McCombs Student Leads Team of Cyclists to Alaska

Most McCombs undergrads spend their summers interning with prestigious companies, taking classes to help them graduate on schedule or studying abroad. Jeffrey Schwartz, BHP and finance senior, spent last summer riding his bike to Alaska

In June 2006, Schwartz and 45 other University of Texas at Austin students began their 70-day journey to Anchorage, Alaska, with Texas 4000 for Cancer, a nonprofit organization whose members ride an average of 70 miles a day from Austin to Anchorage to raise money for cancer research.

“I loved the summer, and I loved what we did,” Schwartz says. “But the thing I hated was that it magnified how big of a problem cancer is. It’s upsetting that you can bike through 70 cities over 4,500 miles and not meet a single person who hasn’t encountered cancer in some way.”

While Schwartz has not been personally affected by cancer, his motivation for the ride came from his desire to help the cause.

“I was riding for the people who would pull us over on a daily basis and start crying and thanking us for what we were doing,” he says.

Schwartz’s journey began long before he pedaled out of Austin. Selected as director for the ride, Schwartz was responsible for securing funds, tracking the progress of 45 cyclists and making sure the team arrived in Alaska safely.

“I grossly underestimated the time commitment it would take to be director, but I was more than happy to fulfill the duties,” says Schwartz, who devoted an average of 30 hours a week to Texas 4000 during both the fall and spring semesters leading up to the journey.

On top of his duties as director, Schwartz had to train for the ride—no small challenge given the fact that the first time he straddled a bike was eight months before the ride. Despite his lack of cycling experience, Schwartz logged around 700 training miles before he and the team left for Alaska.

While his training helped, nothing could prepare Schwartz for the ride’s first day: a 120-mile trek over 13 hours in 105-degree heat, with unrelenting winds that were so intense Schwartz was forced to pedal downhill. But as he points out, it’s the tough days that put the ride into perspective.

“The ride is a metaphor for cancer,” Schwartz says. “You have the good days and the bad days, and after a long day of cycling in the freezing cold and pouring rain, you have to get up the next morning and do it all over again.”

Despite the organization’s goal to spread knowledge about cancer, Schwartz was surprised to find that he learned more about the disease from the people he met along the journey. As the team passed through Washington, for instance, Schwartz spent four hours with a cancer survivor who shared her grueling battle.

“Her husband is a photographer and had documented everything, from the night she told her kids to when she lost her hair,” Schwartz says. “I was so naïve to think that I knew cancer before the ride. I knew nothing about cancer.”

Not everyone Schwartz met had such dramatic stories, but all were more than willing to go out of their way to help the team. As the cyclists neared Zion National Park in Utah, they learned they would not be allowed to ride their bikes through the park. Fortunately, a man offered to carry the team’s bikes through the park in his trailer, even though it meant waiting five hours for the team to meet him. When the cyclists finally arrived, the man greeted the team with food and drinks.

“I would say that he was the most amazing person I met, but I met so many amazing people on the ride,” Schwartz recalls.

Though Schwartz is unable to join the team this summer because he will be busy as a summer analyst intern with Jeffries in New York, he has left his mark on Texas 4000. By raising nearly $20,000 on his own, Schwartz holds the record for personally securing the most funds for the organization. He is also active in the formation of a Texas 4000 advisory board and is currently organizing a 300-person tribute dinner to welcome this year’s riders home at the end of this summer.

“I wish I had the time to do the ride again,” Schwartz says. “It will always be a part of who I am.”

—Andrea Ferdinand