Interview with Thea Zunick

As incoming freshmen, you may know Thea Zunick as the person behind all of those Pre-Orientation emails you keep getting. But what you might not know, is her extensive involvement with Greek Life as the Associate Director of Student Life.

Prior to finding her place at Stevens, Thea began her college studies with an associate’s degree at a community college in Middlesex County, NJ. She then moved on to Montclair State University for one semester, and then transferred to The College of New Jersey to complete her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and Elementary Education. She worked towards a Master’s Degree from the University of Florida, and finally completed her studies in May 2016 with a Doctorate of Education from Rutgers University.

Her first job at Iona College allowed her to realize her passion of working with sororities and fraternities, as well as focusing on wellness programming and service. She worked at NJIT, and was temporarily hired to do some work for Stevens Student Affairs, where she ultimately earned a permanent position three and a half years ago.

Thea enjoys her job, because she has the ability to “create learning opportunities for the students that come [to Stevens],” and “help them develop outside of the classroom”. She believes that an integral part of life outside of academics is becoming involved in clubs. She is particularly fond of Greek Life, because a sorority or fraternity becomes a student’s second home. In fact, she still stays in contact with her own sorority sisters from college.

In addition to Greek Life, Thea is also responsible for working with local and global service initiatives, such as the global service program. This program she created has allowed three groups of students to serve in Jamaica and launched a global service program focused on social injustice. She is also in charge of the Pre-Orientation Programs and parent programming (such as Freshman Family Weekend), and she collaborates with other departments and wellness programming as a lead of the THRIVE initiative, which focuses on mental, emotional, and physical wellness.

Outside of her academic interests, Thea is a huge foodie and loves to cook. In fact, she recently ate her way through Italy. Despite her love of food, Thea enjoys fitness, high-intensity gym exercise, and taking dance classes in New York City. One of Thea’s favorite hobbies is showing people photos of her adorable puppy Zoe, who she believes is a Jack Russell terrier/black lab mix.

Thea’s advice to incoming students is to get involved and find your niche; she says to join something – anything – whether it is a fraternity or sorority, Student Government Association (SGA), the newspaper, an ethnic organization, or one of the many other student organizations at Stevens.