MEINIG FAMILY CORNELL NATIONAL SCHOLARS
EXCELLENCE IN LEADERSHIP AWARD
Kevin Hwang
Arts & Sciences '07
This past year saw the birth, growth, and early maturation of the first and only national undergraduate student-run print journal of its kind in the United States. With two established and officially registered chapters at Cornell and University of California at Berkeley and two chapters on the verge of official registration at Stanford and University of Pennsylvania, The Triple Helix: The National Journal of Science, Society, and Law has become the only national undergraduate journal in the country to reach such levels of expansion and success. Supported by several faculty, deans, and vice provosts at Cornell and having made the front page of the Cornell Daily Sun, The Triple Helix has truly made a niche for itself at Cornell as well as our other chapter campuses in only a little over half a year. Our ascent to national success has been a whirlwind of an experience, and my role as the founder, Cornell Editor-in-Chief, and national Chief Executive Officer of this organization has profoundly impacted my calling here at Cornell and my leadership skills.
Beginning with absolutely nothing besides a vision to establish something I felt this campus sorely lacked, I founded The Triple Helix seven months ago as a regular Cornell journal that would establish a venue to exchange ideas and critically analyze scientific issues and controversies through a political, legal, social, economic, and ethical perspective and to expose science students to topics revolving around their passions and research from a different viewpoint. As technology advances ever faster in the 21st century and as our policymakers are being left behind in a state of confusion, the chasm that separates science and the humanities needs to be bridged because scientific progress no longer operates in a vacuum. In short, The Triple Helix was meant to be a truly interdisciplinary journal that spoke to the most pressing social, political, and legal issues surrounding science.
With this idea in mind, my initial goal was to simply collect a group of students interested in these interdisciplinary issues and to establish a local publication that addresses them. I began by recruiting contacts and acquaintances from my classes and social circle. I held informal weekly executive board meetings in Uris Library to divide up the tasks that were necessary in order to start and register a student organization at Cornell. Besides coordinating these tasks, setting deadlines and benchmarks, and doing my own research on the policies and restrictions of running a student organization, I also actively spent time fundraising from faculty, deans, and vice provosts. After only four weeks of unofficial existence, I had raised almost $2,000 dollars and we felt ready to register and begin planning for our first general body meeting. To ensure we kept on pace, I continued to hold weekly executive board meetings where we discussed each person's weekly accomplishments, new information we discovered, new ideas we should implement, and the following week's goals.
A few weeks passed and all of our efforts paid off. Having personally spent countless hours sending out e-mails myself and putting up posters to publicize our first general body meeting, The Triple Helix had a turn out of almost fifty interested students on a Saturday afternoon, a turnout that most organizations who have been well-established for a decade or more do not have. I was very surprised by the level of student interest, and it was at this very moment that I knew this journal could be big. As the semester passed, we continued to have a high level of interest from our members and continued to hold meetings with our members to develop our first issue. I guided the various aspects of our journal production, including the topic and abstract discussions, the layout meetings, and the editing process.
Over this past winter break, I began pondering the possibility of expanding this journal to other top universities in the country. The unaddressed chasm between science and the humanities is prevalent at almost every campus, and having been surrounded by technology my entire life in the Silicon Valley of California, I felt compelled to expose the importance and consequences of these scientific advancements at universities beyond Cornell. I committed a significant amount of time consulting professionals and individuals who were more familiar with running national non-profit organizations, researching New York State law regarding such organizations, creating a detailed plan and organization of our operations at such a grand scale, and deciding the best approach to recruit my peers at other universities to start a chapter and participate in our national dialogue. Without having even produced an issue yet, I was able to convince a few contacts from high school that my mission and intent was genuine, and I believe they could sense my passion for this organization during our talks.
Without going into too many details, this organization has grown tremendously in the past few months. Based on my detailed plan that I generated over winter break just three months ago, I have led the development of a national Board of Directors, a National Editorial Board, a Business Division, and three other chapters at UC Berkeley, Stanford, and University of Pennsylvania. I created a 28 page guide on operating a successful chapter in the hopes of standardizing our chapters and passing on the successful strategies that Cornell has employed, in addition to seemingly daily phone calls to help guide and lead each chapter's development. Based on workshops I have attended and books I have read, I have implemented a leadership training session for all our leaders both nationally and locally. Under my lead, our Board of Directors has already submitted our Certificate of Incorporation to the New York Department of State and are actively working on our 501(c)3 tax-exempt status from the IRS. Despite the success our other chapters are having, we are continually finding ways to improve and expand.
Having easily spent 20 hours per week on a consistent basis for the past year in developing this national organization, my leadership of this organization has not been without incredible challenges that always appeared insurmountable. Every step of the way required consultation with the other leaders of the organization, planning specific dates months in advance, motivating all our staff and particularly the skeptics, providing a clear vision that people wanted to follow, and understanding the legal ramification and complexities of our decision to expand. My leadership experience from high school has been of tremendous help, but nothing even at the college level can compare to the lessons and skills I have learned from my active leadership in The Triple Helix.
What I proposed for this organization was highly ambitious and because it had never been done before on such a grand scale, I faced challenges attempting to convince people that this was even feasible. I have learned a great deal about what it takes to be a leader that people trust and feel comfortable following. Not only must you demonstrate your passion and lead by example, but you have to spend the time creating an organized and detailed plan so that gain the trust of those you lead. Motivating the other leaders of this organization and maintaining focus on a bigger vision has also been a tremendous obstacle because it is difficult to keep a large group of individuals constantly excited about reaching a future goal. I have learned that outlining a very clear and specific vision is necessary so that people can see the same grandiose picture of our future as you do. Additionally, every person is motivated by something different, and finding a way to appeal to everyone's motivation has been a challenge that I have enjoyed overcoming.
The importance of effective communication as a leader has been magnified in an organization that spans from coast to coast. Unable to meet face-to-face, communicating ideas and progress has been a difficult challenge that I am still finding ways to overcome. To this end, I have created a weekly reporting system such that every week, all our leaders can post their week's accomplishments and future plans on a central staff page on our website. While the telephone and e-mail have been indispensable tools, they still pose communication barriers that need to be overcome. I have also learned a great deal about teamwork and management: how does one remain an effective manager while still maintaining friendly relations with my friends and peers? How does one enforce policies without overstepping the bounds of appropriateness? These are all issues that I have had to face and continue to face on a daily basis, and I have enjoyed finding innovative ways to overcome these obstacles.
What began as a small local journal based on an idea has blossomed into a national organization with a strong direction and mission. My time leading this organization has taught me a wealth of skills and lessons on effective leadership, helped me form friendships and relationships I would otherwise never have formed, allowed me to see the fruits of our labor, altered my career path and interests, and most importantly, bridged part of the gap between science, society, law, economics, and politics. Engineers and government majors alike take part in producing and writing for The Triple Helix, and I have seen both English and Biology majors picking up a copy of our journal. The Triple Helix has become an integral and inseparable part of my life and is a pursuit I will continue long after my undergraduate years to allow new undergraduates to experience the opportunities that I have had. Because our goal in the next year will be to establish chapters at the rest of the Ivy League universities and other peer institutions, I know this organization will continue to be my calling and my leadership skills will continue to develop.
