Marc Julien Calza '21
BS Mathematics
Minors in English and Classics

Where are you originally from?
I’m from a neighborhood of Brooklyn called Bay Ridge, but my parents are both from thePhilippines, so I’m Filipino-American by culture. 

How did you hear about Stony Brook University?
I first heard about Stony Brook through my guidance counselor, who suggested the school tome after I expressed interest in an affordable STEM education with a reputable humanitiesoffering. 

Why Stony Brook?
I was excited by Stony Brook’s manifold opportunities in STEM and in pure math in particular, aswell as the school’s tuition compared to my other choices. I also enjoyed the diversity oncampus, which I was sure would bring diverse perspectives in and out of the classroom, butespecially in what would be my later courses that would emphasize peer-to-peer discourse. 

On his major and minors:
I matriculated in Fall 2017 as a mathematics major. Thanks to great math teachers in highschool, I enjoyed finding different ways, however abstract, to look at a theorem or a problem,because that helped me understand the motivation behind why we would care for somethingthat was otherwise mostly theoretical. What made me stay in the major, however, came with myunderstanding that doing pure math wasn’t an isolated activity, but a social and collaborativeeffort. A lot of the later material in the semester can be hard to understand, and having a groupof friends with whom you can bounce ideas off of was a key part of learning for me. 

Along the way, I picked up an English minor. I found that the analytical mindset that I honed inmy pure math classes, along with my perpetual appreciation for literature, lent itself quite well toan academic study under the Department of English. What I initially planned to be a fun elective,EGL 204 with Professor Pfeiffer, turned into an activated curiosity in the ways, howevertheoretical or not, we can look at literature to understand ourselves, others, and the worldaround us. Better yet, the diversity in the classroom ushered very unique perspectives on eventhe cosmetically simple parts of a poem or a play, which I truly appreciated in counterpoint to mymath classes, which saw what peerwise collaboration there was outside the classroom. 

Later on, I declared a Classics minor. I took LAT 111 and 112 with Professor DeRiesthal asanother fun elective, but after finishing that course load, I realized that translating Latin wasmuch more an analytical activity than translating any of Spanish, French, or Tagalog.Furthermore, Latin’s relatively loose syntax lent its literature to frequently creative and beautiful poetic sentence structures. These two aspects of my Latin academics led to an experience thatreally played to my “math side” and the “English side.” 

Favorite class:
One of my favorite classes is actually a class I took this semester, EGL 301 with ProfessorSanta Ana, “Exploring Human and Nonhuman Relations in Literatureand Film.” Here, we read contemporary novels from authors of diverse backgrounds through anecocritical lens. With a combination of peer-led discussions on select parts of a book and smallprofessor presentations introducing the work and a key concept in ecocritical theory, we reach abetter empathetic and analytical comprehension of how the world around us, even theseemingly inanimate, brims with life and its many varieties, and how, through discourse, wemight reform that more popular conception of nature, namely, of nature being inertly subservientto the wants and needs of Western society. 

Interests and accomplishments:
I’m interested in pure math and in literature and culture, but I’m also interested in a veryparticular intersection of the two, namely the ways that we can “computationalize” approachesto things that are traditionally in the humanities. Among other things, I’ve been active on campusas a Lead Tutor for the ASTC for a year and a regular tutor a year before that, a secretary forthe math club for my last two years, and a violinist in the University Orchestra during the spring2020 semester. 

Greatest achievement:
Honestly, my greatest achievement is probably being able to found and run a club during thepandemic. It took me three tries (over three years) to start up a quiz bowl club on campus, andwhen the club finally got approved in February 2020, we had to figure out not only what eventswe should regularly host and how to encourage others to come to our small, somewhat nicheclub, but also how much more difficult that might be online. We held twice-weekly practices andsent teams to several tournaments the last two semesters, including a novice tournament that saw us with a podium finish and a nationals tournament last April. Moreover, we house-wroteour own well-received high school academic tournament last summer consisting of hundreds ofquestions, and we plan to write a much harder pop culture tournament for this August. But that’sall to say: running a new club online isn’t an achievement I have done alone, but something I sharewith my past and present e-board members and all of our club members. 

Plans for post-graduation:
My plans are to go to graduate school, but as a back-up, I feel prepared to take on technicalwriting-type jobs in the city. 

Career aspirations:
In the long run, I hope to be a professor and do research on mathematically or computationallyoriented problems, possibly in literature or cultural studies. 

Clubs and organizations:
I’ve been the president of Stony Brook University Quiz Bowl for the last year and a half as wellas the secretary of the Stony Brook Math Club for the last two years. Although I haven't had thechance to go back since the start of the pandemic, I’ve also been a lector at my local parishsince 2012. 

Advice for future Seawolves?
My best advice would be to try to get to know at least one person in each of your major classesearly on, and all the better if they have roughly the same goals as you do! In a big school likeStony Brook, it’s really easy to just go to class and to just do the work, but doing things aloneisn’t sustainably fun or engaging. Making several friends across your major can help broadenyour perspectives on problem sets or readings and can make harder times like midterm weeksmuch more doable. Several peers that I got to know personally in my first year have becomesome of my closest friends by the end of my fourth year, and I wouldn’t trade anything else for it. 

Favorite SBU memory:
Aside from the pandemic, I’ll probably remember all the fun chance encounters I’ve had withpeople while walking on campus. I remember seeing one of my math friends, Shiwen, at thegym and catching up with him after so many months. I also unexpectedly ran into a number offamiliar faces while I was a part of the University Orchestra, who would later become my goodfriends elsewhere. I even remember some people from my first-year orientations that I’ve stayedconnected with to this day through other things. These types of encounters aren’t exactly proneto happen with online classes, but it’ll be something to look forward to in the fall!