
Four students were recently selected to serve on the the Bush School Ambassadors Council, a new student group that represents the Bush School at special events, development functions, and alumni and recruitment events. Primarily, the ambassadors are student liaisons to special guests and students invited to come to the Bryan/College Station community.
The new ambassadors are Courtney Anigian, Laura Griffith, Daphne Hiatt, and Max Shanstrom, all students pursuing a degree in the Master’s Program in International Affairs (MPIA) at the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University. There are now twenty-six members of the group, chosen by the organization’s selection committee. The Ambassadors Council concept came from a group of students who convinced the administration that they could be major assets to the School’s external relations activities. Their aim is to reinforce the School’s emphasis on professionalism and discipline in public service careers. Members are selected for their competence, social awareness, dependability, and integrity, as well as their ability to represent the Bush School.
Brandon Pichanick, chief ambassador of the Council, said the organization’s purpose is to help the School as the student body increases. “We believe that having students engaged in various activities can be a plus in the School’s external relations activities,” he said. “Our job is to be the student connection between the institutions and organizations connected to the Bush School who regularly invite people to the campus,” he added.
The ambassadors seek to make sure guests feel welcome and special during their time at the Bush School. “Our members have to be as comfortable conversing with national and international guests as they are with a lost undergraduate trying to find his or her way around the School,” said Pichanick.