Name: Morgan Byers
H.S. Grad Year: Class of 2022
High School: East Jackson Comprehensive HS
College: Harvard University
Current Role: Research Assistant, Boston Children’s Hospital
How has your career unfolded and how did participating in 21CL help prepare you for your next steps going to college, taking on a new leadership role in community/college and after?
If my 9th-grade self who initially joined 21st Century Leaders saw how my life has unfolded, she’d be shocked. I am from a rural small town in Northeast Georgia called Commerce, and my ultimate dream was attending college—no one in my family had ever graduated with a college degree before. When I applied to college, I threw one “joke” application to Harvard College (because it was my dream school in 7th grade), and my life was changed three months later when I found out that I had been accepted.
I fell in love with Harvard the moment I stepped on its campus for first-year move-in. I came into college with the dream of being a medical doctor, and along the way I also picked up a passion for health policy, double majoring in Human Developmental & Regenerative Biology and Government. Over the years, I have led the Women’s Initiative in Leadership at Harvard’s Institute of Politics, been the Vice President of the civic education non-profit Harvard Model Congress, completed a thesis in the Department of Endocrinology at Boston Children’s Hospital. I have interned everywhere from the hospitals of Portugal to the halls of the U.S. Congress. After I graduate, I will be teaching elementary school to give back to communities that have given me so much before attending medical school.
Though Harvard has presented many opportunities to me, I owe 21CL with thanks for giving me the skills to excel in everything I have been able to do. 21CL taught me how to network and talk to people—a skill that has carried me through small things like freshman orientation and big things like meeting U.S. Senators. 21CL also taught me the importance of knowing who you are and believing who you can become—something that continues to comfort me today. 21CL also taught me that even when you go far, you can always give back — a lesson and responsibility I carry with me everywhere I go.
What’s your memorable or ‘aha’ moment during your time at 21CL? (Particular program, meeting a professional and diverse peer, speaking in public for the first time, etc.)
At SYLI my freshman year of high school, I was assigned to give a thank-you speech, and I got assigned to thank an incredible surgeon. It was always my dream to be a doctor, but I never thought I would have the resources or ability to get there. However, in this physician’s talk, she discussed her own career trajectory and how passionate she was about career. At the end of her talk, right before I had to speak to the whole room, everything clicked—I could achieve any goal I set and my dream to become a doctor. This realization made me tear up in front of a whole room, and right after I finished the words on my notecard, I made a dash for the bathroom, and the waterworks of happy tears began.
The realization I made that day is one that continues to chart my path today, and without that one, botched, tear-infused thank-you speech at SYLI, I firmly believe that I would not be where I am today.
Did 21CL assist you in developing a leadership style that makes you an effective leader? If so, how?
Rather than developing a certain leadership style, I think that the goal of 21CL is to give students the tools to develop their own unique leadership style. Particularly, I think 21CL enabled me to understand the values I try to embody in my leadership—equity, inclusivity, empowerment, and mission-mindedness. By listening to so many incredible leaders speak, I was able to understand the traits that I correlated to the leaders that I wanted to emulate.
Why do you believe programs like 21CL are important? And what advice would you give to a current or future student?
I believe that programs like 21CL are critical to student success, and it is my greatest hope that similar programs are made available to every student possible. Not only do they make the unimaginable opportunities possible for students like me, but they encourage students to believe in themselves and understand who they are as a leader.
To the current or future student, I would encourage them to take advantage of every opportunity, every connection, and every moment they can while in 21CL. Be open to letting this life-changing organization change your life, like it did mine!
