In an effort to fight against the tunnel vision that comes with studying in a specific field, a new MSC organization hopes to allow students to explore beyond their majors.
After receiving an endowment from the Bethancourt family, student leaders noticed many organizations focus on only one field, which they felt left a gap in professional development. This led to the creation of MSC Bethancourt.
“When we were creating this, we wanted to take the best aspects of the organizations we were a part of and put them into one,” said Alan Clayton, business senior.
MSC Bethancourt, which is accepting applications until Friday at noon, has two primary functions: bringing speakers to campus and introducing students to events and people they might otherwise be unable to experience.
“Like every MSC organization, we want to give back to campus,” said John Schomburger, accounting junior. “Our conduit for that will be our spring program, and we want to bring someone in who’s going to be really interesting to everyone and that’s kind of what we feel is our purpose for the campus as a whole. On the other side we care a lot about taking in our first group of members and developing them educationally and professionally.”
Peter Rozanski, founding director and civil engineering senior, said MSC Bethancourt is primarily student driven, with students deciding which events they want to participate in and who they want to talk to.
“What we want to do is create an intellectually stimulating program that’s open to all students, and the fun part about it is that we aren’t going to box it into any specific form or style of an event,” Rozanski said. “So one of the most exciting things of being in Bethancourt is that you get to determine what this major event every spring is going to be.”
Rozanski said anyone looking to learn and grow will appreciate MSC Bethancourt.
“Students will grow in areas they wouldn’t necessarily have the opportunity to otherwise,” Rozanski said. “And I think students that are hungry and driven and intellectually curious in general will really thrive in an environment like this, where they get to personally drive the organization and also receive a lot of knowledge and insight.”
Clayton said MSC Bethancourt presents a unique opportunity for students to develop the organization around their own interests and talents.
“So many times we go into an organization and consume, we don’t get to create, and we’d like the entrepreneurial spirit to permeate everything we do,” Clayton said.