This feature originally appeared in the 2020 Fall 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.



There would never be a bad time to launch a program as innovative and impactful as The Cameron Institute. But the fact that it is up and running amid a pandemic-induced era of remote learning is about as good a consolation you can find during one of the most challenging years of the century.
 
The Cameron Institute was formed during the spring of 2019 to provide development programming for Cal student-athletes. After close to 18 months of hiring senior staff and building different pillars of the program, The Cameron Institute is in the middle of a rolling launch while student-athletes navigate the fall semester on a completely virtual basis.
 
"It's such a strange time and climate right now. We see this as one of the things that student-athletes can count on," The Cameron Institute Director Dr. Marissa Nichols said. "We are thrilled to support them. We certainly feel like The Cameron Institute can be that one sure thing when so much in the world is changing right now."
 
The Cameron Institute was made possible by a $12.5 million gift from C. Bryan Cameron and includes four main pillars – Leadership and Personal Development, Career Development, Community Engagement, and High-Performance & Well-Being. While Cal student-athletes can't currently have in-person interactions with the institute, 100 percent of its services are still offered online.
 
"We may see students that may not have normally had the chance to engage with us," Nichols said. "Student-athletes have incredibly challenging schedules. Perhaps in some ways, the virtual format is even more accommodating."
 
In addition to Nichols, The Cameron Institute features three other directors with advanced degrees. Dr. Sean Hendricks serves as Chief of Staff and oversees Leadership & Personal Development, Dr. Graig Chow is in charge of High Performance & Well-Being, while Dr. Bineti Vitta manages Career Development. More staff is expected to be hired in the spring, with their compensation being supported by the institute's endowment.
 
"The timing is great. We've all had enough hardships in 2020, and this is highly likely to be beneficial to the student-athletes at this time," Cameron said. "It's a real opportunity to build something state of the art here. It's a really good plan, and it's multi-faceted. It's been crafted with input from a lot of constituents – coaches, student-athletes, administrators. I think because of the planning and quality of the leadership, there is a very good chance to have a very successful launch."
 
Nichols and her evolving staff have spent the past year formulating the institute's programming and services, meeting with coaches, teams and staff to solicit feedback and preview what will be in store once it launches. Chow has already been meeting with teams to help them deal with the stress and anxiety of managing the many challenges that the past several months have presented.
 
"The concept of The Cameron Institute is amazing even without the coronavirus, but the pandemic makes the need for something like this even greater," Cal swimmer Reece Whitley said. "I really enjoy the fact that they are trying to bring the mental health aspect into it. That's something that is becoming more and more relevant, especially in the pandemic era."
 
Much of the focus among Cameron Institute staff has been developing The California Way, which will serve as the overachieving model of success, guiding all programming and services. It's a multi-pronged set of aspirational outcomes with clear metrics attached, with the goal of aiding student-athletes to perform at their full potential both during their time at Cal and beyond.
 
The California Way includes eight aspirational outcomes for Cal student-athletes to aspire to over their four-year career:
 

• Multidimensional - excelling in school, sport and in life
• An authentic leader who is purposeful and lives their core values
• Team-oriented - working collaboratively and making unique contributions to achieve collective goals
• Committed to excellence and has a high performance mindset
• Immersed in meaningful and transformational campus and community experiences
• Well-connected to a strong and robust network of alumni and professionals
• Grateful for the experiences at a world-class institution and invested in giving back to future generations of Golden Bears
• Positioned to land their First Golden Opportunity and flourish in their chosen career

 
"The California Way grounds everything we do," Nichols said. "When a student-athlete leaves Cal, we want to be able to say with certainty that this is how we developed the Cal student-athlete. That is essentially what The California Way is – helping student-athletes achieve a great level of success while they are here, but also for the next 10, 20, 30, 40 years."
 
The Cameron Institute staff took part in a two-day virtual head coaches retreat over the summer and has shaped much of its programming as a result of the hours they have spent conducting calls with coaches and teams. Nichols says the buy-in she has received from Cal's head coaches has been as important as anything in developing the institute's pillars and philosophy.
 
"They've been really open to our thoughts and ideas, and they have a desire to take all that information and put the program together," said Cal women's swimming & diving head coach Teri McKeever, who is a member of The Cameron Institute Advisory Committee. "Sometimes you don't want to always hear honest feedback, but Marissa takes that feedback and makes it into something."
 
Cameron said a program that focuses on student-athlete development has "long been perceived to be a need of any student-athlete." Education has played a critical role for Cameron throughout his life. 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 earned his bachelor's degree in economics from UC Davis in 1980 and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1983. He serves as the director of equity research at San Francisco investment firm Dodge & Cox.
 
"The overall motivation I had for making this gift and launching this program is to help prepare student-athletes for life after sports," Cameron said. "The pillars we have are the exact right ones to have. I think the time and focus you devote to what life looks like after sports is often somewhat limited. There's a real need for an organized structure to prepare student-athletes for life after sports."