For many students in the MAT@USC program the phrase Fight on! is meaningless, but that does not last long. Once we associate ourselves with the great University of Southern California, we learn fast that those words really mean something. Growing up in the states of the mountain west I have no real reason to know a lot about USC. The schools that dominate sports press coverage in my area are Cougars, Utes, Cowboys, Buffaloes, Rams and sometimes Falcons. There are no Trojans here — or are there?
Rock Springs, Wyoming is 871 miles from USC. Perhaps close in some geographic sense when considering destinations across the world, but it seems very far away. I am not just talking about red and blue states, the real differences are striking; the economies, the ecology, and the histories are different. Despite the differences, USC still unites these areas through the Trojan Family.
Today, as I walked into a store in Rock Springs, I saw a mini-van with a USC sticker in the back window and a USC license plate frame. A woman was loading her purchases and her child into the van, so I said, “Go Trojans!” Her immediate response: Fight on! 100 miles west I stopped for gas this morning and inside the station were stacks of USC Chevron cars. During my framing class last semester I reached out to some community groups through emails. Only two responded, but one was a church minister who proudly proclaimed that his was a part of the Trojan family and two of his children are USC Alums, and signed his email Fight on! A few weeks ago I wore a USC hat inside a local business filled with travelers. One traveler approached me and said, “What are you wearing a USC hat around here for?” I explained that I was a student at USC, and he responded, “You must be pretty smart then.” Aw – that was nice.
I was worried when I began the MAT@USC that it would be hard to connect with my classmates through the online medium — that couldn’t be farther from the truth. In fact, I think we get to know each other faster and easier than in a traditional setting. For example, my friend and classmate Christian lives in Southern California, this week we met up for lunch in Hollywood when I was in town to take my CSET. When we met in person we already knew each other. The virtual world of our academic setting had not changed anything. We compared classes, professors and curriculum as we would if we are on campus, but what dominated our conversation was USC, and our experiences with the Trojan family.
These stories may seem cliché, but they really mean something to a student who has little connection with the community of Los Angeles and the campus of USC. The program is designed to make that physical connection unnecessary and has taken many steps to help students find each other and their local USC communities through meet-ups and online social networks. All of those things are great, but I have come to realize that they are small pieces to the puzzle that creates a sense of community, because USC is everywhere anyway. There is no cliché in the fact that a degree from USC connects us to a huge alumni network. Don’t think that your degree will be valuable searching for a job in this economy? I will kindly disagree. The power of the network does not rest in numbers and influence, the real power of the Trojan family is our passion.
Please comment with your experiences with the Trojan family wherever you have connected with them.
Fight On!
Brad is enrolled in the MAT@USC and has plans to become a teacher in Wyoming where he aspires to teach upon graduating.
