In the social science-concentrated halls of Building 23, dreams of political science and local politics were born for Walter Smit, an SPSCC alumnus and former Running Start student. Walter initially attended Olympia High School and was enthusiastic to join the Running Start program at SPSCC in the fall of 2014 after observing his older brother’s positive experience in the program. At SPSCC, Walter found the freedom to explore a wide variety of subjects and to combine his academic interest in political science with leadership positions in the community.
In addition to the numerous courses offered at SPSCC, Walter was inspired by the assorted student body. “It’s so much more of a diverse classroom,” Walter shares. “Classmates have been homeless, they’ve been business owners, they’ve been in the military and those were really useful and interesting perspectives to bring to a classroom. Also, just as an added bonus, the college atmosphere is just so much nicer than high school, it offers that greater variety.”
Although Walter is currently pursuing a politics degree at UW Tacoma, his studies were initially concentrated toward computer science and electrical engineering. He feared, though, that any potential jobs in the computer science field could one day be replaced by artificial intelligence.
“The greatest minds right now are working on automating jobs and creating artificial intelligence,” he explains. “Right now, looking at a career, it makes sense to consider what can’t be automated. Politics was one of those things where I don’t think artificial intelligence can do that. I always liked talking about politics and I am also pretty patriotic; I like America.”
With a newfound passion for politics and sociology, Walter searched for a real-world outlet to witness local governmental organizations firsthand, which led him to a student seat on Intercity Transit’s Community Advisory Committee (CAC).
The advisory committee meets once a month and each committee member goes a couple times a year to meetings for the Intercity Transit Authority, which is the decision-making body. “CAC is an advisory committee of what we hear in the community and what we see as potential areas of improvement, Walter says. “There is a nice feedback loop with Intercity Transit staff. We also have options on the CAC, if we want to volunteer with Intercity Transit further.”
Walter felt that he had a unique perspective on the committee, both as a student and user of Intercity Transit. “They needed some input from the SPSCC community and that’s what a student could bring,” he adds. “There were some specific issues for SPSCC that I could bring up at Intercity Transit meetings.”
In addition to providing input to Intercity Transit, being a part of the Community Advisory Committee also gave Walter the opportunity to testify in front of the Washington State Senate and House of Representatives in favor of expanding public transportation. “The committee was an opportunity to volunteer for Intercity Transit in a very political way,” Walter says. “I was able to testify for that Senate Bill 5288 to the legislative committees, twice in the House and once in the Senate.”
Walter’s testimony in the state legislature piqued his interest in a potential career in lobbying. “Lobbying can just be citizens telling Congress what they think about how legislation affects them,” he explains. “Before I did it myself, I saw lobbying as a federal thing that big corporations do in federal Congress. Now, lobbying is more familiar and interesting thing.”
Walter has since transferred from SPSCC, with two years’ worth of credits, but still remains a member of the Community Advisory Committee in Olympia. Walter is currently serving a three-year term while finishing his undergraduate degree at UW Tacoma. He is combining his passions to pursue a politics, philosophy, and economics combined degree. While discussing current political issues, Walter’s degree program also keeps him on his toes by debating various philosophical perspectives, including the works of Immanuel Kant. So far, though, the book that has held most influence for Walter is The Curious Enlightenment of Professor Caritat by Steven Lukes.
Looking ahead, Walter sees many potential careers on the horizon, including possibly working in local government here in Olympia. Graduate school, though, is Walter’s most likely next step. “I might be doing a master’s program at Columbia University for conflict resolution,” he shares. “Conflict resolution is useful in lots of different things. The part that I’m interested in is international conflict resolution.”
And of course, Walter still remains passionate and knowledgeable about public transportation and Intercity Transit, including the recent changes to local bus routes, particularly express routes to Tacoma. He reported that the changed routes were due to several factors, including under-usage. “Three routes were a bit much for the volume of people that were commuting,” he explains.
In spite of any change in bus routes, Walter still advocates for the community, especially students, to use public transportation whenever possible. “You can ride the bus for free as an SPSCC student,” he shares. “It’s good for the environment, it’s good for the wallets of the riders, it’s good for traffic. So, often times, I would talk about it in classes here at SPSCC and say, ‘Hey, you should ride the bus or get your friends to ride the bus, so you can have their parking spot.’”
In addition to riding the bus, Walter also advocates for the community to get involved with local transit by answering surveys, which present transit decision-makers with direct feedback about policies that could dispense more revenue for public transit.
Learn more about your future career on the South Puget Sound Community College website or call 360-596-5200.
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