Taking advantage of being a Bronco
By James Bickford
In the wake of our third-place win in last week's Solar Decathlon, a lot of people have been congratulating the team for many different things.
Some people are just proud of our hard work. Others have pointed out the fact that Santa Clara has proven itself able to compete with the likes of MIT, Carnegie Mellon and Georgia Tech, as an article last week stated.
Certainly the team deserves this recognition, but from my perspective, everyone has missed a few of the key points of our recent accomplishment.
I wrote an article a few weeks ago about how Santa Clara can compete with any university in the U.S. I think that through small things like the Solar Decathlon, rising admission standards and higher collegiate rankings, people will start taking notice of little ol Santa Clara.
The national recognition is not nearly as important, however, as the realization that we go to a school that gives us virtually every opportunity to succeed.
The true prize of our recent accomplishments in the Solar Decathlon is not national prestige, but school pride. And this pride is something that should be taken and used productively.
The decathletes, a group of students from the engineering, business, and arts and sciences schools, teamed up, believed in themselves and succeeded against universities with much better reputations.
What we should take from the victory of Santa Clara students at the Solar Decathlon is that Santa Clara has succeeded in creating a place that allows students to fulfill their creative potential.
I see this everywhere at Santa Clara these days. I was a community facilitator in Swig this summer and was fortunate enough to live on the men's soccer floor.
At first, I was uncertain about a bunch of the athletes, but my early unease quickly gave way to the realization that this was indeed a fantastic team. I never saw them practice. Since I've been on the other side of the country most of this quarter, I have not seen a game. But I have seen that the men's soccer team is an amazing group of guys.
These guys are polite and courteous, hard-working and supportive. Even when people were being cut, the true veterans of the team were there to try to make them feel better.
Their winning streak is certainly a measure of their success, but the true success is their cohesion, strength and unity as a team.
The campus community is alive with hard work and dedication. Teams of people have worked hard to form clubs, support Associated Students, reach out to the community, write articles for the newspaper and build homes in Tijuana.
There are dedicated individuals who pursue research in ethics, challenge students to think about the world in different ways and even just put on fun movie nights to foster community.
I am proud to be a Bronco. Proud because I have seen what a Bronco can do, especially around a team of other Broncos.
I urge you, do not fall short of being proud. Take it. Embrace it.
Understand the essence of a school that is asking you to step up and be a leader, and dare yourself to meet that challenge and be a better person.
Do not stand on the sidelines -- except, of course, to watch the men's soccer team.
Go out of your way to grow and experience everything here. I am happy to say that there is a lot of very positive energy going around at this university, in a world that needs more of it.
As each of us works through our four years at Santa Clara, our goal is to strive to become more competent in our studies, more conscious of our surroundings and more compassionate to others.
These traits are sorely missing in the world, but I am proud to be a Bronco because this is a place that nurtures these ideals.
So if you are thinking about popping some popcorn and inviting freshmen over to your suite, running for class president or becoming the project manager of the '09 Solar Decathlon team (hint, hint), do it. Because trust me, our time here is too short.
Go Broncos!
James Bickford is the project manager of the 2007 Solar Decathlon team and a senior mechanical engineering major.