Senior Kolbe Murray travels across the country, staying in fancy hotels and meeting important people. These are perks of being a high achieving student.

Murray is a member of the College Board’s Advisory Panel on Student Opportunities, providing a youth’s perspective on what is described as a powerful, non-profit, mission-driven organization.

Along with all the adult trustees and other members, Murray gets to work at meetings, trying to carry out the job of the College Board: to bring and connect students to college success and opportunity. He expresses his own vision that will help allow the College Board to grow and improve upon their mission.

“The hardest part would be speaking in front of a room of adults, because you feel like you don’t belong there,” Murray said.

In just this year, Murray will travel to four different cities, including New York and Miami, staying for two to three days to meet with leaders from different branches of the College Board.

Murray travels solo on his paid-for trips. He has learned to suppress his nerves, as excitement always takes over.

Murray was recommended to be a representative by Julie Miller, a former Free State teacher, his sophomore year. He filled out an application and wrote a short, autobiographical essay. Eventually, he was selected as a student College Board representative.

Along with 16 other students from different regions, Murray gets to go to conferences across the country after reviewing the upcoming products for the College Board, such as its books and its website. There, he can sit down and share his input, doing his part in improving the College Board.

“I used to think that it was just an organization making a lot of money, but they really do care about giving [an] education to kids,” Murray said.

The College Board is the mastermind behind the dreaded but ever-important SAT. It also helps to help get at-risk students on the road to a better future. As a StuCo representative, Murray has experience helping students.

“They have a lot of programs to help at-risk students…students who are going to go to college,” Murray said.

Murray has the chance to congregate and merge his ideas with an array of individuals. The students work together, correlating all of their varying ideas on products and the overall development of the College Board.

“It’s interesting how they chose people [as College Board representatives] who are so different, but can work so well together,” Murray said.

Murray also had the opportunity to share ideas with some highly influential people in the College Board.

“I met a lot of people,” Murray said, reflecting on the meeting he attended in New York this fall. “We got to meet the new CEO [David Coleman].”

There are not many institutions where students can go and meet with the key leaders. Murray finds it open and exciting to be a part of the organization in this way.