Students From 22 Universities Visit Aggieland For SCONA

More than 200 students from 22 universities gathered Feb. 16-18 at Texas A&M for the 62nd annual MSC Student Conference On National Affairs.

SCONA brings delegates from across the nation and around the world to discuss topics of national importance. Featured guests include prominent representatives of such fields as public health, journalism, government, and the military.

"The purpose of SCONA is to grow your knowledge and understanding of how things work on a bigger scale when it comes to international politics and diplomacy,” international studies sophomore and conference delegate Monica Bartler '19 told The Battalion.

This year’s conference theme was “Against All Enemies, Foreign and Domestic: Securing the Homeland.” Students were divided into 17 roundtables focused on specific topics, including weapons of mass destruction, domestic terror, and media bias.

Each roundtable was led by a facilitator with experience in the specific field. For example, Rolando Santos '78, formerly of CNN, facilitated the roundtable on "the hidden agendas of the media.”

Also in attendance were Maj. Gen. William Rapp, commandant of the U.S. Army War College, Adm. Michael Rogers, director of the NSA and U.S. Cyber Command, and Charlie McMillan, the director of Los Alamos National Laboratory. Rapp gave the keynote at the conference's closing banquet.

Read more about SCONA 62 in The Battalion.