December 9, 2025

by Elizabeth Mendicino ‘26

Fall continually brings new beginnings at Ramapo College of New Jersey, and ushers in fresh, potentially life-changing, opportunities for students.

One such opportunity is the Student Conference on United States Affairs (SCUSA), which welcomed four delegates from Ramapo College this fall. As the Roadrunners made the short drive north from Mahwah, NJ to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, none of them knew what the next several days would hold.

SCUSA – the largest and most prestigious conference of its kind – serves as a vital platform for building enduring civil-military relationships among the next generation of leaders in the military, government, and private sectors. Participants work together to develop innovative policy proposals on pressing issues in U.S. foreign affairs.

The conference gives students the unique and once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to engage with approximately 200 premier peers from more than 100 universities across the world. By joining students from world-renowned institutions at the conference each year, Roadrunners continuously show that they have so much to bring to the table and add to the conversation.

The 76th annual SCUSA conference focused on the “Foundations and Future of America’s Global Power and Influence.” Ramapo’s delegates for the program were political science majors Sophia Kopreski ‘25 and Sovy Taylor ‘28, international studies major James Pascal ‘26, and law and society major Kristina Kostoski ‘28.

The Student Conference on United States Affairs is held annually at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Participants were assigned to one of a multitude of roundtables, and developed policy proposals to address the core issue of the topic. Kostoski and Kopreski both were assigned to the roundtable Europe: an Emerging Global Pole, while Pascal contributed to the roundtable discussion on Latin America. At the end of the conference, groups presented their proposals to the rest of the attendees.

While students arrived at SCUSA from a vast array of global institutions and with backgrounds in a wide range of academic disciplines, each roundtable had a minimum of two West Point delegates to cultivate civil-military relations.

“I was just honestly so honored to be with those people,” said Kopreski. “I realized the cadets there are not only physically able to complete all of their training and be the best of the best in this respect; but also, they’re so smart, and such kind people open to just engaging with civilians.”

For Kostoski, attending SCUSA meant realizing a long-forgotten legacy, as her father had attended the conference during his time in college. “Honestly, I didn’t know what it was,” said Kostoski.  “I showed him [the application], and the name seemed pretty familiar. He told me that twenty years ago, he did SCUSA too. He told me he had such a great experience, and you’re going to have the best time. I just trusted everyone who told me to do it, and I’m honestly really glad that I did.”

Roadrunners collaborated with West Point cadettes during the Student Conference on United States Affairs.

The conference allowed for an unparalleled opportunity for students to cultivate their policymaking skills, as well as their ability to communicate and work with diverse groups.

“We were presenting the proposal, and it was very intense,” said Pascal, on the memory that stood out to him most. “It’s all that work you did for the two nonstop days, back-to-back. It was quite intense, the adrenaline rush was insane. I never felt so concentrated on my life, having to communicate the contents of detailed proposals.”

SCUSA has been part of the U.S. Military Academy’s Department of Social Sciences program since 1949. Ramapo College has sent delegates to the conference over the past several years, with five delegates attending SCUSA 75 in 2024 and three delegates at SCUSA 74 in 2023. In 2022 at SCUSA 73, Ramapo sent two delegates and Professor of Political Science Jeremy Teigen served as a roundtable co-chair.