A.J. Schmitz

"I love college. I love being around college architecture, and the people. I’m in my thirties and I still feel like I’m not. The only way I can stay in college without being a student is to teach at a college. Which I’m doing now! The only way to do that effectively is to get a doctorate. Without a doctorate, how can I talk about books for the rest of my life? Right? That’s really why I’m doing it."

--A.J.Schmitz, PhD Candidate Grad Student, English Professor

Recently I’ve been realizing that while I’ve been able to interview students for the Faces of I.U.P. blog, I hadn’t been able to reach out to the faculty and staff here at I.U.P. Unlike students whom you can always randomly pull aside and sit down with to talk, professors don’t always have the same luxury. They have places they need to be, papers to grade, life to live beyond the classroom just as much as any student. I have to be just as—if not more than—accommodating to them and their schedules.

The professor whom I interviewed for this post has been one of my professors this semester. I asked him ahead of time if he’d be willing to sit down with me and be an interviewee for my blog. He agreed kindly, and we decided to meet after his office hours had finished up and before my Math class would start on Monday. We met up in the library, and we made our way outside in the Oak Grove. After lighting a cigarette, my professor sat down with me on one of the benches in front of the Performing Arts Center. We then began the interview.

“How do you want me to refer to you?” I asked my professor. “On your syllabus you go by A.J. Schmitz. However your real name is Andrew.”

“It is,” he said, “but A.J. is fine.”

I smiled, and went on with the interview. “In class you mentioned that you are a Grad Student. What are you a Grad Student in?”

“I’m a PhD candidate. Which means I’m working on my doctorate. I’ve been out of coursework for two years. I’m currently working on my dissertation proposal. All the while I’m basically teaching English 101 courses.”

“Is the doctorate you’re trying to go for in English?”

“It’s in English Literature,” he clarified for me.

“Cool,” I responded, making note of that fact. I then went on and asked, “Where are you from?”

“I’m from a little town in LA called El Segundo. It is right by the LAX. But for the past four years I’ve been living here in beautiful, wonderful Indiana in Western PA.”

“That leads me to my next question,” I responded to him.  I had been meaning to ask him this question for quite some time. Now was the perfect opportunity. “How does a guy from California end up here?”

“I’m in a very long-term relationship. My girlfriend got into the Criminology department here. Since I wanted to be with her, I applied into I.U.P. and I got in. They gave me tuition waivers and they let me work at the university through a professor. I was like, ‘Why not? Honey, let’s go.’”

“How did you meet your girlfriend?”

A.J. tilted his head to the side, and his eyes took on a far-out look. “In community college, we met outside of an audition for a main-stage production of A Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare. I didn’t know how long everything was going to take and I was outside, moderately freaking out. I needed a cigarette. She was sitting outside in a gorgeous green dress, and she was talking with a friend and smoking a cigarette. I said, ‘This is my chance to talk to a pretty lady and get a cigarette!’ That’s how we met. Then we both got cast for the same show we were going out for, and we started dating very shortly after that. Come Wednesday the 22nd, we would have been together for fourteen years.”

(Going to take a few moments to congratulate Professor Schmitz and his girlfriend on fourteen years. That’s something to commemorate. Hope there’s many more to follow!)

Not going to lie, I was pretty impressed. “Wow. Fourteen years! I guess when you said it was long-term, I can definitely see why you said if she wanted to come here, you would come here.”

“Yeah,” A.J. smiled as he agreed.

I decided to see if I could find out more about his past. “I take it you were an English major in college?”

“Yes. When I first went to college I was a Theater major. For some reason I thought, ‘Hey, I would like to actually get a paycheck!’ So I decided to go into the best (that’s sarcasm) discipline, and that’s English Literature. Which is dying! That’s what it was, and I’ve been taking English classes since I was an Undergrad. I wasn’t even supposed to be taking English classes, since I took all Advanced Placement English courses in high school. I didn’t need to take one English class. Even so, I took Literature classes.”

“So you said you were originally a Theater major, did you graduate as a Theater major?”

“No, very shortly after I got to college I figured out that that was a hobby. It wasn’t that I wasn’t good at it, it was just after I transferred out of the community college that I went and got into the institution—Cal Long Beach—where I got my Bachelors. I declared not-Theater. I declared English Literature because again, I thought it was a better idea.”

“Why did you decide you wanted to get a doctorate in English Literature?” I asked him, my curiosity boiling like a vat of soup over a stove.

“I love college. I love being around college architecture, and the people. I’m in my thirties and I still feel like I’m not. The only way I can stay in college without being a student is to teach at a college. Which I’m doing now! The only way to do that effectively is to get a doctorate. Without a doctorate, how can I talk about books for the rest of my life? Right? That’s really why I’m doing it.”

“You really love books?” I asked. Not because I myself don’t like books, but I wanted to see how much he did.

“I do!” he exclaimed. “I do! I enjoy reading. I don’t get to do it very often anymore. I do a lot of scatter-shot reading which is where I’m reading bits and pieces of things that I know are going to help me, so I can get the gist of a lot of things. The last time I sat down and just read a book, was my coursework a couple of years ago. I do enjoy them. They do really nice ascetically. My girlfriend and I- in our apartment- she has more DVDs than books. My books are overtaking her DVDs, and my records, and my other stuff. They just look good out there. Books are great.”

“Once you get your doctorate, where do you plan on going from here?”

“That’s really not up to me. The state of higher education being what it is, it’s kind of up to what institutions are hiring, and would we be happy living there? Since she’s in higher education too- she’s getting her doctorate this Tuesday, hopefully-”

“Oh congrats to her!” I exclaimed.

“Congrats to her indeed,” A.J. agreed before continuing on. “But she is a little ahead of me, and wherever she can get hired—she’s looking into getting a job where we can both live. She and I kind of want to live in or around a city. We don’t want to live in Florida since it’s a horrible state—especially with the laws. Apparently it’s okay to shoot Black people there. There’s certain deal-breakers. We don’t want to live in the Dakotas. But basically if there’s a college that will hire us for a tenure-track position—which basically means more money and security—that’s where we’ll be heading.”

“Since she has to find work after she gets her doctorate, do you guys think you’ll have to leave I.U.P. immediately afterward?”

“We’re hoping she might be a shoe-in for another year here. Ten to one says I’ll be rehired here at I.U.P for next year. There’s no guarantee for me, and there’s actually no guarantee for her but she’s a good prospect. She’s actually been a prospect for several months and there’ve been no biters.”

He laughed, “That kind of shows the state of higher education. She’s well-qualified and she has really good stuff. It’s just who is hiring and how many instructors. We might still be here for another year. You might see me in K-Mart working behind the counter. You don’t know.”

We both laughed. At that moment, a question came to mind regarding how he and his girlfriend didn’t intend on living in Florida. Having had him in class, I recalled the amount of social justice issues we had discussed in class. I decided to ask him, “How did you come to be passionate about social justice issues?”

“Passionate isn’t really the word,” he told me. “I’m logical. I’m a logical person. A lot of the arguments for and against the whole Trayvon Martin thing, or what was going on last semester in Ferguson—and still on-going—Eric Garner and all this stuff, just isn’t logical. It’s not logical that someone can be basically murdered and it’s okay.

“There was a story in the news where a guy ran away from a traffic stop and he got shot a couple of times in his back. I understand that he messed up, he shouldn’t have run because he was worried about child support papers and a warrant. He shouldn’t have run. Did he need to be killed? No. Does a seventy-three-year-old man need to be carrying a gun and working on an arms sting in Oklahoma and ‘accidentally’ shoot an unarmed civilian? No. This is illogical.

“Some say, ‘Well the cops are supposed to have this kind of authority.’ Well then don’t abuse it. This isn’t a religious issue—this isn’t even really a moral issue, though morality is attached to it. I just don’t understand. I don’t get it. Why is this okay somehow? I do see how it’s because of institutional racism, institutional gender-bias, and because it is institutional homophobia. It’s because of institutional all of these negative things. We’ve normalized these negative things, and we can’t get out from under it because that means it is someone else’s fault, right? No! There needs to be culpability. This is why this is just illogical. This is why it makes no sense to me, and that’s why I care about it.

“Going back to your question,” A.J. continued, “Why am I passionate about it? It’s because I don’t understand why more people aren’t. I want other people to be outraged, if there should be something to be outraged about. We shouldn’t care if Kylie Jenner has fake lips on Instagram. But more people know more about that than what’s going on than what effects their life and their freedom.

“To that point too. Should the government be looking at our e-mails? My god! No, they shouldn’t. But are you doing anything wrong? No! What do you have to worry about? We have to give up certain things to live in a society. Some of the things we need to give up is a little bit of privacy. That’s fine, as long as we don’t let crazy people own guns and end up shooting Black people when he’s already been told not to follow people. Again. Let’s argue and get upset about the right things.”

“Having come from a city-area, did you ever witness something similar to what you described happen?” I asked him.

“Where I’m actually from is like Maybury—if you ever watch the Andy Griffith Show. It’s a very White town, at the time my brother-in-law—who wasn’t my brother-in-law at the time—he used to get escorted by the police whenever he would go to pick up my sister. You can tell that they thought he didn’t belong there, that he was out-of-place because he was Black. I’ve been followed because I looked a certain way and drove a certain car. Those are the facts of life. I’ve never seen anyone been shot, or anyone who was beat up. I’ve had friends who’ve been picked-up, friends who have been thrown in jail for stupid reasons. I see those kinds of things, but I never witnessed anything firsthand.”

I nodded in understanding. Satisfied with that topic, I wanted to see if I could round a little more of his story. I thought for a few moments about the next question I should ask. Professor Schmitz took a drag from his cigarette meanwhile. After I thought, I went on and asked, “How did you become passionate about English Literature?”

“I don’t know. That’s a good question, and I wish I had an answer for you. I enjoy the way that authors are able to construct these worlds. I like telling stories. I like people who can tell a good story. I think that has something to do with it. I like language too. My girlfriend and I will get into arguments if she uses a word wrong and we’re just watching Revenge on television. She gets mad at me for doing that. Language is such a powerful thing. It can move mountains but it can also do other really negative things. We need to give it the kind of reverence that it deserves. That’s what authors do- really good authors I mean. There are some really bad authors out there. There are people who get their books published and I don’t understand why. It’s just because I really like language.

“To a certain extent I also am intellectually curious. I like learning new things. I’m also very intellectually vain. I’ll sometimes be like, ‘Oh didn’t you read that?’ Or I’ll be like, “I read the paper today…,” or “I was reading Newsweek…” Or, “I saw online and I read this article.” Or “Haven’t you read James Joyce’s The Dubliners? It’s like that story, The Dead. Making those kinds of connections, there’s a certain level of intellectual vanity in me that I really like having lording that over. Mainly it’s because I really like language. Which is portrayed by my frequent and profuse of profanity!”

We both broke out and laughter. “When I had you the first day in class, one of the first words in your mouth was a profanity.” (So as to safeguard Professor Schmitz I won’t mention what word. Those of you who know or have had him though, you can probably guess.)

“Strategically,” Professor Schmitz confirmed.

“Why are you more willing to express openly your actual thoughts compared to most professors?”

“I think it’s because of the environment that I want to create in the classroom. It is free. I want all of my students to be free to express themselves as openly. If I set that example, and I’m not going to say the first thing that comes to my head or something that I’m not passionate about or sound excited about it, I want that bleed into what my students do. I want that to bleed into what they do in the classroom. When I was teaching Literature, I had a little more lee-way. The students were older and they weren’t as frightened of the college experience. They were like, ‘This is great!’ I’ve noticed that with some of my younger students-- the first and second semester freshmen—they’re a little more resistant to it. They see the novelty of it, but they don’t see what I’m doing it. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or bad thing, but that’s why. I want you guys to think that I’m approachable and accessible. I want to show you guys that if you need to express yourselves in the way you need to express yourselves you can—if nowhere else—my classroom.”

“Is that a policy you will carry with you in the future?”

“Yes!” he declared with certainty. “I will never change this! I might have to tailor it a bit, but I’m never going to change that. It’s part of my pedagogue. It is part of the way I teach. It is part of what I think my peers and my students see as effective. I’m not going to change that. I wouldn’t change that.”

“I also notice that in your classes you try to get people to critically think,” I said.

He laughed. “Ha! Try to!”

I laughed too. Continuing on with my question though, I asked, “Why is that important to you that your students learn to critically think?”

“Let’s go with it on an institutional level. I.U.P. demands that English 101 prepares students to think critically. It gets you guys ready for all of your other classes. That’s why English 101 is different than Crim 101 or Bio 101. I’m not giving you terms, phrases and stuff that teach you about the human body or Limbrozo’s Positive Theory. It’s so when you guys get up to that Crim 101 class that you will think critically. It’s a mandate from the institution.

“Now for me personally, it’s the only thing that you’re in college for. You guys are going to spend to 50-100K on a Bachelor’s Degree. Which literally means nothing in the society that we live in! You have to have a Master’s Degree or higher! A Bachelor’s Degree means you can work in an office. If you learn how to think critically, you can take that next step. If you learn how to think critically, you can ultimately be more hire-able. If you know how to think critically, you will ultimately not only be more hire-able- but more promote-able! You will be that person who will be in charge because you are critically thinking. That’s what’s important.”

At that moment, one of A.J.’s former students came up to us. That student was Khailil Edwards (whom I’ve interviewed before. If you haven’t already, you should definitely check out that post.) After Khalil greeted Professor Schmitz and me, he asked me, “Is he doing the same thing? The Faces of I.U.P.?”

“Yep,” I confirmed.

He laughed and began heading in the direction of the library. “Did you read mine?” he asked Professor Schmitz, walking backwards as he did so that he was still looking at Professor Schmitz.

“Nope! You got to send me the link!” A.J. responded to him, laughing.

After Khalil had gone away, I asked Professor Schmitz, “What do you think about running into your students in public?”

He thought for a few moments. “It’s awkward when I’m at a bar,” he admitted.

I laughed, but listened as he told me, “On campus it’s part of the experience.  My class doesn’t stop at 9:55 at the door to Eicher 106. My class is here. Khalil walks by and he goes to Lit Night. Whenever he sees me on campus he says hi and he tells me how he’s doing. I see you often. Former students see me and tell me what’s going on. When I see them out and about, I like to continue to let them know that I’m human and that I am approachable. That they can say hi to me! You can ask me what I’m teaching next semester. It’s important! It’s a pedagogue I set up about being accessible. But—at a certain time of night, in a certain situation-- it can be kind of awkward. Usually around 11:30 on a Friday or God forbid a Wednesday, it can be a little awkward. How else are you going to learn though? How else are you going to learn that your professors are human too? We need to blow off steam the same way you need to blow off steam as students. We’ve all been there. Ours is just a bigger bag. Ours is just another hassle that we need to think about and deal with. The sooner that our students learn we aren’t all crotchety, crusty old people; that will build a better dynamic in a classroom setting.”

“Cool.” I said.

That was when I decided to go on and ask him—since he had mentioned that Khalil goes to Lit Night at the Artists Hand Gallery and Espresso Bar—a question about his past with the event (which is actually coming up this Friday—those of you who want to go to it. Starts at 6:30pm if I’m not mistaken. Last one of the semester too!) “How did you get involved with Lit Night?”

“A little over a year ago a buddy of mine texted me saying: ‘One of my friends is reading his poems at the Artists Hand.’ That’s all it was. ‘My friend is an okay poet. There will be lots of other poets there. It seems like the kind of thing you will be interested in.’

“This was a friend of mine who didn’t really know me at the time: Wes. (He is the other host.) We saw the potential and we decided to continue on doing it. The gentleman whom we saw on the first night has never showed up again. One of the other poets—Amanda—is constantly there. Wes and I were just like, ‘This needs to happen!’ I wasn’t teaching at the time and I just threw a lot of energy into it. It was something we saw that this town needed. We needed to show the community and the school that they rely on each other. We figured, why not show the community what we can do? Why not the community show us what they can do? That’s how it got started.”

He paused before continuing on, “A year later—from days where there were only seven to eight people there—it’s turned to forty to fifty students. There’s been a couple of times where there’s been sixty to seventy students. It’s grown exponentially and it’s moved beyond the English department! Crim students go there. Soc students go there. Art students go there. A lot of different people show up because it’s a nice change of pace, it’s interesting, and everybody has a story to tell. After a couple of drinks (when you’re of age) everyone wants to share. It’s very much like the classroom setting that I was talked about. It’s acceptable and it’s comfortable. It is safe. Nothing bad is going to happen there. As a matter of fact, if you express yourself, it doesn’t matter what you do afterward. You did something for yourself and you shared a bit of yourself to other people. We overshare, but not in person. Through media projects and social media. It’s too much sharing of ourselves. I don’t want to know what you’re eating today. I don’t want to know what happened to you while you were in line at the bank. Real sharing is soul-crushing stuff that literature helps us to articulate—that kind of sharing is rare. I’m unhappy that it only happens once a month. I wish we could do it more. I wish people would go to Lit Night.

A.J. continued, “I’ve heard it told, and I’ve heard someone say this while at Take Back the Night—that my class and my work at Lit Night has given them a voice and allowed them to articulate the most painful of things, and they took advantage of that! They started the healing. Literally when I heard that it made me cry. It was like, ‘Thank you!’ If I were to die right now, I would have one hundred fifty people-who aren’t related to me-- wonder, ‘Oh my god! That happened!’ At least I hope. I know about seven to eight, handful, who will take it to heart.

“Isn’t that what Homer talked about in the Iliad? Isn’t that what Achilles was doing in Troy? To have glory after death? This is my way of having people remember me-- without having to kill people! Even if it’s just that one time in college.”

Honestly, if I could have, I would have talked to him for much longer. Unfortunately, I had a class and when I looked at my phone to check the time I realized I only had ten minutes to get to it. I drew the interview to an end and thanked Professor Schmitz for letting me interview him.

“Thank you,” he told me sincerely.

Once I had taken his picture, I put my stuff in my bag and he put out his cigarette. After talking for about a minute, he and I said farewell until Wednesday. “Be sure to send me the link when you have it done,” he told me. “Send Khalil’s too.”

“I will,” I promised him.

Before I wrap this post up, I do want to say that I’m very grateful to Professor Schmitz. Not only for having taken the time out of his schedule to take part in an interview with me, but also for all that he has taught me this semester. Now that we are in the final two weeks of the semester, I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting. I don’t plan on ever forgetting a professor’s face or name. All of my teachers are close to me in some way. However, I can say that Professor Schmitz is among a few college professors I’ve had whom I will always remember. In the time that he has been here you can tell the kind of impact he has had not only here on campus—but in the community as well. I know that wherever life take him and his girlfriend, that he will continue to have an impact on people’s lives. He is among the professors whom I hope I can continue to keep in frequent touch with.

Unfortunately we have reached the end of this post. Which is a bummer. Not only because it’s on Professor Schmitz, but because this is my first post about an I.U.P. professor! However, I do want to say that I do plan on interviewing a couple more professors here shortly. Of course, there are still other students (both grad and undergrad) with stories to encounter as well. No worries, we’re not done yet.  

Until next time though, I’ll catch you all later!

Katlyn Plotzer

“The thing is you can hear people speak and understand them in real time. But it has to go through all these steps to get up to the brain to get processed. It’s so fascinating that it happens so quickly. Like instantaneously! You do take it for granted until you can’t hear anymore! I just love it. I love hearing! I love ears! Ears are wonderful!”

-Katlyn Plotzer, Junior, Speech Pathology and Audiology Major

I encountered the subject of this interview while I was waiting for my Math class to start Wednesday afternoon. Since it’s been nice out, the Oak Grove has become a great place to find people willing to be interviewed for my blog. Since I didn’t have anything urgent to do between my Sociology class and that class, I figured why not see if I could find someone to interview for my blog?

The subject of this interview was actually standing behind a table set up by the Sign Club. Always curious about a good cause, I made my way over to check them out and see if I could get an interview from one of them. When I approached, I was greeted kindly by the subject, whom proceeded to offer a ribbon and showed me how to sign my name in Sign Language. (I didn’t do too awfully bad. I’ve had some experience with Sign Language. Not enough to call myself an expert by any stretch of the word. I think I can hold a small conversation though at least.)

Finally I revealed to them that I was with the Faces of I.U.P. blog. I asked if any of the members of the Sign Club would be willing to talk to me. “I’ll be willing,” the subject told me kindly.

From the tone of her voice, I could tell she was not only willing, but also excited. I smiled, and said to her, “Cool.”

Once I had gotten my equipment ready, I began the interview. I informed her that I would be asking the basic questions: Name, major, year, where she was from, and how she came to I.U.P. She responded by saying, “My name is Katlyn Plotzer. I’m a Junior Speech Language Pathology and Audiology major.”

“Ideology?” I asked her, wanting to make sure I had correctly heard her. Since there was more people outside, it was a bit hard for me to hear.

“Audiology,” she corrected, chuckling kindheartedly as she did. “It focuses on hearing.”

We both laughed. “What year are you?” I asked again.

“I’m a junior.”

“Where are you from?”

“I’m from Ellwood, Pennsylvania. It is forty-five minutes north of Pittsburgh. So if you’ve never heard of it, you have no clue where it is.”

“Middle-of-nowhere kind of thing?” I asked.

“Kind-of, yeah,” she confirmed with laughing.

“How did you come to I.U.P.?” I asked.

“I actually came to I.U.P. because my Mom went behind my back and asked information from the school. She actually went here for college, and then I got here. I heard about the Speech Path program and how it’s the best, so I applied and got into that. I’m really happy I ended up coming here. It’s a great campus!”

“So what made you decide that I.U.P. was the best place for you?”

She thought for a few moments. “I think it was because of the campus. I really like it. I really love the Oak Grove, and I also really love the Speech program. There’s only twenty-five people in our year, and it’s a close-knit program. After I actually got here and started taking classes I just knew it was the major I wanted to go into. It was cool that I found the program was for me and it was really exciting!”

“What made you decide you wanted to go into Speech Pathology?”

“When I was younger I actually had a speech impediment. I couldn’t say nine sounds correctly. So I needed to go into speech therapy when I was younger. I don’t know for how long, but I did have to go. Now I can speak correctly and it’s a wonderful thing.”

“I actually suffered from a speech impediment when I was younger as well,” I revealed to her. “I had to take speech therapy when I was young.”

“Oh really?” she exclaimed in surprised intrigue. “Can I ask you what happened?”

I didn’t mind at all. After my interview with Vincent, I had gotten comfortable with the idea that the people I interviewed would ask me questions. “I think I finally just graduated,” I told her. “I think it was in the fourth grade.” (Honestly, I’m not sure if it was fourth grade. I just know it happened before I left elementary school.)

“What sounds?” she asked.

“I think it was mainly ‘L’ and ‘W,’” I told her.

“Oh yeah! That’s a hard one! That comes in later.”

“So you couldn’t say nine different sounds?” I asked her, moving the story away from me and getting back to interviewing her.

“Yeah,” she confirmed. “I can’t remember what they all were. I asked my Mom and she told me that sometimes instead of saying ‘ceiling fan’ I would say, ‘ceiling can.’ I know I called Pocahontas ‘Po-ho-ho-ho.’”

We both chuckled. Katlyn continued, “I don’t remember what happened with that one.”

“That’s funny,” I admitted, a smile crossing my face.

“Oh yeah,” she agreed. “I used to watch myself on home videos and I asked my parents, ‘How did you know what I am saying?’ They just told me that they just knew. That was good enough for me.”

“Was it difficult?”

“I don’t really remember any of it. I just remember random things like playing Connect Four. It’s really random things that I remember. It was because of that I came here in the speech program and actually found out that I wanted to do something a little different. So I decided on the Audiology track. That’s what I am going into Grad School for.”

“What does the Audiology track deal with?” I asked.  

“Audiology is the study of hearing. I get to learn everything about the ear, everything that goes on with the ear, everything that goes up to the brain, working with hearing aids, copular implants, and balance problems. I love ears! Ears are fantastic!”

“That’s interesting,” I said in fascination. “Typically you don’t really think about the ear until it hurts.”

“Yeah!” she exclaimed. “The thing is you can hear people speak and understand them in real time. But it has to go through all these steps to get up to the brain to get processed. It’s so fascinating that it happens so quickly. Like instantaneously! You do take it for granted until you can’t hear anymore! I just love it. I love hearing! I love ears! Ears are wonderful!”

“How did you get involved in the Sign Club?” I wanted to see if I could find out more about her involvement in the club.

“I got involved in the Sign Club because I love Sign Language and my goal is to become fluent in it.” She indicated one of the guys who was standing behind the table. “Rob talked about starting up a Sign Club. I was like, ‘Yeah! I’ll totally be involved in it!’ Right now I’m the secretary for it. I love every second of it. I’m in intermediate-level sign language right now also. It’s thanks to this that I’ve been able to learn as much as I have.”

“Nice,” I complimented. “You’re intermediate level?”

“Yes, that’s a second year language learner. It’s becoming a little more fluent now. Sometimes my professor will sign things and I’ll be like, ‘I have no idea what you’re saying!’ It’s still a learning process. I’m definitely much better at it than when I started this year. Which is all I can ever hope for.”

“Do you think Sign Language is more difficult than spoken language?” I asked her, curious about her opinion on the language.

“I don’t know,” she told me after thinking for a few moments. “It’s just different, it’s a whole language- it has characteristics of a language. I find it real easy to learn because I work well with my hands. So I can pick up on it quickly. There are some signs that you think look similar, and other things that don’t seem to relate at all- but it does. Sign Language can be picked up on, you just got to be willing to learn.”

“What are you guys doing here in the Oak Grove?” I asked, indicating their table with their ribbons and the opportunity to buy a shirt for ten bucks. (Unfortunately I wasn’t able to purchase one, I have to be careful how much money I spend as well. I did take a ribbon though!)

“It’s A.S.L Awareness Day so we’re selling t-shirts and we have ribbons with colors representing Deaf Awareness. We have pencils with our meeting times on it and we have papers with an alphabet and numbers and tips on how to communicate with the deaf and hard-to-hearing on the back. We have a lot of free stuff!”

“What do you plan on doing with the money?”

“I think our plan is to donate it to the Indiana County Association for the Deaf. That’s where the money from today is going to go.”

I decided to see if I could dig deeper into her story. “How did you decide that Speech Pathology was something you wanted to major in?”

“I’m going to give the clichéd answer and say that I love helping people. I’m just a big people person and I love finding out about people’s background stories, I love learning about people and talking to them. And ultimately I want to be in the V.A. health system and work with veterans. I come from a military family. My brother was is in the Air Force now, and my Dad was in the Navy. My Grandpa was in the Marines, and I have a bunch of friends who are too. It’s one way that I can give back to those who have sacrificed so much. That’s where I want to ultimately end up at. I’m looking into Grad School for that right now.”

“Cool,” I said. “So you come from a military family?”

“Yeah, my brother is at St. Andrew’s Air Force base in Washington D.C. He’s actually doing the presidential security program.”

“Nice!” I exclaimed.

She smiled. “I know! I’m such a proud big sister! I also had a Dad who’s in the Navy, my Grandpa and my Great Uncle were in the Marines. I have an uncle and a cousin who are in the Air Force. My Mom actually worked on military bases and when she graduated from here- she worked in the cafeterias. She hopped around from base to base too. That’s how I got interested in it. I’m so proud of my brother, I’m so proud of Kyle. I always talk about him. I just have so much respect for anyone who goes into the military because of all that they sacrifice. I want to help them as much as I can.”

“You said that your Mom worked here too?”

“She graduated- I’m not going to say how long ago because she’ll be mad at me but she graduated here in Hospitality Management. That was here degree. She was in Ackerman a lot. I guess there’s a cafeteria in the basement there that I didn’t even know about! She was telling me that was a final project of hers- she had to serve food in there.”

“So since it’s almost the end of the semester, what are your plans for the summer?” I asked.

“I work at a McDonalds back home, so I’m going to work back there over the summer. For the first half of summer I’m going to be working two jobs because I also work at a softball concession stand, and I help out the guy because I used to play softball in the summer. The second half of the summer I’m going to see if I can also volunteer down at the V.A. Hospital and help the speech and audiology therapists. So that’s my goal for the second half of the summer.”

“Is it required for like an internship?”

“No, I actually don’t have to do an internship to graduate. (Thank God!) I just want to volunteer down there since it’ll look good on an application when I try and go into Grad School later on. Fingers crossed I can get down there! I don’t like to drive down to Pittsburgh.”

“What made you want to go into Grad School?”

“I actually have to go into Grad School in to get a job,” Katlyn told me. “For the Audiology program I actually have to get a doctoral degree in order to actually work. So, while people are graduating saying that they’re done with college, I’m only halfway done. I still have four years on the other end of it. I’m excited for it, I’m up for the challenge, and I’m ready of it!”

Suddenly a question hit me. “Why are you interested in Sign Language? I can understand why you would be into Speech Pathology and Audiology, but why Sign Language?”

“I always wanted to learn Sign Language. When my Dad worked at his one job he knew a lady there who was deaf. So he learned Sign Language so he could talk to her because she didn’t really have any one else to talk to there. I would see him doing signs, and I would be like: ‘Wow! I really wish I could learn it!’ I pick up some here and there, and I saw that they had a Sign Language club and Sign Language courses here and I was like, ‘Sign me up!’ So I went ahead and signed up for them. I’m really excited for them.”

“What else do you guys do for the community?”

“Well we only just started. We’re trying to volunteer over at Four-Footed Friends. We have plans for that. We want to try and have officer elections, and then our goal is to start working for the Indiana County Association for the Deaf. They have meetings, and we eventually want to be able to go to the meetings and be able to converse with them in Sign Language. That’s going to be very exciting. This is step one to bring awareness to Sign Language.”

“Yeah, and it’s sad that not all places have enough resources where people like that can get together,” I lamented.

“Yeah, it is unfortunate. I actually think we’re lucky that there’s a large deaf community here in Indiana. That’s how we found about it. It’s real helpful for them, and it makes so that they can get together, converse and make friends.”

“Do you think that this being a college town plays into that?”

“It might. I think there’s a lot of people who are interested in Sign Language, but they don’t know that there’s a club. That is another goal of ours, we want people to know that there is a Sign Language Club here and you can join and we can help teach you everything that we can. I think the need of the community to learn Sign Language is one of the reasons why the Club is going to be successful. We’re trying to revive it actually. Our numbers fluctuate between ten to twelve people.”

“Did you guys just start this year?”

“Just recently. It was just recently in February or March. It’s still small, but we’re going to grow.”

I was amazed at how recent their attempt to revive the club was. “You guys are about as old as Faces of I.U.P.!” I told them.

Katlyn laughed. “Maybe can share a birthday!”

We both laughed. After talking for a couple more minutes, I realized that it was getting time for me to start heading off and grab my stuff for my next class. Drawing the interview to a close, I took Katlyn’s picture and wished them all the best of luck before heading back to my dorm. “Good luck!” I called back to Katlyn and her friends. “And thank you!”

“Thank you!” they called back to me.

Before I do draw this post to a close, I do want to say that I want to wish the Sign Club the best of luck as they try to revive it. I hope the members achieve their goal of not only being able to reestablish themselves, but also in their pursuits in fundraisers and volunteer activities. They may be small, but they’re energetic and ready to learn. I also want to wish Katlyn the best of luck as she pursues her goals. Hang tight, you still have a while to go, but keep up that positive attitude and I know you’ll get there.

Unfortunately, this post is coming to an end. The end of the semester is also fast approaching. No fear though. I still intend on getting a few more faces of I.U.P. before it’s time for us to go away for the summer. So until I have another face to share, I’ll catch you all later!

Stephanie Bachman

 "I’ve had three hour conversations about religion with an Atheist, and I think a Pagan, at the same time. I also had conversations about politics, real discussions without yelling at each other and listening to each other’s opinions, which is great!"

-Stephanie Bachman, Second Year Student, Sociology and Physics Dual Major

Hey everyone! I apologize for the slight hiatus. Believe it or not, even bloggers have a life. Especially when they happen to be college students with quizzes and tests that they have to worry about. My reasons for the lack of update aside though, I’ll get into how I encountered the latest face of I.U.P.

The subject of this interview is actually someone that I have frequent contact with throughout the week since we’re a part of a similar association. I asked her if she’d be willing to take part in an interview for the Faces of I.U.P. blog, and she agreed kindly. We met up Saturday evening at the Fireplace restaurant after she had gotten off work. We grabbed a couple of slices of pizza and some bread sticks.(Which since she had extra meal-swipes she needed to use, she got them for me.) I conducted the interview as we ate our dinner.

The subject of the interview didn’t have to wait for me to ask her what her name or major or anything else. She knew the routine. “My name is Stephanie Bachman. I’m a second year student, I don’t like the term ‘sophomore’ since I’m technically a junior by credit. I’m dual major in Sociology and Physics. I’m from Media, Pennsylvania.”

She paused for a few moments to think. “How you got to I.U.P. is usually your next question?”

“Yeah,” I said, nodding in confirmation as I took a bite from my pizza.

She thought for a few moments. “Well ultimately I think I picked I.U.P. because I fell in love with the Honors College. It was between I.U.P. and Penn State, and I was having trouble picking. I liked them both- but after visiting I.U.P. again and touring the Honors College, it just felt more and more right. It felt more and more like it was where I belonged. I like the size, it’s not too big. It’s a little far from home- but yeah. I love the Honors College, the size, and the people. Yeah, that’s how I came to I.U.P.”

“You said you were originally considering Penn State?”

“Yes,’ Stephanie confirmed.

“Why were you considering Penn State?”

“Well part of it is because my brother goes there, he’s actually going to be graduating there this May. Part of it is because it has a great astronomy program. They also offered a lot of majors, and at the time I had no idea what I wanted to do. I could switch so many times and they offered the program that I wanted to do. I.U.P. doesn’t offer an astronomy program or an astrophysics program, so I’m dual majoring in Physics so I can go to the right graduate school with a Physics degree even though it’s not the ideal program. Yeah Penn State is a good school and everything, it was just too big. Sometimes I wish I had gone there. My life would be completely different if I had went there. I.U.P. is where I’m at.”

“How did you get into a Sociology and Physics dual-major?” I asked her.

She shook her head in annoyance, and an irritated smile crossed her face. “I hate that question! Everybody asks me that question as soon as I tell them what my major is. The answer is that I was originally a Hospitality Management major, but I decided that wasn’t right for me. I just knew I had to switch to something else. I switched to Sociology, I’m in the Human Services track since I want to go work for Non-profits and help people make a difference. That felt more right to what I wanted to do with my life. I was still unsure about what I wanted to do- I could see myself do Physics. I thought that since I have time to dual-major, so I’m going to get both degrees and see where life takes me.”

“What would you do with the Physics degree?” I asked.

“Ultimately two things. Get a Masters in Astronomy, and/or Astrophysics. Or I would work for an international non-profit, and use my Sociology degree to get into a non-profit where I can travel and teach in third-world countries and teach internationally. Yeah, I don’t quite know. We’ll see.”

“That would be pretty cool,” I said.

She nodded. “Yeah, I love to travel and I love to work abroad. I’d love to work where I can travel abroad.”

“I take it you’ve traveled abroad before?”

“Yes. I studied in China the summer after my first year here. I went to in the city of Shungdou with a friend and a few other I.U.P. students. We also visited Shanghai and Beijing. We did some sight-seeing, so I got to see that. We stopped in Germany too. That was only just on-the-way home kind-of-thing. But yeah, I can also officially say that I’ve been to Germany.”

“That’s cool,” I said, quite impressed. “How long were you in Beijing and Shanghai?”

“Between the two of them it was about a week.”

“What were you studying there?” I asked.

“Well it was actually an interesting experience where I.U.P had never worked with this program before. It was called the Emergent University program. They had no idea what it would be like- we didn’t get to pick our classes until the day before- it was an interesting experience to say the least. Especially when a lot of your classmates had picked all of their classes way in advance. I wanted to take some culture classes and I wanted to take some classes focused on Chinese culture. It was hard to pick classes in a couple of hours, and only having one night to do it. I ended up taking an International Cultures and Etiquette class. As well as a World Food class, which was called Public Gastronomy. I was trying to get my multi-cultural awareness class, so I’m hoping that those will count. I really don’t have time to take another one.”

“Was it a huge culture-shock being in China?”

“I don’t think I was there long enough for it to be a real culture shock. Some things were definitely surprising, but I have international friends and I have a friend from China. I’ve met other Chinese people, so I wasn’t too surprised. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it was a culture-shock.”

“Did you go in knowing any Chinese?”

“The only Chinese I know is ‘ni-hao’ and ‘xe-xe’ which means ‘hello’ and ‘thank you.’ I learned my numbers while I was there, but I kind of forgot them to be honest. After we got there we were put into groups, and they assigned two girls who knew Chinese, and they helped my friend, another kid and I. I was thinking during the plane ride that I should have started practicing my Chinese before I got there. At the same time I didn’t know I was going to China at the beginning of the semester, if I did I would have registered for Chinese 101 so at least I would have had a semester of Chinese under my belt. But it was too late to register for a class or anything.”

Satisfied, I decided to switch the topic. I wanted to see if I could find out how long she would be going to school having the two majors. “How long are you going to be going to school with a dual major in Sociology and Physics?”

“Just by the fact that I lost almost a year having switched majors, I’m still trying to graduate in four years. I’ve done two years now, and I’ll do two more. It is possible as long as the classes I need to take are available when they’re offered and there’s no time conflicts or anything like that. As long as I don’t get screwed over in scheduling. Plus I’m almost done with my Sociology degree. I have seven classes left in Sociology plus a summer internship.”

I nodded, and then decided to follow through on some questions I had been formulating during our conversation. “What do you like about the Honors College?”

“Everything! Except for the fact that they made me retake classes I had AP for, but that’s mainly because you can’t usually get around CORE. CORE is designed to help students take care of most of their liberal studies except for Math, and Health and Wellness. I love the set-up for CORE, we have small discussion-based classes. We have conversations in each class, and each unit tackles a question like, ‘What do you believe? What do you do?’ Or “What’s right? What’s bad?’ Each unit tackles it from a different perspective. If it’s an English unit you answer it from an English perspective. If it’s Philosophy you answer it from a Philosophy perspective. I love the whole thing about CORE credits.

“I also love the Honors College dorm building. I love the people in Whitmyre, it’s such an inviting place and it’s a wonderful atmosphere. It’s open, it’s friendly, and it’s safe and comfortable! I feel like I can be myself there. You can have engaging conversations there. I’ve had three hour conversations about religion with an Atheist, and I think a Pagan, at the same time. I also had conversations about politics, real discussions without yelling at each other and listening to each other’s opinions, which is great! That’s also what CORE is mostly about! If there’s disagreement we can have an honest and open discussion about it. We could have honest open discussion and listen to how they feel without getting aggressive or worked up about it.

“The people are so diverse as well! We can have all sorts of different thoughts and opinions, and we can live peacefully with one another.”

“Have you found any of your views changed due to being in the Honors College?”

She thought for a few moments, pondering her answer to my question. “I’ve definitely had a few of my viewpoints questioned, and I’ve questioned quite a few viewpoints myself. So I can say that there’s some issues where I’m not sure where I stand on them. That’s my thing, if I don’t know so much about something, and if I’m not very well-informed on a topic, I won’t form an opinion. I don’t want to form an opinion on something I don’t know enough about to have an educated opinion on. That’s the way I’ve felt for the most part. I’ve definitely had my eyes opened on certain issues and such since coming to college- not just at I.U.P., but classes outside of the college. The ones that are open to anyone, not just Honor College students. They helped me think differently about world.

“I kind of think that’s what college is mainly about, it's not so much challenging your views on the world, but opening your mind to it. College is a time where we as young adults are growing into ourselves and learning who we are and what we think. We’re supposed to critically think about issues, and that’s what college is about aside for training us for the job we want to do.”

Stephanie and I talked for another hour afterward. Once we had finished, we got up from the table, and we walked outside. Since we were heading in similar directions, we just walked until we had to go our separate ways. I thanked her for allowing me to conduct an interview with her, and we wished one another a goodnight.

I realize now as I am writing this that we have less than four weeks left. Which means that between now and then, there are still plenty of faces of I.U.P to get to know. Hopefully now that there are more people walking around I’ll have greater chances at finding those who’d be willing to sit down and partake in an interview. Guess we’ll see what happens.

Unfortunately we’ve come to the end of this post. Be sure to keep checking back though. There are still plenty of Faces of I.U.P. to get to know before this spring semester comes to a close. I plan on making sure to get them up here. Until next time, catch you all later!

Tavon Harris

"I actually did an internship working with the Citizens Planning and Housing Association in Baltimore. We worked with community organizations writing about how new programs that are being implemented and how people can take advantage of these programs- so they can be more accessible, more marketable to employers, and pretty much developing skills for the future that we’re all probably going to need.”

-Tavon Harris, Senior, Sociology major

I encountered the subject of this interview when I was walking through the Oak Grove on my way from class yesterday. As nice as it was yesterday, the Grove was filled with people enjoying it. I noticed as I was walking that there was a fraternity doing a similar fundraiser that Sigma Pi did last week. However, I quickly picked up on the fact that it was different fraternity due to the fact that the letters were different.

 As I was approaching where the fraternity’s table had been established, one of the guys recognized me from an event to which we had both gone. (It was the free airing of the movie Selma over Kovalchick Center and Athletic Complex- KCAC for short.) After we talked a bit, he asked me if I wanted to help make a difference by donating a dollar to the fraternity. “In return,” he told me, “you get to pie one of us!”

“How about an interview instead?” I asked him. I then explained that I was the one who did the Faces of I.U.P. blog.

He smiled at me. “Oh! I know who you are! We heard about you! I know just the guy willing to do that.” He turned and called out to one of the guys, “Tavon! This guy wants an interview!”

I gave the guy a dollar and he stepped off to the side. I then turned towards Tavon as he made his way over to me. He greeted me kindly and I did the same. I told him that I was with the Faces of I.U.P. blog and that he was going to be the subject of my interview.

“Will that be before or after you pie me?” he asked me.

I happened to glance over and see that the guys had already prepared a pie for me to throw at Tavon. I smiled and waved my hand to let them know it wouldn’t be needed. “No pies. Just an interview,” I told him and smiled. Judging from the shaving cream that was spattered on him already- I could tell he had gotten it a couple of times.

There was a look of understanding on the subject’s face. I think there may have also been a sense of relief as well, judging from the smile that crossed his face. “Alright,” he said. 

I then began the interview. I of course started simple. “What is your name?”

“My name is Tavon Harris.”

“What’s your major, Tavon?” I asked him.

“I’m a Sociology major,” he told me. “I’m finishing up my senior year in December.”

“Cool,” I congratulated. “Where are you from?”

“I’m from Baltimore, Maryland.”

“Cool,” I said, impressed. “How did you come to I.U.P.?”

“I actually moved to Pennsylvania back in 2009 and we were looking to build a house. My parents built one and I went to high school here in PA. One of the recruiters from I.U.P. came down and I eventually landed down here playing sports, running track, and ultimately getting involved with my fraternity here.”

“Nice,” I said. “So you said you ran Track? Do you still run?”

“No, I ran for two years and then I had to stop in the latter part of my junior year. I stopped due to injuries and other things. I’m looking into running again in grad school but I’m fine now in terms of sports- I feel I did enough.”

“What made you decide to go into Sociology?” I asked.

“It’s pretty much the study of people. Just looking at the world from a different point-of-view. A lot of people look at it from a more micro, one-to-one basis, but I look at it from a broad sense of understanding people. I want to help people of course, and I really want to create programs for future people and future kids, future students go here. Whichever capacity I can help, I try to do. That’s why I chose Sociology. I guess you can say it’s like the helping major for most people.”

“That’s actually pretty accurate,” I agreed. I then went on to tell him that I was a Sociology minor. I wanted him to see that I understood what he was talking about. Of course, as a Sociology minor- I’m biased. The world is free to hold whatever positions that they have on it.

“Yeah, you can pretty much understand how sociologists think and how we see things. We really don’t see things the way some people may see them; especially when it comes to certain issues. That’s important to note too. I like to think we’re a little more open to differences and diversity.”

I went on and asked him, “So you said you’re going into Grad School?”

“Yeah, I’m probably going to look into going to the University of Baltimore, studying Non-Profit and Social Entrepreneurship. That pretty much deals with Non-Profit management and developing Non-Profit and starting up your own Non-Profit. Social entrepreneurship is pretty much helping in the Non-Profit. So if I were to set up a program within the Baltimore city schools, to help with widespread lack of education in the school system- I’d implement that program and use my Non-Profit as a sort of leverage. That’s what I want to do ultimately, it’s help develop programs. Not only locally, but nationally- starting up fundraising for- I’m not sure which issues exactly yet- but ultimately that’s my ultimate goal.”

“So your ultimate goal is to start a non-profit that increases education?”

“Yes. Increases education, work with work force development, and helps with housing and revitalization- that’s another interest that I have. I actually did an internship working with the Citizens Planning and Housing Association in Baltimore. We worked with community organizations writing about how new programs that are being implemented and how people can take advantage of these programs- so they can be more accessible, more marketable to employers, and pretty much developing skills for the future that we’re all probably going to need.”

“Yeah, and unfortunately the inner cities do need them a lot,” I agreed sadly.

Tavon nodded. “Exactly. We’d seen- at the internship that I had this year- that a lot of people who lived in the outskirts of the city didn’t realize or were aware of changes that would affect the inner-city, or if they even got to the inner-city. One of the biggest issues that I tackled last summer was the Alcohol Outlet Inner-city Reduction. It’s pretty much implementing policies throughout the inner-city that would eliminate local liquor stores in street neighborhoods. Up until 2015, liquor stores could be right at the end of your block. That can cause an increase of crime, increase of flames, and lists of disturbances. Things that ultimately effect inner-city kids and you. Then there’s the health aspect- if you have a liquor store at the end of your street of course your parents or your loved one would be more susceptible towards becoming an alcoholic and engaging in crime. That implementation of the bill I think is going to help communities in a positive way. We’re looking forward to seeing that in the coming years.”

“You said that this was something you worked at last summer?” I asked.

“Yeah, it was with the Citizens Planning and Housing Association. That was my role as a community engagement leader intern. I went out and pretty much helped the community and making them aware about this policy. Getting their opinions as far as city council members who may vote in this favor, in that field. We wanted to make sure that they were actually knowledgeable of the policy, and they weren’t just voting because a city council member or someone said so. We wanted them to make sure they knew how this could affect them, and the positive affects it would have. They wouldn’t have to worry about their kids hanging out at the liquor store and being susceptible to it; or robbery or assault or those crimes you hear often about in the inner-city. Hopefully that program and that bill will reduce some of those crimes.”

I went on and asked Tavon, “How did you find out about that program?”

He thought for a few moments. “I think it was in the middle of my junior year I found out about it. I got home and interviewed it. Upon doing the interview and getting into the program, they gave me a project that I had throughout the summer. The bill was still very active. It was basically introduced back in 2013 and 2014 when I did the internship. People were still learning about it and city council members were still voting on it. It went all the way up until it reached the congressional level before it was finally enacted.

“Once I learned about that I said, ‘This clearly affects me.’ I live in the inner-city and we see liquor stores around us more often than not. The crimes that occurs around there can be stopped, and it’s just sad to say you can see certain thing in certain areas and not in others.”

“You were personally impacted by similar things growing up?” I asked him.

“Yeah. My parents both grew up in the Baltimore inner-city, you see their lifestyle and the stories that they may have told you, and take those things and learn from them. With that project I pretty much used the people’s stories to make sure I was a good advocate when I was talking to the city council members and being a liaison. I made sure I went to those community organizations and talked to them. I pretty much said, ‘Hey, this bill is being enacted and this is how it’s going to affect you. Make sure you talk to your community council members to let them know what you think.’ That’s pretty much what I took from that. Getting a feel with working with community organizations.”

“Sounds like you were also working on getting people to realize that they do actually have a-”

“Voice!” Tavon finished triumphantly. “Yeah, exactly. Another thing was educating them. You can see stuff on the news, but a lot of times things on the news are either misconstrued or misinterpreted. A lot of it was just educating them, and getting the information for themselves. Once they have that information they can have a strong voice in speaking on bills and legislation and getting their opinions out there. They can say, ‘I have this problem and I have facts and statistics behind it.’ You have a personal perspective and not just have someone talking to you.”

“Unfortunately people don’t realize just how powerful their voice can be,” I said.

“Yeah,” Tavon said in agreement. “Organization is another thing. People who don’t want change know that when groups of people mass together, change occurs. The whole idea is to try and keep us divided and to oppress one another more so than the next. So that there’s no equal playing field. I think the way to combat that is to educate. Once you can change their minds on that perspective you can open their mind to things that they never really thought of. I mean, who would have thought that some of the things that we see today would be reoccurring incidents from the past? Ultimately the mindset of some people are the same- and we haven’t really tackled that. It’s mainly getting to the minds of people and making sure that they’re not only aware, but understand the move you’re trying to make, or the change you take. Making sure everyone is more on board. That’s what I thought about when I got involved in Sociology.

“Really, let’s just use my fraternity- Alpha Phi Alpha- as leverage for my argument. We liaison not only for students, but for the public. This is a college fraternity- but it goes way past the college life. It’s a lifetime type of thing. You don’t just join for college years- it’s a brotherhood for a lifetime. Thirty-forty years down the road if I need them, I can call them. That’s the type of image on a college campus, but not only the university- but also even at a national level. We become leaders not only on a college campus but also out in the real world.

“That’s why you see Martin Luther King- who was a member of my fraternity as well. Thurgood Marshall, and W.E.B DuBois. All members of my fraternity but also great leaders in their own respect. That’s what I love so much about the diversity and really getting to know people. You can build off different things and work together for a cause that we all have, like for today.”

“Cool,” I said. I was really impressed by how much he knew the history of his fraternity. I was also impressed that knew of past significant figures who were a part of it. I hadn’t even known that Martin Luther King and the others mentioned were a part of fraternities. I turned towards the table that Alpha Phi Alpha had set up and asked, “So what is Alpha Phi Alpha doing this shaving cream pie thing for?”

“It’s for our chapter. We have a thirty-fifth anniversary coming up this weekend. We actually have a bench being dedicated here in the Oak Grove at all. We are the first Black Greek Life organization having a bench dedicated in the Oak Grove. We are also the first Black Greek organization to have formed here on campus. What we are doing is pretty much raising money and preparing for Greek Week- since it is Greek Week- and getting funds to cover for our next event- we have an event coming up for the end of the year. Pretty much a big block-party where seniors and grad students can say goodbye as students move along on their journey. This particular fundraiser is more just trying to get people to get to know us. We have connections on different parts of campus, and we’re bringing it all together. That’s why we chose this location in the Oak Grove- it’s the central part of campus. That way we can interact more as you can see.”

We paused for a few moments and we watched as one of the guys get pied in the face by one of the people who stopped to pay a dollar. “Looks like you guys are doing pretty well,” I commended.

“Yeah, we definitely need the momentum going into Greek Weekend. It’s also good to see the diverse crowd come out. Our aim was always to make sure we have diverse groups of people at each of our events- not just one specific. If you have only one set of people, there’s issues that don’t get tackled. That’s actually sending a bad message if you’re only adding one group of people. You wonder who this event is really for. This way, you’re not only inclusive but more welcoming.”

We paused again as another one of the guys in the fraternity who stood not too far away from us get pied in the face." 

He and I laughed, and he then plunged forward with some information pertaining to the history of Alpha Phi Alpha. “This fraternity was actually founded in 1906 at Cornell University. It was founded by seven elite men with their own professions and their own accomplishments and their respects. It was founded on a pre-dominantly white campus, it was uniquely a liberal studies club. They were formed because they wanted to perform greater works past college years. They orchestrated some unique principles that we still live by this day: manly deeds, scholarship, and love for all mankind. Our aim is to service as all. It’s not just here on campus but within the community as well. School life, being leaders to siblings that we may have, that type of thing. It’s very rugged. Six of us now, but we didn’t know each other before we met and before we crossed and all. It brings together groups of people that you wouldn’t even know. It’s not just for one specific group of people or other, it’s all inclusive. When we say something about Alpha, they know they’re not only leaders and scholars- they’re the people’s people. That’s the image we’ve been trying to portray.

“Up until this point- with over one hundred years of achievement and excellence, we have done quite a good job at upholding that standard.”

I was impressed. “That’s really cool,” I said sincerely. I went on and added, “Thanks for the history lesson too.”

Tavon laughed, “Yeah, I had to read a whole packet about that. It’s a lot of history but it’s even better see it being done. It’s better to see that history didn’t die out and we’re still active in the community. We’re still active one hundred six years later, still out working making change.”

“Yes, because unfortunately there are still plenty of issues that need to be dealt with,” I said.

“Yeah,” he told me. “We’re still facing the same issues. It’s interesting you actually brought that up. With the outbreak of the Mike Brown case, we’ve had members of the fraternity collectively- we have over ten thousand members nationwide- we funded his funeral and everything that came with that incident. That’s the type of leadership you want in Black organizations and in your community. Seeing that being proactive instead of reactive- we were doing this even before Mike Brown and every other type of thing. Not us being reactive when something goes wrong, but proactive when it does in the community. Homeless people are homeless people and we help them all, we help with national elections and try to get people to vote- not just for the national but all elections. We do those good things, but we built our program off of that. Those have been implemented for many of the years we’ve been in existence. Those are some of the top principles of my fraternity.”

“How did you get involved in this fraternity?” I asked him.

“I was watching Netflix and doing a research paper. I was studying Martin Luther King. A lot of time we look at Martin Luther King at face-value, but when you look and see and do in-depth studies, I actually found out that he was an Alpha. When I saw that he was an Alpha, I realized it was one of those minor things that people knew. I thought, ‘How can I use that as a guiding factor to why I want to join?’ I actually learned about his movement, how he impacted people, and how he just so happened to be a part of this fraternity. It actually enhanced his leadership skills. When he crossed it was in the fifties- it was peak times for social change. After his cross- he used his leadership skills on campus, his church, and the nation.

“For me, I have a similar mindset and want to invoke change, make a difference ultimately. What better way to do it than go through it with five other individuals with a common goal that’s honorable? Who not only want to succeed, but do it in a way that honors themselves and their families?

“I joined Alpha for many reasons. One reason being networking, I get to meet amazing people. I get to interact and build relationships with people I probably would never have been able to talk to. You and I probably wouldn’t be talking if I never would have joined. Things like that that we may take for granted or may not see. It’s those things that I tend to thrive off and appreciate about this fraternity.

“Another reason is it’s a brotherhood. I have four sisters, I don’t have any brothers. I always played sports: football, basketball, and track. I got used to being around people- being a people person naturally. I got to go around and get to know people and learn about them, and really wanting to talk to people beyond saying what they did last night. I actually want to have educated conversations and I found that talking with members of this great fraternity. They showed me more than told me. It was more words put to action. That’s why I believe it made a difference. That’s probably the top reason why I joined.”

It came to the point where we were talking for a while, and I knew I should probably let him go so that he could continue helping out with his fraternity’s fundraiser. I thanked him for allowing me to interview him. My Tablet had to be charged, but he allowed me to use the camera on his phone to grab a picture, and then sent it to my e-mail.

As we were getting ready to head our separate ways, I again said, “I really appreciate this.”

“It’s no problem. I think they pointed me towards you because they know I like to talk. I also run my own blog too.”

This caught my interest. “What’s your blog about?” I asked.

“It’s about little known social justice causes and movements. You should check it out if you like.”

“That actually sounds like something I’d be interested in,” I told him. “Could you write it down?”

He wrote it down for me on a piece of paper that I had available. I then told him I’d be sure to check it out. After shaking his hand, I thanked him again and with that we went on our way.

I would just like to take a few moments to say that it was a pleasure to have gotten to interview Tavon. I learned a lot about what he as a person is passionate about. It’s always cool to get to encounter people who carry such drive for the causes they support. If you want to check out Tavon’s blog, I’ve dropped a link of it down at the end of this post. Feel free to check it out.

Unfortunately we have come to the end of this post. In case you also weren’t keeping track, there’s less than four weeks left to the semester. Which means we’re heading towards the final stretch! No fear though. There were still be plenty of faces to encounter and stories to write down until that happens. Until next time though, catch you all later! 

Tavon's blog is called The Emphatic Truth. If you want to, check it out!