Note from the Faculty Advisor: The Delphian has an annual tradition of publishing first-person essays by senior staff members so they can share what their experiences were like leading the school newspaper, as well as their time as Adelphi students. Here are two reflections, one by Matthew Schroh who was the editorials editor before becoming news editor, and Victoria Grinthal, who has been the editorials editor for two years. To read editor-in-chief Jaclyn Tracy’s senior reflection, please turn to page 2 for her Editor’s Note. As their faculty advisor for their time serving on The Delphian, I have enjoyed working with them and getting to know them. I am also proud of the leadership skills they’ve learned and how professional their writing has become. I wish them all the best as they start their careers—and I will miss them very much.
–Liza Burby
Opportunities and Challenges Add to Unforgettable Moments at Adelphi
By: Victoria Grinthal
As I write this at my childhood home during quarantine, I must say this end to my undergraduate college career is a lot different than any of us could have predicted a month ago. This makes it even harder for me to accept that I am graduating, but I know the person I am now was built from my experiences over these past four years.
In fall 2016, I entered Adelphi as a computer science major, even though I had never coded anything in my life. I was small, intimidated and so scared that the real world was inching closer and closer to me than ever before. My collegiate career wasn’t successful at first; I switched to a more business-oriented computer science degree since I was struggling in calculus classes. Excitement often battled my anxiety as I was eager to learn and experience as much as possible.
I started writing for The Delphian during the fall of my sophomore year. I had always loved to write, and the idea of contributing to a published paper was a riveting thought for me. Not only was I able to do something I had a passion for, but I got to be involved in a group of people that constantly banded together to create a physical work of art.
It was during winter break of 2018 that then-editor-in-chief Gabrielle Deonath and advisor Professor Liza Burby asked me to be the editorials editor for the paper henceforth. I was honored, excited and determined to accomplish such a task—but it also scared me to no end. I held editorial roles in high school clubs, but nothing would compare to this kind of preparation and teamwork. While most student writers studied things like communications and English, my computer science major made me a weird fit for the position. Still, I was grateful for the opportunity and the challenge.
This experience has only changed me for the better. Though stressful at times, being editorials editor for officially two years was what gave me confidence in myself as a student and as a person. With my ability to help lead and allow people to express their opinions in words, I was able to accomplish so much more as a college student that I ever would have without it. Since then, I have accomplished a lot that I never would have anticipated: performing stand-up comedy at NYC’s Gotham Comedy Club, interviewing the founders of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream and being awarded for my writing by the Press Club of Long Island, helping the Adelphi University Web team as a student worker, being named Student Worker of the Month (and Semester later on), getting an NYC internship, and helping to coordinate a conference for women in science held at Adelphi. Looking back on my major, two minors and heaps of unforgettable moments, I know none of it would have been possible without The Delphian.
I am now graduating—albeit during quarantine—with a bachelor’s degree in computer and management information systems, with minors in computer science and graphic design. I hope to find a job that helps me to utilize all of the skills I’ve learned these past four years, and hopefully find my place in the workforce before I get a specified master’s degree. I know this coronavirus situation is a stark contrast to what the Class of 2020 imagined for their college graduation, but at this moment where everything can change in an instant, I hope we can understand the necessity for putting peoples’ health above all else.
I want to thank Professor Burby for advising and helping me these two years, including my Editor-in-Chiefs Gabrielle, Nicoletta Cuccio, Olivia Franks and Jaclyn Tracy, and the people I’ve been blessed to beside for believing in and working with me. To my successors, Mylo Fisherman and Molly Amick, I wish you all the best and hope you can find the same joy and growth in this position as I did. To my family and friends, I love you. And to everyone, please don’t let your passions fall to the wayside. Congratulations to the Adelphi’s Class of 2020, and I can’t wait to read the next issue of The Delphian in the fall.
Home Away From Home
By: Matthew Schroh
When I was selecting my university, I was down to a handful of schools that, on paper, were evenly matched. I’ve always been an indecisive person and I was afraid I’d make the wrong call. However, when it was truly time to put down a deposit, and my parents and I had our final discussion to make a choice, I went with Adelphi, because, as I told them that day, it felt the most like home.
Four years later, I can confidently say that I never doubted that decision. My time at Adelphi has been absolutely constructive in shaping the person I am today, through the clubs I have joined, the classes I have taken, and the friends I have made. Though I will still be around next academic year due to my five-year STEP teaching program, I recognize that the end of my undergrad tenure here is the end of an era, in a certain way.
When I arrived at Adelphi in the fall of 2016, the only thing I was sure about was that I wanted to major in history and education – other than that, I had no idea what to expect. As any first-year can attest, it was simultaneously a nerve-wracking and exciting time. At first, I stuck to what I knew: I wanted to study education, so I joined the Future Teachers of America (FTA), and I was the editor-in-chief of my high school newspaper, so I was drawn to The Delphian. These clubs and most crucially the people in them helped me find my footing in a new environment. I have enjoyed every moment I have spent taking part in FTA’s diverse meetings, from playing Kahoot quizzes and making arts and crafts to hearing guest speakers and learning teaching methods. And writing for The Delphian has been an absolute treat, from the heated political editorials to the updates about the goings-on at Adelphi and formulating my own opinions and having the privilege to talk to a variety of faculty members, from security to professors, advisors to administrators. The Delphian provided an avenue to truly discover how fortunate I was to be attending such an amazing institution. I would get a similar chance to look behind the scenes with my job at the Ruth S. Ammon School of Education, which I have had since my freshman year, and introduced me to an affable and thoroughly caring group of administrators and professors.
I would have never expected my classes to be so fun either, but, lifelong nerd and avid reader that I am, I got the chance to fall back in love with reading after the reading burnout that accompanied my high school years. My Honors College curriculum in particular taught me valuable critical thinking skills, and I developed a fascination with the classics that has persisted to this day. A few hours before writing, I finished R.L. Stevenson’s “Treasure Island,” which I couldn’t put down for a week. I definitely recommend it.
As the years went on, I came to enjoy myself and my time even more. I took a variety of classes, some for general education credits and some for fun, ranging from archaeology to creative writing, from acting to American politics, and always found something to love about them. On a more personal note, as a lifelong, lukewarm Catholic, I ended up rediscovering my faith through the second half of my time at Adelphi, and the Catholic Campus Ministry, the Newman Club, and all of the people who made it tick became synonymous with some of my favorite memories at Adelphi.
There were challenges – the coursework wasn’t always the easiest, my honors thesis has loomed large over the course of my senior year – but I can say with certainty that the professors and faculty members have always been there to lend a helping hand whenever they can, and the friends I have made through classes and clubs have been incredible for moral support and just for when I need a laugh.
As for the elephant in the room, no, I cannot say I hoped that I would be ending my undergrad years in my bedroom over a webcam. I think it’s fair to say none of us could have expected the situation we find ourselves in right now, and things could certainly be better. But finishing my last week of classes in bed is the kind of story I hope to share with my children someday – as the old adage goes, comedy equals tragedy plus time.
Even with things ending like this, I look back at my four undergrad years at Adelphi and smile. Incoming first-year Matt would have scoffed if someone had told him that, at the end of four years, he would be presenting a fully-completed thesis, singing in a chorale ensemble, carrying around rosary beads, and geeking out over the Homeric epics. I truly have too many people to thank for the incredible opportunities I have received here, so I reserve my true gratitude for the campus environment as a whole.
It has been a tremendous experience, every bit as amazing as I could have hoped it to be. Though Adelphi will no longer be home to me in the same way it is now, it will always be a part of me.
Comments