Student Spotlight

“Consistency, Commitment, Accountability, and Responsibility” –
MSU alumnus Clovis Watson leads by example in Alachua, Florida

Mountain State University has a proud history of offering educational opportunities to West Virginians who wanted to study and build careers in their home state. Now, as  MSU builds a reputation as an excellent provider of distance education and online learning, the University offers residents of other states the same great opportunity to gain a degree without leaving the place they call home. And for Clovis Watson, Jr., that place is Alachua, Florida.  

In 2002, Alachua was on the brink of a governmental and leadership crisis. Two City Managers had come and gone within 3 years. In June, 2005, Clovis Watson, the Assistant Chief of Police, was asked to serve as interim City Manager; after two months on the job, he was asked to take the position on a permanent basis.

When Watson accepted the City Manager position, he began to look for formal training to augment his professional experience. “It was important for me to find an accredited institution to pursue my master’s degree,” he says. “I obviously couldn’t leave Alachua so I needed to pursue my degree via distance education. I found MSU early in my searches, and what was particularly appealing to me was the opportunity to get credit towards my degree for the projects that I was working on for the City of Alachua.”

What Watson found at MSU was the Interdisciplinary Studies master’s degree, which offers students great flexibility in self-designing a degree. “I worked with Christy Bishop, who is a real treasure, to create the right program for me,” says Watson. “We created a concentration in Public Administration, and my culminating final project was a master plan for Alachua, with a comprehensive design for growth and land development. I started with a historical study of the city, documenting how it grew through the years, and then suggested steps for future development which still preserved the integrity of our past.”

Want to know how can MSU’s Graduate Interdisciplinary Studies program can help you? For more information, contact the University's Information Center by calling 866.FOR.MSU1 (866.367.6781).