What’s your gig?

Friday, August 23, 2024

Dedicated students, distinguished colleagues and dear friends,

Happy Friday!

What’s your gig? Archery, rugby, dancing, amateur radio, languages, backpacking, ballet, best buddies, birding, blacksmithing, campus ministry, chess, climbing, cycling, golf, fencing, water polo, tennis, community service, Democrats, Republicans, robotics, Engineers Without Borders, entrepreneurship, formula car, Greek life, investment, karate, theater, flying, Miner Key, Needle League, photography, rockets, scuba, spelunker, Taekwondo?

And I missed over 200 other campus clubs and groups that will display their banners and showcase their art at our 2024 MinerRama fair, today on campus. Whatever your interest, you can find a congenial group of students, staff and faculty members who will welcome you into their midst. Assuming that we all agree that the purpose of education is far more encompassing than classroom pedagogy, extracurricular activities will hugely enhance our sensitivities, skills, knowledge and abilities (SKAs), and cultural awareness. In fact, Velvet Hasner, a member of our Marketing and Communications team, called my attention to the work of the late Dr. Ernest T. Pascarella, an emeritus professor of higher education at the University of Iowa, who spent over 30 years researching what works in higher education. His work included 5,000 analyzed studies and three volumes of How College Affects Students. Having only read a summary of Dr. Pascarella’s work, I can share the salient point of his work. “The conclusion,” he wrote, “is that the one crucial thing that happens that leads to benefiting from college in all sorts of ways, is how much you get engaged.”

Pascarella’s finding is cited in the Jan. 26, 2024, Chronicle of Higher Education article, “Why Campus Life Fell Apart.” Focused on Covid-19’s effects on campus life and virtual academics, the article highlights that “… three years after the pandemic’s peak, its lingering effects continue to impede the full revival of student organizations — a vital factor underpinning retention, graduation, and belonging.” Another study by The Ohio State University reports that student involvement in extracurricular experiences such as student organizations, community service, Greek life, and student employment is positively related to cognitive development, leadership, and multicultural awareness. Further, the study highlights what we intuitively know, “… employers find highly involved college students to be career ready and more hirable.”

Studies aside, I encourage students to seek and connect with like-minded peers to establish your own new “tribe.” Your new environment here at S&T with its rich and diverse clubs, groups and leagues, offers the opportunity to come together with new friends and develop habits of mind that will replace any transient self-interest with lasting shared interest. But first, we must actively seek and make friends if we are to enjoy our years here at S&T. I assure you that these will be your most memorable years, and your futures will be grounded in the realities and experiences of your time here. To be able to tap into the shared wisdom of S&T’s rich collection of experiences, views and identities, I encourage all our students to adopt an inclusive behavior, embrace diversity and become positively curious about differences. Finally, reflecting on my experiences of yesteryear, I see that there is an unopened gift in every relationship we establish. By adopting the inclusive mindset, by expending the initial activation energy of approach, and by reaching out to each other, we’ll find the gift we wanted all along.

Warmly,

-Mo.

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Mohammad Dehghani, PhD
Chancellor
mo@mst.edu | 573-341-4116

206 Parker Hall, 300 West 13th Street, Rolla, MO 65409-0910
chancellor.mst.edu