The Latest from SFL

The George Mason University Students For Liberty has just launched a new feature on its blog: Liberty Minded Student Profiles.  The purpose of these profiles is to highlight the work students are doing for liberty around the world and share their experiences with others.  I had the honor of being the first person they interviewed, and the questions ranged from how I first got interested in liberty to the story of SFL’s founding.  The profile is now upon their blog in case anyone is interested in reading it.  Here are a couple of questions that I want to make sure to highlight, though:

Are there any interesting stories related to its founding, or early years?

The first day of that first conference is something I will always remember.  All the members of the Exec Board arrived in New York City the night before to finish preparations for the conference, and we went to sleep on the floor/couches of our Columbia member’s common room looking for a good night’s sleep before the chaos of the conference began.  We were woken up at 6am, though, by one student from the South calling to ask: “Is the conference canceled?”  We looked out the window and realized that a blizzard had hit NYC while we were asleep and the city was a mess.  We had put too much effort into preparing that conference to just cancel it, though, so we immediately began to call every single attendee and nonprofit representative to let them know the conference was still going to be held and encourage them to come.  It was a very stressful and frantic start to the first day because we not only had the added work of contacting everyone to overcome that snowstorm, but we had to carry boxes, flyers, coffee, and all kinds of other materials through 2 feet of snow to set everything up.  Our side of the story is just background, though.  The incredible part is how students reacted to the snowstorm.  While we were most worried about students canceling, students were most worried about finding ways to attend the conference by any means possible.  Students from California had their flights to NYC canceled, so instead flew to DC, took a train to New Jersey, then a bus to NYC.  Students from Michigan drove 18 hours straight through the blizzard to make it on time.  Only a handful of students canceled, but almost everyone, both students and speakers, were able to make it on time out of sheer will and perseverance in the cause of liberty.  Seeing the dedication of those students overcome any obstacle in their way to take part in the first SFL Conference inspired us in a way that I can’t describe.  The perseverance of those students cleared away any doubt there may have been about turning the conference into an organization: these students were willing to take on a blizzard to be part of this event.  There needed to be more opportunities and more support for these amazing students than a onetime event.

Anything else you want readers to know? Any other specific achievements you are proud of?

During my sophomore year, I applied to and was rejected by the Institute for Humane Studies Koch Summer Fellowship Program.  During my junior year, I applied to and was rejected by the Cato Institute’s internship program.  I ended up being accepted to KSFP and being offered a job at Cato the year following each rejection.  Instead of taking these rejections (too) personally, I used them as motivation to better myself and figure out what I really wanted to do.  So if you get turned down for an internship somewhere you really wanted, you never know what might happen… maybe they’ll offer you a job the next year.

Special thanks to Danny Shiner for putting this together and taking the initiative to get such a valuable product (the profile series, not mine in particular) off the ground!  The full post is here.