T- “What year did you start coming to Antioch?”
J- “The fall semester of 2002.”
T- “Why did you choose to come to Antioch?”
J- “I grew up in Fairborn, and I wanted to stay close to home. So it was either Antioch or Wright State. Most of my high school went to Wright State, and I didn’t want to go back to high school again. My mom also really encouraged me to come to Antioch.”
T- “What is your major?”
J- “Biomedical Science.”
T- “What was your last co-op?”
J- “Well, it was this last summer in San Francisco, where I worked at an addiction pharmacology research lab. Its probably one of the coolest co-ops that Antioch has to offer.”
T- “What are you doing for your senior project?”
J- “For my senior project I have teamed up with a creative writing major, Dayna Ingram, who is taking an independent study this term to help me with my senior project. She wrote a murder mystery novel that she will use to set up a murder mystery with the help of several students, and I am going to attempt to solve it forensically. It’s a lot more complicated and expensive than I thought it was going to be, but it should be pretty awesome.”
T- “What are your plans for when you graduate?”
J- “Well, I still have to do a hanging co-op this summer, which has to be a cross cultural science co-op. then I plan on graduate school for forensic science. Hopefully I will be going to Scotland for a Ph.D program in forensic toxicology”
T – “How do you feel about being an HA this semester?”
J- “It’s different, I have always worked with the ASC until this term. It is definitely a change of pace. I have a lot more time, which is why I choose to do it. It has also helped me get to know some of the younger students, because I never really hang out with fi rst years, but now I’m getting to meet some of them. I feel better about some of the changes Antioch has been making, because I get to hang out with the younger students and get a different perspective on things.”
T-“How do you feel about the separation between first years and then upper-level students?”
J- “I think it has its good points and it bad ones. One good point from an upper-level perspective is that when first years come to college they are on their own for the first time and they can get crazy. I don’t really want to be around that so much, because I’m older and I need to get my work done. It’s not party time it’s work time for me. I also feel this separation does a disservice to the younger students, because they don’t get any of Antioch’s oral history like we did when came to Antioch.
T- “What do you think about all of the changes going on with Antioch right now?”
J- “Some of the changes I think have been for the better, but I think some have been very bad. Antioch does need help increasing its student retention. I think the new drug policy is fairly ridiculous. I never thought there was too much of drug problem here, and this is the fi rst time I have seen students get expelled for drugs. I think that is really sad, because Antioch used to be a safe place to do things like that.”
T- “It’s not going to be an open environment basically.”
J- “Yeah, and that’s not good. When I first came here you could walk up to somebody and they would be giggling at you. You would be like well what’s wrong, and they would say well this person is tripping on mushrooms. Now you won’t do that, because people are afraid of getting turned in for drugs. I understand why, I just don’t agree fully.”
T- “Do you have any messages you would like to give to new students?”
J- “Hang in there, wait until after you first co-op to leave. Co-op changes you a lot and you don’t even realize it until you come back.”