Rev. Emanuel Cleaver, II, former mayor of Kansas City Keynote Speaker
CEACS Student Leadership Institute – October 17, 2003

 

 

        Rev. Emanuel Cleaver, II, former mayor of Kansas City, was the keynote speaker. He is currently the senior pastor of St. James United Methodist Church. Prior to becoming an ordained minister, Rev. Cleaver served two terms as the first elected African American mayor of Kansas City.

        Rev. Cleaver spoke to an audience of approximately 90 individuals. His energy and uplifting remarks were enthusiastically received and the audience included chairs and directors from other units on the campus. At the conclusion of his remarks, there were numerous questions.

 

        “Living in or out-side the margins” was the topic addressed by Rev. Cleaver who said that there are people who cannot function outside the margins and that those people must have structure. He declared, “I suggest that people who live inside the margins will never reach their full potential.” Rev. Cleaver emphasized that “The news today tells us that the people who are willing to live outside the margins are the people who become leaders.” Rev. Cleaver shared with the students several attributes of a successful leader: one can not be a good leader if they refuse to move outside of the margin; risk is the main ingredient of leadership, and if you want anything out of life it requires risk.

        He concluded with a quote from Bernard Shaw, “You see things and you say why, but I dream things that never were and I say why not.” Rev. Cleaver encouraged the students to continue to dream: to dream dreams, and see things that don’t exist allows you to be more creative which encourages you to ask the question why. Once you have visualized your dream the next step is to proceed to bring it to reality. He mentioned that there are two things that he wanted the students to remember about being successful: that there is not much company at the top and there is no where to sit.