“Carpe diem” could be a good motto for Montana State University’s graduating class of 2010. Among this year’s graduating seniors are many students who have seized the day in remarkable ways.

“My sense is MSU students are thinking deeply about serving others — and they want to do so now, not later.” Here are three graduating seniors who have seized the day at MSU, served others and made a positive difference.

They have installed water wells for poor villagers in Kenya. Built a school for Sherpa porters in Nepal. Made the MSU campus greener, with Streamline buses and campuswide recycling. They stood up against racism and demonstrated for Martin Luther King Jr.’s ideals when white supremacists appeared in Bozeman. They even held a well-organized, well-mannered campus protest that helped persuade administrators to save MSU’s microbiology department. Students at MSU have traded a longtime reputation for apathy for activism.

“Yes!” wrote Carmen McSpadden, longtime director of the Leadership Institute http://www.montana.edu/leadership/ and of the new Leadership Fellows program. “There is a generational shift to a hands-on, things-that-matter approach to learning.

STORY BY GAIL SCHONTZLER

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