Men of Action and Change, an organization founded at Geneseo in 1997, is a multicultural group dedicated to continuing a legacy of service and support to the local and global communities.
“None of the others [multicultural groups] have service. That’s our niche in the multicultural community,” said senior Alexander Conti, president of MAC.
Service is very important to the members. In the past, MAC has offered time and money to national entities such as Foodlink, Ronald McDonald House Charities and The March of Dimes.
One of the biggest accomplishments for MAC this semester was the group’s contribution to the Step Out: Walk to Fight Diabetes event held by the American Diabetes Association. Sophomore David Drozda, co-outreach coordinator for MAC, helped to oversee the service project.
“We donated over $1,000 to Step Out. It was all the members, and a lot of our alumni, too,” Drozda said. “Once you graduate, there is a legacy and they want to support us.”
The organization has also volunteered locally. “We’re really involved in the Theresa House. Recently, a couple of the guys brought baked goods up there for them,” Drozda said. In the past, MAC has joined forces with fellow organizations to participate in the Relay for Life and has assisted Black Student Union with its Soul Food Dinner.
MAC’s members still adhere to the principles and ideas that form the group’s foundation. The organization itself, however, is continually changing.
“We have five basic principles: fitness, scholarship, unity, loyalty and service,” Conti said. “Throughout our history, all of those principles have been embodied in different ways.”
Each new MAC member brings fresh ideas and convictions to the organization. All members are encouraged to pursue service opportunities that are important to them with the knowledge that brothers will provide backup and support.
“If there’s an issue someone is very tenacious to, there [are] 25 guys and 50-plus alumni to support it and help out,” said senior Nathan Washburn, vice president of MAC.
“In principle, MAC hasn’t really changed,” Conti said. “I think with new members the focus has changed, based on what each person has brought. After other members leave, our focus is redirected.”
In all its dedication to service, MAC has never lost its multicultural focus. “We boast having members with a rich composition of cultures,” Washburn said.
That diversity carries over into the social aspects of the brotherhood. “Because of the diversity, with pretty much anything I’m interested in I can find someone with similar interests,” explained Drozda. “The diversity isn’t just cultural, it’s in our activities and experiences.”
Washburn added, “I think the first draw to our organization is that there’s something for everyone.”
Whether it was the service or the diversity that has brought the brothers together, it’s definitely the friendship that helps keep them there. “The network we have extends into our outside activities,” Washburn said. “Since my freshman year, this has basically been my closest group of friends.”