Running for President

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By Max Cohen (OI), Contributing Writer

Issue date: 9/22/08 Section: News

Running for Section President is a rewarding experience. Most of the activities are behind-the-scenes, but if you're dedicated to making sure your Section experience runs smoothly for your classmates, this is the job for you.

One of the great things about HBS is that everyone is a leader in their own way. Each of your classmates is both interested in, and qualified to be, a leader.

For that reason, I think that the role of Section President should probably be called Section Facilitator - because in essence, that's your primary responsibility. As President, you will lead discussions during Section meetings, oversee and help out the other officers with whatever they need, interface with the administration, and work with the other Presidents to exchange stories about what works best to keep your sections functioning at a high level.

Most likely, after a long, expensive, grueling campaign (a 60-second speech and $0.50 to print a humorous position paper), you'll be elected in a landslide (actually, after two run-off elections and by a margin of 2%). The most important aspect of your job is simply to make sure that your Section-mates have the best experience possible.

If you're thinking about running for President for resume reasons or some perceived sense of glory - forgettaboutit. The following is an unlikely scenario:

"Max really bombed that interview," mused a shockingly non-bankrupt potential employer. "He seems like a nice kid, but I just don't think he's the right fit for the company." "I thought so at first, also," replied the HR person. "But I checked his resume again - and it says here he was the President of his Section."

The interviewer jumped out of his chair. "Section President? Really? Get him on the phone right away; I want him working with us this summer!"

Of course, being Section President can also be a lot of fun. One of the best parts about this role is that you get to plan the Section Olympics, which take place in May every year. Each Section takes on all the others in a variety of very serious contests, such as the dizzy bat race, tug-of-war, dodgeball, and of course, the twinkie eating competition. Rumor has it that three years ago an actual certified world record was set during that last event, but no one in my Section will ever forget Jisun Park and Alan Zhou - with a combined weight of about 220 pounds, dripping wet - eating 29.5 of the 30 twinkies in a matter of minutes, with Jisun doing the majority of the work.

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