New Student Trustee Hits the Ground Running

Mustafa Boweden has been elected Quinsigamond Community College’s new student trustee for the coming year. Mr. Boweden will serve on QCC’s 11-member Board of Trustees acting as a representative for the college’s student body. Student trustees are elected to the Board for a one-year term. As the student trustee, Mr. Boweden will also serve on the college’s Strategic Planning Committee.

“I’ve been to my first meeting of the trustees and I love it. I’m excited to be part of the team and representing our student body,” he said.

Mr. Boweden and his family moved from Libya in 2014 and in Fall 2017, began taking classes part-time at QCC. He has already become a recognizable figure to students, faculty and staff on the college campus. Prior to being elected the college’s student trustee, he was the 2018/2019 Vice President of the Student Government Association and along with his two brothers who have also attended QCC, has been active in student events.  He said one of his main goals is to work on engaging more student involvement that goes beyond academics.

“If you look at our campus you can see it is very inclusive, diverse and has a fine infrastructure. The college is so successful in developing academic programs and I would like to help take that even further by enhancing the student experience and increasing extra-curricular activities,” he said. “When students have other things to do in addition to academics, they become more vested in college and that can help with retention. We already have more resources than a lot of other community colleges and I’d like to increase this.”

One item that he has been passionate about is developing a men’s soccer team. Soccer been very important to Mr. Boweden and helped him acclimate to the U.S. when he first came to this country. Currently the college has a women’s team, which began competing in fall 2016. Thanks to Mr. Boweden’s tenacity he was able to generate so much student interest that a men’s team will be starting up this fall.

In addition to the men’s soccer team, Mr. Boweden said he’d also like to see more students become involved in student government.

“I also want to help students get involved in administration on campus. This would look great on their resumes and help them when they go into the workforce,” he said.

While Mr. Boweden’s term is only a year, he is confident that he can affect positive change for the student body and the college as a whole.

“As a representative for the students I hope to provide them and the Board of Trustees with needed information to help advance the mission of the college,” he said, adding, “It’s going to be very hard to leave here.”

Mr. Boweden is a General Studies major who plans to transfer to a four-year college when he graduates QCC and major in international law.