On the Value of Putting Your Shoulder to the Plow
Parting Words from President Will Wright
With our 2020 - 2021 club year coming to a close, I am officially stepping down as President of the Harvard Club of Alabama. I have spent four years as President and another four in other roles. Now I am excited to welcome Tara Baukus Mello of Huntsville to lead the club. Tara has been so helpful over the past year as Vice President and I’m confident she and the board will be amazing volunteer leaders for our community.
As I take on other adventures, I wanted to take this time to share why volunteering for the Harvard Club has been so valuable. In large part I’m doing this to encourage others to consider putting “a shoulder to the plow” with the club as well.
Building this community has been a real joy in my life. I decided to join the club when I moved to Birmingham in 2013 because I didn’t know many people here and have always been impressed with Harvard alums. My family has always been into community building and I wanted to continue that tradition. My grandmother started a church, my parents volunteer regularly, my sister throws parties just because… So, I decided to sign up.
Little did I know what an incredibly valuable experience it would be.
Over the past eight years, I have met incredible people, interviewed dozens of students, coached current students at Harvard, helped graduates find jobs, championed Alabama to our global alumni network, brought new thinking to leaders in the state, supported new initiatives led by alums, and made incredible friends whom I love. And sure… I’ve also endured some annoyances and made some mistakes. I can regale you with riveting stories of fixing our bank account, registering documents with the Secretary of State (many times), buying really bad wine for an event or two (sorry), and struggling with an ancient website management system (ahem…). But when I zoom out, it’s been totally worth it.
I now know so many incredible people and understand the state so much better than I did before. I have an incredible new appreciation for the scholarship at Harvard and for what Harvard represents. I even met a great lady through the club (Tinder be damned!).
So, in short, I want to encourage you all to consider putting YOUR shoulder to the plow. Our alumni community is incredible and we have a lot to contribute to Alabama. It’s worth a few meetings and emails and maybe throwing a party of two. And while you will make mistakes… you’ll grow a ton (I guarantee it).
Finally, before I turn over the keys to Tara and the current board, I did want to celebrate our successes for this past year that the board and our community achieved. Not only did we set some ambitious goals, but we set our club up for real success by expanding our remit to be statewide outside of the regions represented by The Harvard Club of the Mid-Gulf Shores.
Below is the progress on our goals for the year. When I see goals, I like to see that a group didn’t hit them all. That tells me we stretched ourselves. We did a bang-up job in my opinion. And of course I’m not going away, just focusing on some new adventures. I’m looking forward to seeing our community grow in the future!
Sincerely,
Will Wright
President, Harvard Club of Alabama (2018 - 2021)
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