BYU Chess Club president works to establish a safe community for students
Throughout his mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Rob Harker heard the same motto from his mission president: “your mission is to bless.”
Harker thinks of this motto each day as he leads the BYU Chess Club which has continued to grow over the last two years since he became the president.
“You want to be a leader to bless others,” Harker said.
Harker has worked with the BYU Chess Club to establish a strong chess community that had not been at BYU for many years until he brought it back.
“There was a chess club before Rob, but I couldn’t find any contact information on social media, any times when they met, or any other organization before Rob came in and revitalized everything,” chess officer Ethan Petersen said.
Known for his ability to talk with others and make them feel at ease, Harker, a junior studying psychology, is a unique chess club president.
“Rob is unlike other chess club presidents that may be good at chess, but not the social aspect. He understands the importance of being able to reach out to people and get them to come play,” Petersen said.
Playing chess and socializing with others have defined most of Harker’s life, he said. He began to learn the game as a five-year-old when his father first taught him and then he began playing chess with whoever he could.
Brian Harker, Rob Harker’s father, remembers being on a boardwalk in San Diego when five-year-old Rob walked off to go play a game of chess with a stranger.
“We looked over and he had just walked up to this guy sitting at a chess board and sat down with his stuffed animal and began playing him,” Brian Harker said.
Rob Harker began playing chess at the Orem Public Library on Thursdays for four hours each week when he was young, playing against adults and other children, teaching him how to interact with others and develop valuable social skills.
Born and raised in Orem, Rob Harker was raised in a liberal household and homeschooled by his Hispanic mother, Sally, until he started junior high.
“The way I was raised and the ideologies I was taught were very different from many of the other friends I grew up with,” Rob Harker said.
Rob Harker was also picked on for looking different, he said. People thought he looked Asian even though he was Hispanic, which was difficult for him growing up.
“I leaned into it, but it wasn’t always the easiest to deal with,” Rob Harker said.
According to Rob Harker, chess was an outlet that helped him build his self-confidence and allowed him to be himself growing up.
As he began junior high, however, Rob Harker stepped away from chess because of the negative stereotypes surrounding the game. Harker did not play the game again until his junior year in high school when he saw people setting up some boards and Harker said he felt the boards calling to him.
“I wear chess as my brand now because I rejected it when I was younger,” Rob Harker said.
In high school, Rob Harker had the opportunity to develop many of his leadership traits. He became student body president and worked as a leader in the National Honor Society at his school. However, according to Rob Harker, it was not until he served his mission for the Church that he really learned to become a leader.
“I didn’t have any leadership roles on the mission which made me feel a little unseen, which was a valuable experience because it allowed me to see the other people that also were unseen … it made me a better leader,” Rob Harker said.
As the chess club president, Rob Harker works to create a community of students who are all passionate about the game and who support each other every week because of his ability to recruit others to the club and to find people who would like to play chess.
“He enjoys getting other people excited about the game of chess,” Brian Harker said.
According to Rob Harker, his greatest chess accomplishment is that the chess club 40 people to come participate consistently each week.
“On a chess club night, the priority isn’t that I win, it’s that people feel the community and feel safe,” Rob Harker said.
Rob Harker has found success recruiting people to the chess club because of his ability to talk with people and make them feel comfortable as well as his persistence at getting people to come play.
According to Rob Harker, he looks for people who have the “gaze” who look like they want to come play, but simply need an invitation to join.
“He has a social and emotional intelligence that gives him an apt perspective on people’s motivations and the things that they value,” Brian Harker said.
After successfully revitalizing the chess club, Rob Harker is beginning to look for a successor as he prepares to move on from the chess club at the end of this upcoming semester.
“I believe I have accomplished my goals of establishing a safe community for students who want to enjoy chess,” Rob Harker said.
Rob Harker plans to stay in touch with chess after he leaves the BYU Chess Club and said he has thought about doing community events outside of BYU as well as starting a YouTube channel where he can build a new community.
No matter what he decides to do next with chess, Rob Harker will always be guided by what he learned from his mission president, “your mission is to bless.”