This feature originally appeared in the Summer edition of the Cal Sports Quarterly. The Cal Athletics flagship magazine features long-form sports journalism at its finest and provides in-depth coverage of the scholar-athlete experience in Berkeley. Printed copies are mailed four times a year to Bear Backers who give annually at the Bear Club level (currently $600 or more). For more information on how you can receive a printed version of the Cal Sports Quarterly at home, send an email to CalAthleticsFund@berkeley.edu or call (510) 642-2427.



When he received an invitation to Cal's annual Athletic Scholarship Dinner this past January, freshman swimmer Reece Whitley looked forward to the special occasion, albeit with some trepidation.
 
"These events are extremely fun for us athletes as we rarely get to dress up and have a fancy dinner without burning a hole in our already slim pockets," Whitley said. "We ultimately don't know what to do at these things."
 
The banquet's intent is to allow student-athletes to meet the generous donors who support their experience at Cal through named scholarships. Whitley, like many of his colleagues, had not met the vast majority of people in the room. He mostly nodded, shook hands and smiled through a series of conversations.
 
However, one encounter clearly stood out – Bryan Cameron met him for the first time.
 
"Fortunately, Mr. Cameron found my conversation very pleasant as he graciously emailed my coach months later asking about getting in touch to discuss my future beyond swimming," Whitley recalled.
 
Whitley learned that Cameron's genuine compassion for student-athletes runs deep. What he didn't know it at the time, though, was that Cameron was already in discussions with Director of Athletics Jim Knowlton and others within the athletic department and University to establish an innovative program intended to support all of Cal's student-athletes in leadership and personal development, career development, and community engagement.
 
On May 9, Cal Athletics announced the formation of the Cameron Institute made possible through a $12.5 million gift from Cameron. With a small percentage set aside for initial start-up costs, $12 million will be placed into an endowment to support the venture in perpetuity.
 
"Though his contribution is what ultimately launched this amazing project, Mr. Cameron's pure willingness to invest in us means much more to the athletes than anything else," Whitley said. "It's opportunities like the ones the Cameron Institute will provide that will streamline the 40-year decision, not just the four-year decision that we made with choosing UC Berkeley in the first place."
 
The origins of and motivations for Cameron's plan date back more than 15 years to when he first began talking to department leaders about the student-athlete experience at Cal and searching for ways to provide structure and intent to help them prepare for a lifetime of success.
 
The idea really began to take shape once Knowlton assumed the athletic director position in May 2018. Within a week of his first day on the job, Knowlton and Cameron had an in-person meeting. Cameron used the opportunity to offer a challenge to Cal Athletics' new leader – What are you going to do to improve student-athlete development?
 
"I'm pretty competitive," Knowlton said. "I like a challenge."
 
So Knowlton, members of his team and Cameron began to formulate ideas about how such a proposal would work at Cal.
 
"There were some fits, some starts," Knowlton admitted. "There are a lot of drafts that still sit on the floor somewhere. But in the end, we developed a plan that benchmarked with schools that do this well. We want to be as good as or better than anyone else in supporting student-athletes. This started as an idea and has turned into a reality, and we feel that this is going to be amazing for many, many years to come."
 
Cameron's philanthropic philosophy is to invest in people, and he has focused many of his efforts in education. In 2015, he established the Bryan Cameron Education Foundation, a non-profit corporation striving to invest in students through a four-year undergraduate Cameron Impact Scholarship program.
 
Cameron also serves on several non-profit boards or advisory councils at the following institutions:  UC Berkeley, UC Davis,
 
Stanford Graduate School of Business, Lucile Packard Foundations for Children's Health, and Menlo Park Presbyterian Church. In addition, he is a past president of the Bear Backers with Cal Athletics and has served on the National Advisory Council for the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies.
 
"My experience with student-athletes is that many develop some excellent foundational skills for life, including a strong work ethic, discipline, leadership, teamwork and competitiveness," Cameron said. "But they may also lack the focus, time and opportunities to best prepare for life after their college sports' experience is completed. The institute is designed to assist these promising young men and women in identifying and pursuing career opportunities, at which they can succeed at the highest level."
 
Importantly, the Cameron Institute captures many of the elements contained in UC Berkeley's strategic plan, which was completed in December 2018, with particular emphasis on the student experience, public service and developing leaders. Chancellor Carol Christ made that point clear.
 
"A key pillar of the campus strategic plan is to create a student experience that rivals the academic one available at Cal," Christ said. "This gift and the Cameron Institute will move this effort forward in a significant way. The Cameron Institute will serve as a model for other universities nationwide seeking to invest in their student-athletes' opportunities and preparedness, and its commitment to their future success will send Cal Athletics and UC Berkeley on a path of leadership in this important area."
 
To Bryan Cameron, Reece Whitley and hundreds of other Cal student-athletes like him say thank you.
 
 
What Is The Cameron Institute?
The Cameron Institute will be based upon three pillars – leadership and personal development, career development, and community engagement – and the organizational structure will be designed to connect with all student-athletes consistently and provide programming over the course of their entire student experience in Berkeley. The first step will be to hire an associate athletic director for student-athlete development to oversee the institute and assemble a staff through existing personnel and newly created positions. The program is expected to operational by the start of the 2020-21 academic year.
 
Leadership and Personal Development
The Cameron Institute will provide instruction and training designed for students who aspire to be leaders in the workplace and the world. Programming will include such features as team captain training to enhance ways student-athletes can become better leaders with their sports teams, in their academic work and once they leave the University. Additional elements will include speaker series and leadership seminars and retreats.
 
Career Development
Counselors within the Cameron Institute will be charged with supporting student-athletes in exploring potential majors and career paths through coursework, practical experience and internships, helping them grow and develop holistically. They will also assist in networking with the intent to provide a world-class experience and create opportunities to connect with successful professionals in their chosen field.
 
Community Engagement
The Cameron Institute will encourage participation in community engagement programs, helping build student understanding of the benefits of public service and demonstrate that success can be achieved through long-term commitments. An early goal is to build a platform for every student-athlete to develop the skills and practices necessary to be a Cal ambassador for the greater community.