Nicholas Negron '20
BA History

Why Stony Brook?
I live about five minutes away from the campus by car and I've pretty much grown up around it. Not only was it considerably more affordable than the private college I was attending after earning my associates degree,  it was appealing to finish my degree at one of the best colleges among the SUNY schools. I had opportunities to visit the campus, including a seasonal position as a valet at the school's stadium while I was in high school.

On his program of study:
I am majoring in History, with a concentration in European History. History was always my strongest subject in high school and one that I had the most interest in outside of classes. I have spent countless hours watching documentaries, getting lost in Wikipedia articles (don't tell my professors!), and even playing strategy games about historical battles and empires. It made the most sense to me as I was interested enough to perhaps make a career out of it.

On his favorite class:
One of my favorite classes was Witchcraft and Magic in American History with Richard Tomczak. Even though it was online, it was probably one of the most engaging classes I've participated in during my entire college life. It offered a thorough examination of such a niche but interesting subject in American history without falling victim to boring research journals; I still retain almost every lecture and reading months later. 

On his interests and accomplishments: 
Like I said above, History is one of my greatest interests, even to the point of fueling it in my recreational time with movies and games revolving around it. Other than this, I enjoy creative writing and I actually used to be an English major for a brief time because of this. I'm also an avid reader, which I can't imagine surviving this long in the Humanities if you aren't.

On his greatest achievement:
When I was at my former college, I started my first semester with a GPA of 1.6 as a result of personal problems going on at home that tanked my performance at school. I tried applying to Stony Brook, telling them that I was an honor roll student when I was going for my associates degree (at Suffolk County Community College) and that my last semester at (my former college) was a fluke, but I got rejected. The next semester, I was determined to improve my GPA enough to increase my chances of applying to Stony Brook. By the end of my second semester, I had a GPA of 3.74 and bumped my cumulative GPA up to 2.7, an entire point, and I thankfully got accepted to Stony Brook in January 2020. I'm about to graduate in a few weeks, and right now I have a 3.93 GPA. I think my greatest achievement was not only making such a recovery, but keeping up my performance even after I got what I wanted.

Awards and Accolades

I was a Dean's List student and was also accepted to Phi Alpha Theta and the National Society of Leadership and Success this year.

On his favorite SBU memory:
Probably the camaraderie I've had with other students here, there are so many people from all over the country and the world, and we all have one thing in common that we can bond over: how are we gonna get all this work done tonight!?

Plans for post-graduation:
While this pandemic has put a halt to any sort of "gap year" activities, I was interested in doing a stint of volunteer work, either domestic or abroad. One option that I considered was the Peace Corps, especially since they established a presence on the campus this semester. Another option I considered was World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF), a volunteer farming organization around the world.

I'd like to pursue a career as a History teacher and may even return to Stony Brook for the Master of Arts in Teaching Social Studies program.

Advice for future Seawolves:
Now that we're all online, it's much easier to reach out to other students for help. I can't tell you how many study groups I'm in on GroupMe/Discord/Zoom, and we've all done a lot to help each other out, whether it be academically or emotionally.

Will you be participating in the virtual event on December 18? 
I look forward to participating in our online commencement, as much as I wished I could walk across the stage myself.