With many organizations on campus, it can be difficult to identify the impact that each organization makes. The Blue Key Honor Society is an Honorary & Professional organization on campus that focuses on serving the local community. With the motto “Serving, I live”, it is easy to see that this society values giving back to its community. The Blue Key society follows three main principles consisting of scholarship, leadership, and service. While Blue Key members give back to the Missouri S&T community as well as Rolla in general, they also take part in and promote small random acts of kindness. One of these acts of kindness that they provide throughout the year can be found at the Student Success Center; while many are aware that there is free coffee available there, some might be surprised to find that Blue Key is the organization that provides this unique service to all Missouri S&T students. Other deeds that Blue Key is occasionally known for are handing out free cups of hot chocolate when it is cold out, putting quarters in parking meters around campus, making them free to students for a day, and giving out metal, reusable straws at their booth during Earth day.
These kind acts and more fall under Blue Key’s Spirit of Change. Spirit of change is an idea that the society fundraises for. The main goal is to use their small acts of kindness to influence other students to essentially “pass it on” and participate in their own charitable acts. The society achieves this by fundraising money and then using this money to provide these amenities such as free coffee or paid meters to fellow Miners. One fun way that Blue Key fundraises toward Spirit of Change happens during Opening Week. Many students can think back to their own opening week and recall their Project X design teams and the vehicles they were able to design together. Many know that the teams race these vehicles around an obstacle course, and in the end, the result is many memories, an awards ceremony, and the auctioning of these cars. However, many people might not know or have thought about what happens to the money collected from the auction. The money fundraised from these innovative Project X vehicles goes straight to the Spirit of Change fund, and in turn, goes directly back to the students which is an impressive, selfless cycle. The Blue Key Honor Society is an organization that uses its main principles to benefit Missouri S&T students, yet at the same time, it allows its members to feel good by doing good, gain leadership opportunities, and become more involved on campus. Blue Key’s page on OrgSync is a great resource that offers insight on more events that they host, details on meeting dates and times, and officer contact information. Fortunately, applications to join The Blue Key Honor Society are now open for students of all majors that have completed sixty credit hours with a cumulative GPA of 3.0 and who are looking to make an impact on campus no matter how small.
