One important role the GSC plays is to give the students genuine responsibility for our program and our community.  Today's graduate students will be professors, directors and (most importantly) mentors themselves one day soon, and the best preparation for that role is to learn the mechanics of how decisions are made and programs organized in the real world.  By playing an integral role in our endeavors, the GSC allows students to see an active, vibrant program from the inside.  Remember those models of the "visible body" or "visible V8 engine" where the outsides are made transparent so you can watch the inner workings?  GSC turns our community into a "visible graduate program" for the students.  Plus it introduces them to the twin notions of self-advocacy and responsibility-to-others in an academic context, and there's no substitute for that kind of experience.

-Dr. Marc Breedlove