At age 20, Matthew Kresich plays many roles in his life: student, mentor, committee chair, tutor coordinator, coach, musician, actor and venture scout.

Kresich, a junior mechanical engineering major, said he chose mechanical engineering because of his innate curiosity.

“I kind of always liked to learn how things work,” Kresich said.

In the fall of 2015, Kresich also chose to join the Honors College.

“It’s great,” Kresich said. “Being a mechanical engineering major, it’s cool meeting people from other majors.”

Within one year of joining, Kresich became a mentor in the Honors College. His responsibilities are to mentor at least three freshman students and meet with them at least once a week to see how they are adjusting to their classes and to being on campus.

Brandon Rukes, program coordinator of the Honors College, said the students who are mentored by Kresich love him.

“There’s a genuine sense of caring. He doesn’t just meet with them once a week to ask plain questions. There’s a genuine sense of ‘I want to be here. I want to be your mentor,’” Rukes said.

In another role he plays in the Honors College, Kresich is chair of the 32-member Community Involvement Committee, tasked with finding volunteer work opportunities for students in the Honors College.

“There’s a lot we require to make sure our students have many opportunities to give back,” Rukes said. “It’s his desire to help out any way he can. He helps run and lead the team and, the thing is, he has the drive to do more and get involved to not only benefit himself but to help others.”

Kresich also serves as the Tutor Coordinator for the Student Academic Support Tutoring Center. Before assuming this role, he completed two semesters of open lab tutoring. As Tutor Coordinator, he is responsible for creating the schedules for the 70 student tutors employed by the center.

“It’s exceptionally hard,” Kresich said. “Everyone has their own different schedules, and trying to get everyone to a time that works for them is challenging.”

An avid sports lover, Kresich plays intramural volleyball and coaches a church league. He credits great coaches from grade school as being part of how he began to start coaching himself.

Also a musician, Kresich began playing the violin at the age of 10 and the piano just three years ago. Aside from the two instruments, he also plays the dulcimer and the mandolin after a friend introduced them to him.

“Once you learn it [violin], you find you can learn more,” he said in regards to learning to play more instruments.

During his high school years, Kresich took an interest in theatre, playing the lead role in his first play, which he describes as being a bit terrifying. He says that he and a friend even wrote a play themselves.

Kresich credits his leadership skills to joining Boy Scouts in the fifth grade and continuing to be one, earning the rank of Eagle Scout at 16. In 2012, Kresich was awarded the Lynn Darin Distinguished Eagle Scout Award and, in 2014, he was recognized with the American Legion Eagle Scout of the Year for Indiana.

“I was very shocked,” Kresich said on winning the second award. “They choose scouts from each district throughout the state, and when they announced District 1 I thought to myself, ‘I’m from District 1.’”

Kresich remains involved with Venture Scouting, which focuses more on volunteer work.

“We didn’t want it to end at 18,” Kresich said.

Kresich said that finding the time to do everything he does takes a lot of sacrifice.

“If you find something you want to do, you’ll find a way to do it,” Kresich said.

After graduation, Kresich hopes to pursue a job in his field of study.