional route of getting the funding solely from our Student Government Association (SGA) but I was in for a rude awakening. After sending countless funding applications and slide decks with little to show for them, I knew we had to go back to the drawing board.
After a lot of deliberation with my team, I came up with the two segments of donors. Segment 1 was internal to my college - go directly to the community that fell in love with the show in the first place i.e. the student body and departments. Segment 2 was to go to external organizations and alumni. We attacked both segments concurrently.
We organized bake sales, flash mobs, and donation drives, partnered with restaurants, reached out to alumni, and much more. I also took the time to send out cold emails and was able to book meetings with different departments within campus, Residential Services, Multicultural Affairs, Internation Student Services, Student Affairs, you name it. These drives and meetings gradually started converting into checks After 2 months or so of intense work we were able to raise ~ $34,000. At this point, I then went back to the SGA to request the remaining $16,000, which was approved. There are a lot more details that went into raising the funds but this is the high-level overview.
Some people called me crazy, told me that I was shooting to high and I needed to scale down the magnitude of the show. But I knew the vision and what the show would mean to the community, scaling back the show was simply not an option for me. Because I was clear on where I wanted to take my organization and I had a team that bought into that vision, I knew that there was no stopping us.
What was the biggest thing that led to your success?
3 main things led to our success.
- Hyperfocus on serving our members - with all the success we saw with our flagship event (the Fashion Show), we still made sure that we were providing value to our members weekly outside of that one event. We did other events like a Basketball tournaments, dance workshops, rap battles, fun discussions, etc. Things like these kept our members engaged year-round.
- Having clear goals and starting early - We started planning for the next year during the summer to put us in the best position to succeed during the year. I established a clear vision for the year and broke it down with my team into actionable steps that we started working on early. The year was mostly execution as the bulk of the planning work was done.
- Empowering my team and community to bring their strengths to the table - Especially while I was President, I laser-focused on ensuring that everyone had a voice and felt like they were contributing to our mission. This increased cross-functional and organizational collaboration. It also made my life so much easier and our success greater.
What struggles did you face as a leader?
- Managing members was very challenging - everything from member adoption to engagement to retention was a struggle. There was no blueprint for best practices so I was essentially experimenting as I went.
- Getting funding for events - organizing a $50,000 show is no joke. Raising the funds was one of the single most difficult things I ever did as a leader. I did everything from funding requests, fundraisers, reaching out to sponsors and alumni, etc. I think having data to justify the funds was the biggest thing that led to my success.
- Balancing life with club leadership - At the end of the day I was a student first and not only that, I was a STEM major so balancing the burden of leadership with other priorities like classes, social events, working out, eating, finding a job, etc. was a struggle that most young people can relate you. However, the fulfillment and life experiences that come from being a student leader are unmatched.
What advice do you have for current and aspiring student leaders?
- The first step is to simply try it and see if it is for you. Most of my favorite college memories were from late-night meetings with my board strategizing/planning events for my club. The fulfillment that comes from seeing your vision come to life and being a part of it cannot be over-emphasized. Also, I wasn’t fortunate to have an internship as an international student but I was able to secure a full-time job before graduation. A big factor that played into it was my leadership experience. All the stories I told during my job interviews came from my experiences as a student leader. And till this day I still repurposes experiences from my time as a student leader during interviews.
- Think of your club as the organization your freshman self wished for. I believe that this will make it easier to put your heart into the work that will be required of you. If you do it with your heart, you give yourself the opportunity to create out-of-this-world experiences for your community no matter the type of organization you are in (whether social, professional, or academic). This is when your light begins to shine and you make a lasting impact.
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