Photo Courtesy of Audra Nemirow

“I’m a neuroscience major, and it worked out that I’m graduating early. Basically, I took some AP classes in high school and I got some credits for Hofstra through there, and then I finished out my major with all of those requirements early enough that I am able to graduate a semester early. I considered adding a minor, and at that point, I was going to be staying for the full four years, but I decided against that. I decided to just graduate with my major and get a head start on finding a job. It’s definitely bittersweet; it’s a mix of emotions. I’m excited, and I’m happy at what I’ve accomplished in terms of graduating early. And I’m excited to be home, spend more time with my family, start doing something in the field that I want to be doing. But I’m also going to be sad because I feel like I’ve created such a community here, and I’m going to miss all of the friends that I’ve made, all the clubs that I’m in … It’s just going to be different. It’s a good change, so I’m excited … The thing I’ll miss most is all the people I’ve met here. Like I said, I feel like I’ve just created a community here. And it’s so weird because in my freshman year, I came here and I didn’t know anybody. All of a sudden, a few years later, I have this whole group of friends, almost like a family. I’m definitely going to miss them … My end goal is to be a high school biology teacher, so I will be looking for different substitute teaching positions, just anything that’s going to get my foot in the door at a school, and I’ll go from there … For the past few semesters, I’ve been a tutor through Hofstra’s undergraduate tutorial program, and that is basically what got me into teaching in the first place. I was able to tutor kids and help them to understand things better, and it just made me realize how much I love doing that, and how I could actually turn that into a career. So through that experience, Hofstra’s given me the experience of teaching.”