By President Andrew Gong ‘25
My first impression of CBE, much like everyone else’s, was analyst training. It was the fall semester of my freshman year, and I remember wandering around a still-unfamiliar Harvard campus trying to find the lecture hall where training was scheduled. When I arrived, I grabbed a slice of pizza, settled into my seat, and struck up conversations with a few neighbors as we waited for training to begin.
It’s been almost 3 years since that day, and my freshman self would be shocked to see the CBE of today after several semesters of exponential growth. Trainings have moved from Harvard lecture halls to offsite events in swanky hotel ballrooms. One-off pizza parties have been replaced with recurring study breaks replete with free food for the entire organization. Our organization has ballooned in size, allowing us to work with more clients and admit more students than ever before. We have also become more institutionalized; in these 3 years, we have hired an auditor, revamped our website, and registered as an official 501(c)3 non-profit. We are now among the largest (if not actually the largest) fully student-run non-profits by revenue in the country.
I’m now entering my senior year and my seventh semester in CBE. It’s been striking to witness these changes as I’ve grown alongside the organization. But even more than that, it’s remarkable to witness the elements that have remained unchanged at CBE’s core. I wanted to take this blog post to reflect on that change and constancy within CBE — and what it means for the future of the organization.
Community
Throughout our dizzying growth, one value has always held firm in CBE: a vibrant, friendly community. Many organizations fall into the trap of overly fixating on work, foregoing social connections, and producing a corporate, impersonal culture. While CBE is by no means perfect, I can firmly say that across my 2 years on the board of the club, bolstering our community has always been a north star in leadership conversations.
This emphasis on community goes back even longer than these 2 years. In a CBE blog post written over 6 years ago, our former CFO Jeff Cott '18 wrote that “the spirit of mentorship and passion for support” defined CBE in his time, and “will never go out of style.” It was a bold prediction, but it still holds true today after weathering a global pandemic. As we’ve grown, we haven’t lost sight of our community; instead, we’ve dedicated more and more resources to launch new initiatives for our members like engagement events, study breaks, and professional development opportunities in finance and consulting. And as a result, we’ve seen our community grow even stronger with each passing semester. Those initiatives have certainly worked out for me; my conversations with neighbors at analyst training have since spiraled into some of my closest friendships today. My college life would look markedly different (and markedly less enjoyable!) if I hadn’t joined CBE, socially as well as professionally.
Impact
Another core tenet of CBE that has persisted through the years is a commitment to positive social impact. With our growing scale, we’ve been able to put our revenue to create impact in the Boston community and beyond, dedicating hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to initiatives like our Sustainability Grant, Boston Public Schools scholarship, Ventures competition, and need-based financial aid for our members.
Our commitment to social impact isn’t just an afterthought, a sink into which we pour our excess revenues. It’s an active element of what it means to be a member of CBE. Two semesters ago, we started our “Community Initiatives” program, which Jordan Chan ’27 covered brilliantly in a blog post earlier this summer. These initiatives pair CBE sibfams with service opportunities in the Boston area to give back to the community and embody our organizational values.
We also celebrate Sustainability Day, which sends battalions of CBE students to assist a local sustainability non-profit for one day each semester. Recent semesters have seen members don gloves for trash cleanup along the Mystic River watershed or get their hands dirty pulling weeds at Jamaica Pond Park. I’ve loved participating in these activities, not only because they’re fun and strengthen the bonds within our community, but also because they remind me why I love CBE: every day, we work to make the world a better place.
Change and Constancy
Where do we go from here? I’m sure CBE still has so much to learn, and so far to go. We are a newborn organization compared to most institutions at our centuries-old college. Our revenues, client list, and roster have plenty of room to expand. We will continue launching new initiatives to nurture connections in our community and open up professional opportunities for our members. We will become even more institutionalized, as our Board builds more of the critical infrastructure needed to lead a growing consulting business.
But I also hope that future generations of CBE don’t lose sight of where we came from. Student organizations are a fickle thing because every four years, the entire organization graduates, cycles, and begins anew. This makes it profoundly difficult to preserve institutional memory and pass down our values. To that end, I’m writing this blog post as a persistent reminder. It’s very likely that a future CBE President is reading this article right now, and doesn’t even realize it. To them, I would say: hold fast to CBE’s values — never let go of our supportive community and commitment to impact — and once you have done that, take this organization to new heights.
