Political science and economics major: Exeter, Pa.

Why Bucknell?

“Growing up in Exeter, Pa., I was an honor student and a two-letter athlete in football and basketball. I knew I wanted to play college football. I had always liked Bucknell and the level of Patriot League competition. In fact, my high school football coach, Paul Marranca, was a Bucknell graduate. When I visited, I immediately loved the atmosphere. For me, the school had the perfect combination of athletics and academics. But if Bucknell wasn’t the academically strong school it is, I wouldn’t have come. Shortly after arriving, I fell in love with economics and political science and joined the Bucknell University Conservatives Club (BUCC).”

The Study of Law

“My decision to study law was influenced by work in the summer of 2006 through the Bucknell Public Interest Program at the Luzerne County Court House. That gave me some professional experience with the district attorney’s office.

“Bucknell has given me a chance to be myself and explore what I want to explore. With the football program there is a very structured process and I am very grateful that Coach Tim Landis and former Coach Jarred Backus gave me an opportunity to play at this level, but I haven’t been restricted from doing other things. 

"When I decided that I wanted to become heavily involved in the BUCC, that option was available to me because students with similar interests as me had formed the club a few years prior to my arrival on campus. The Katrina Relief Trip was another great opportunity to do something I was interested in. I’ve also had a number of great professors who have taught me a lot and allowed me to grow intellectually. The key is that Bucknell puts opportunities out there for the taking; you’ve just got to take them and make of them what you want.”

Katrina Relief Team Volunteer

“When I see a problem, I want to help fix it. One example of this was in New Orleans where last December I was a Bucknell Katrina Relief Team volunteer. I learned so much from that ‘real world’ experience. The program we did is located in St. Bernard’s Parish and is called Camp Hope. It’s a great place that has become this little hub for Habitat. It was an elementary school that was flooded during the hurricane and has been rebuilt into a volunteer camp. I want to go back and do more Habitat for Humanity work. I’ll be completing class work early and graduate after this fall semester, then I’ll return to New Orleans this spring to help Katrina victims before, hopefully, moving to law school in 2008.

“When I graduate, I’ll miss Bucknell. But there’s a lot to be done in the world and there is so much I want to do. Bucknell is a special place. It’s more than just academics. It’s the relationships you build with your fellow students. I’ve met friends here that I’ll always be close to. As someone once told me, ‘No matter where you go in life from now on, you’ll always be a Bison.’”

More about My Interests

• Department of Political Science
• Department of Economics
• Bucknell Public Interest Program
• Bucknell University Conservatives Club
• Hurricane Katrina Recovery Team
• Athletics