Fraternal twins, Brett and Brock Foster, are as different as night and day and have built their reputations at Eastern Michigan University by investing in the mantra that building community means putting yourself out there.
“If you want it, it’s something you have to try and do, it’s not going to come to you,” said Brock, an international business major. “Opportunities come to those who want them.”
Set to graduate in April, the twins are members of EMU’s Honors College and are active in campus life, although they left Downing Hall and live in their hometown of Plymouth.
Brett, a marketing major, recently became part of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity and serves as a community programmer for EMU Housing Resident Life. He acted as a student government senator and recalls his time as a New Student Orientation Adviser fondly.
“I was an NSOA until I wasn’t allowed to be one anymore,” he said.
Brock is a supplemental business instructor and, up until last year, president of the International Business Student Association. He also participated on the Orientation Team of Eastern’s Advisers and Mentors and helps out with club tennis.
While attending Salem High School, the pair kept busy as co-captains of the tennis team and refereeing soccer, but say they were not the extroverts that they are now.
“I’m definitely a more well-rounded individual than I was then,” Brett said.
By their junior year, it was evident that they had settled into college life with ease. Ben Slaughterbeck, a simulated animation and gaming major, said he crossed paths with them in his first week as a freshman.
“I was crawling into my bed when I heard a knock on my window. I looked out and saw Brock,” he said. “He shook my hand through the window, asked my name, then invited me to come and play Frisbee.”
Slaughterbeck didn’t play Frisbee that night, but he said that the twins have been influential to his life at EMU.
“They’ve both been outgoing and have reached out to people to make sure they can find their own place here at Eastern,” the junior said.
Coming close to the end of university life Brett hopes to find a suitable job and Brock has aspirations of becoming an entrepreneur in coaching or mentoring. But the brothers, who are best friends, said that working together would be the dream job.
Described as the epitome of EMU spirit, by Geoff Larcom, executive director of media relations, the Fosters agree that basketball and football games will be a treasured memory for years to come.
“Basketball games are crazy,” Brock said.
“I go nuts at the games,” Brett added.
But the most notable things the twins will take with them after graduation are the friends they’ve made and the experiences they’ve had. Both also have a piece of advice for future Eagles.
“It doesn’t matter where you go to college,” Brock said. “What matters is that you put your best into whatever you do and that you look to find people who want to do the same things that you do.”
