Elan Greenberg

 

My primary commitment has always been to the United States Marine Corps.  I was generously put through school at the hands of the federal government, and in return for this investment, I will serve four years as an Officer of Marines.  My three years of training has taken me underway on a nuclear submarine and it has put me behind the controls of the most powerful helicopter in the American fleet.  A past summer sent me to the Mountain Warfare Training Facility in Bridgeport, CA for a two-week rotation with Third Battalion, Twenty-Fifth Marines, and my most recent summer took me to the Marine Corps Officer Candidate School in Quantico, VA where my leadership and physical courage were tested under the harshest training conditions the Marine Corps has to offer.  Receiving my Eagle, Globe, and Anchor, the symbol of the Marine Corps and the embodiment of the ‘warrior-ethos’ stands as one of the proudest days of my life.  I have walked a little taller ever since.

 

Returning to Cornell, I became the Battalion Operations Officer at the Navy ROTC unit.  My new job placed me in charge of Navy ROTC’s “O-Week,” the seven-day training and indoctrination program for incoming Midshipman.  It designated me Officer-in-Charge of the Cornell University Invitational Drill Competition – the largest competition of its kind in the Northeast – and saw Cornell host 750 Cadets and Midshipmen from across the United States in Barton Hall.  Both events were executed precisely as they were planned and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.  As a Senior Marine, I’ve assumed the responsibility for training the next class of Marines to attend Officer Candidate School this summer.  Under my watch, they’ll be more prepared than any class before them.

 

My commitments as Student Assembly President have introduced me to a breed of politicking that I have since found unattractive.  Fall 2007 saw the SA set a Student Activity Fee that, in aggregate, accounts for $5M of project funding.  Interacting with the leadership of every major campus organization was a humbling experience, but I found it to be incredibly worthwhile.  Arguably, our student points of contact were the best at what they do, and particular deference had to be paid to the leaders of these groups.  Our biases had to favor funding them to the greatest extent possible.  Working with other Meinig Scholars, the Student Assembly sponsored a program that fully subsidizes the Big Red Sports Pass for the next Byline Funding Cycle, affording all undergraduates the opportunity to attend varsity athletics free-of-charge.  In the event that a student cannot afford this, or any other burden of tuition, it will be covered by financial aid and the burden placed on those who can afford to pay.  At the conclusion of fall semester, I resigned my position as Student Assembly President, committing the remainder of my time on the Student Assembly to reevaluating the role of undergraduate student government at Cornell.  Next semester, I’ll put the pieces in place for a likely institutional successor by Fall 2009. 

 

Finally, as President of the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity, I guided the chapter through four major capital improvements over my twelve months in-charge.  We received the “Most Outstanding Chapter” designation from the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs, and the “Champion Master Chapter” designation from our national organization for far exceeding prescribed national standards.  Our membership increased by 15% and our philanthropic activity increased by 400%.  My legacy with the chapter will surround our successful lease renegotiations with our national organization creating an equitable and affordable lease structure for chapter tenants.

 

Much of my learning has occurred outside these three primary commitments.  As the undergraduate representative on the University Diversity Council – Working Group, I led undergraduate diversity forums to address the most relevant issues of race and bias in the Ithaca community.  As the undergraduate representative on the Comprehensive Master Plan Working Committee, I accompanied senior administration to NYC to provide an undergraduate perspective on the thirty year development process currently underway.  With Fr Robert Smith, a Chaplain in the Cornell Catholic Community, I created the Janus Essays, a writing project aimed at soliciting thoughts on the future in commemoration of Fr Smith’s fifty years as an ordained priest.  Finally, having first provided fiscal support for the Ithaca Youth Bureau through a fraternity sponsorship project, I coached fourth grade soccer for the fall and taught twelve rambunctious little boys the fundamentals of teamwork and sportsmanship.

 

“The brave may not live forever, but the cautious do not live at all,” says a close friend in the Marine Corps.  I concede that most of my leadership has been practiced with my face in the mud or with sweat on my back completing the last few miles of a marathon with a friend not far behind.  My leadership has been tested in the hottest, coldest, dirtiest, or most public situations; in the open door of an airplane with a parachute strapped to my back or at the top of a mountain with fourteen Marines asking, “What’s next?”  I’ve been both lauded and ridiculed on the front page of the Cornell Daily Sun, forcing me to learn incredibly quickly not to take myself too seriously.

 

I wake up every morning and think about the forty Marines whose lives will be in my hands in less than one year.  I consider whether or not I have done all that I could to prepare myself for the day – if and when – the bullets are flying downrange in the direction of my platoon.  My plans for graduation call for taking a sharp nosedive into the real world and observing the awful means mankind employs for solving its problems.  It’s not unique to me that I make such a decision – tens of millions of done so before me and its their legacy I’ll need to sustain.