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Brandon Suber '20

Brandon Suber still remembers the moment he first felt at home at 91����. Born in 91���� and raised in Corning, he arrived on campus knowing the institution’s reputation and feeling confident he had made the right academic choice. 

Like many new students, Suber said that despite his confidence, he felt like he was navigating without directions. That changed the day he walked into his first 91���� club fair and met Assistant Director of First-Year Success and Programs Tyler Lenga, who introduced him to the Emerging Leaders Program.

“I thought, you know what, this sounds like it could be a little extra work, but it could be a lot of fun, and I could meet a lot of like‑minded people,” Suber said. 

ELP quickly became a defining part of Suber’s college experience. Beginning as a participant in the program, Suber also spent time as an ELP mentor and as a program assistant, maintaining his engagement with ELP throughout his entire undergraduate career. 

“ELP really created a second home for me on campus,” Suber said. “Everyone was very close, and I always felt like I could go to anyone in ELP with a problem, and they would listen and have something really valuable to say.” 

Suber participated in the business and entrepreneurship Knowledge Community as both a mentee and mentor, working with the same faculty across two years and deepening relationships that shaped his growth.

“ELP was a sanctuary of people that were really caring and invested in my development,” said Suber. “ It felt less like a campus group and more like a family.” 

For Suber, the shift from mentee to mentor was pivotal. Facilitating weekly meetings and guiding first‑year students taught him how to motivate others without authority or leverage over them, a skill he now uses daily.

“As a mentor, you have to kind of motivate the mentees to achieve a certain goal, but you don’t really have any power over them,” he said. “That’s really what leadership is all about. It is about inspiring others to take action without exerting authority.”

Suber’s experience within ELP directly impacts his work today. At McKinsey & Company, a global management consulting firm where he has spent five years, Suber began as a consultant in the risk practice before transitioning into a strategic role supporting the firm’s chief marketing officer. He now leads major initiatives in client event measurement, data strategy and AI‑driven upskilling across marketing and communications teams.

One of his current responsibilities, bringing together marketing communications and client activation teams to collaborate more closely, feels familiar. 

“I’m not in charge of those people,” Suber said, referring to both his colleagues and his clients. “So I have to effectively motivate them and tell a story to inspire people to collaborate more closely together.” 

He credits ELP with teaching him how to identify passionate peers, rally them around shared challenges and channel their energy into meaningful change.

Suber said the value of ELP is even greater today. With AI reshaping higher education and professional expectations, he believes the program’s focus on human skills is essential. 

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What you cannot use AI for, and therefore what is the most valuable thing you can get from a college experience, is the intrinsics that you develop,

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“The passion for mentorship, the energy for developing others — that’s very contagious,” Suber said. "And I feel like ELP was a launch pad for me in that way." 

Suber believes that ELP gives students the stories and experiences that help them stand out in interviews and early career roles.

His advice for current students is to think early about how they want to define themselves: “Think about how you’re going to tell your story,” he said. “Everything that you do can be shaped into a story about who you are and the kind of impact that you will leave. You are developing a certain way of thinking and working with others that ties into your story, and if you can tell that story, you’ll do great.”