By Stephen Walter
Enduring any length of time at Stevens can give a student plenty to complain about, I have certainly done my share over my four years here. Complaining is a necessary part of our culture. It allows us to vent and navigate through this without tons of pent up frustration. But the vast amount of complaining tend to build up and cast shadows over areas worthy of praise, to the point where we can no longer see the positive in anything. As a graduating senior, I wanted to share one overwhelmingly positive experience with you.
I was once like you (and for the most part still am). Sophomore year I was stuck taking biology, a required course for my curriculum and one that I absolutely hated for its piling on of seemingly useless information. My professor was the upbeat and energetic Dr. Leopold, except the way I viewed him at first was as corny and obnoxious. I had already been jaded by negative experiences with Stevens so I was not in the frame of mind to give Dr. Leopold the benefit of the doubt.
The time came for the first biology exam and as the tests were being passed out, Dr. Leopold announced that any exams handed in after class time was over would not be accepted. This made me very agitated. It was already five minutes past the start of class, and I hadn’t even received my test yet. Aren’t we supposed to have 50 minutes to take the test? I decided that I would test Dr. Leopold’s firmness with regard to this policy and work until five minutes after class.
I continued to work when class ended and everyone was bringing up their exams. Dr. Leopold saw me and called me out and, in a regretful moment, I openly defied him in front of the class. I gave him and the TA’s all the attitude I could for taking too long to hand out the tests, and then slammed my test on the table and stormed out.
It was a mistake on my part. Everyone had the same amount of time to take the test and I was the only one who put up a fight. I was way out of line, but ultimately it was the result of an attitude I held about Stevens at the time. My next experience with Dr. Leopold would go a long way in helping me change this attitude.
The next day I received an email from Dr. Leopold asking me to meet to discuss what had happened. I was expecting it to be combative. I expected him to scold me and treat me with the same disregard other professors had. But he didn’t. In fact, we didn’t talk much about the incident. He asked me about my major and how things were going for me at Stevens. I told him was struggling to find an internship for that summer and I felt like Career Development wasn’t helping me. I told him about some of the bad experiences with my professors from the previous semester. I told him all of the things that were looming over me at the time that caused me to have such a negative outlook. He forgave me for what had happened and gave me some great advice for dealing with professors. He forwarded my resume to an industry friend. This was a biology professor going out of his way to help a civil engineering student who had disrespected him find a job. I was truly humbled and left with a mountain of respect for him.
I ended up having to withdraw because of my grades, but my experience with Dr. Leopold taught me a lot more than I could have ever learned in biology. When I returned to take the class this semester, I was happy to see that Dr. Leopold was as cheerful as ever. He was still doing everything he could to get students excited to take his class, no matter how many corny jokes it took. It also became clear to me just how much work goes in to his class. While so many professors use the same tests year after year, Professor Leopold had not only completely changed the format of the tests, but also tailored the recitations and textbook assignments to better assist the students in learning the material.
You are going to face many challenges at Stevens. You will be swamped with work, disrespected by professors, and ignored by faculty. You will miss shuttles and have to walk in the rain because the locator app is down. You will scratch your head at the asinine decisions of administration. My message to you is try not to allow these things to stop you from noticing all of the good you will experience here. Stevens is full of amazing people who are wise, generous, and looking to come in to your life and make a difference. Take a step back for a moment and allow yourself to appreciate them.
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