Greetings All,

I must admit this is an exciting and intimidating process. Exciting because I am a broadcasting major and I really enjoy communications and multi-media and this just adds to that passion of mine. I would agree that it is intimidating only because of the wide array of readers paging through the blogs. But as in the title I welcome you all to discover my experiences here at Oswego State that I may share with many of you now and or in the future.

I am from Hempstead, New York and it is a suburb of Long Island within less than a half hour from New York City and an hour outside of Manhattan. I discovered Oswego through my guidance counselor Mr. Davis (Thank You!) who served a great role in my development in my high school career. Through him I applied and I decided to come here because of the cost, distance, and at the time the journalism program. I later switched to broadcasting and mass communications because I wanted more involvement with communications.

I lived on campus in Cayuga Hall once upon a time for two years and I have lived off campus ever since. I must admit it was a great experience living in the residence hall. I enjoyed the connections and meeting new people all the time. Living off campus for me has matured my living experience definitely. I say that because it made me more responsible with my spending habits with knowing that I had to buy my own groceries, pay rent, utilities, and various other amenities.

One of my very first jobs on campus was working with Auxiliary Services formerly in Hewitt Union Late-Night. I have to admit I wasn’t a fan of food service but it definitely allowed me to pay for my laptop (And it still works!). I also worked formerly in the L.E.A.D. (Leadership, Education, Activities, and Development) Center working closely with the Leadership Development Series and the A.L.A.N.A (African, Latino, Asian, and Native American) Conference. Those were great programs for me to be involved with because I got so connected into the frame work of student activities to often be recognized as an upperclassman in just my first semester. From there I began to get involved in writing for the Oswegonian which is the student newspaper. I have also been involved voluntarily with Residence Life & Housing working as a hall orientation coordinator, hall council officer, and residence hall advisory board. Additionally, I also was a building manager for the Department of Campus Life my freshmen year up until this year. I was generally known as the guy with 10 jobs =).There are countless other experiences I could discuss but that is all for now.

This is my senior year and it’s definitely been a great time up until this point for me. I have experienced various levels of growth and maturity through a result of my involvement on campus. I first came to SUNY Oswego with great hopes of exploring many opportunities where I could challenge and shape myself into something that I couldn’t predict, something much stronger, much wiser, and maybe even a little taller. It was exciting to embark upon this unknown journey. I must admit that thus far I have succeeded. It wasn’t always easy, yet it wasn’t always difficult. Despite the ups and downs, gains and losses, it has been an incredible journey. It has been incredible for the time spent with my wonderful and I do mean wonderful friends (I heart you!). Honestly, without them I couldn’t begin to imagine what my time would have been like in Oswego without their continuous support, love, and generosity (You all know who you are!).

I’ll leave you all with this quote. Thanks for reading!

“Everyone who got where he is has had to begin where he was.”
– Robert Louis Stevenson

Hi, my name is Erin. I’m a senior at SUNY Oswego and studying Public Justice. My career goal is to become a probation officer. My goal is a little different from most people’s because I plan on being the first blind probation officer. For this past Summer, I worked with the Onondaga County Probation Department, the Syracuse Police Department, and the Onondaga County Justice Center. It was such a rewarding experience to work hand-on in my field of interest.

So yes, as you now know, I’m blind! I’ll just give a short explanation of my vision, or lack there-of. I was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) when I was 4. It is a degenerative eye condition that ultimately can lead to complete blindness. I was able to see much better growing up and could read small print and play numerous sports. A few years ago, my eye sight started to deteriorate and now I can no longer read print and I have very little useful vision.

I do not let the fact that I have a disability rule my life, in fact I think of it as a blessing. I am still able to play sports. I participate in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), and Brazillian Juditzu. I also love to ice skate, play basketball and kick the soccer ball around. I might do things a little differently and it may take a little bit longer, but nothing holds me back.

I graduated in 2004 from Baker High School in Baldwinsville. After graduating, I received my Associates Degree in Criminal Justice from Herkimer County Community College (HCCC). I then decided to transfer to SUNY Oswego to get my Bachelors’ Degree in Public Justice. I knew that with my vision deteriorating, and heading to a huge University, I needed more independence training. At this point I decided to go to the Colorado Center for the Blind in Littleton Colorado for a six month independence training course.

At this school, anyone who had any bit of vision, whether it is light perception or shadows etc. had to wear a blindfold from 8:00am until 4:30pm. I was in that category, and it was extremely difficult. Even though I had limited vision, I used what I did have to help me with traveling, cooking and other daily activities. At this school, we attended classes Monday through Friday in technology, Braille, wood shop, travel, home management, and organizational skills. Students at this school ranged from 18 years old and up. I was our student body president, and also planned many events such as attending Colorado Rockies baseball games, going rock climbing, white water rafting and canoeing. In addition to those events I also planned a first annual Colorado Center for the Blind prom. Many of the students had never gone to their prom. Many were either not invited to their school dances, or felt that they’re vision limited them from going, so they did not attend. We had it catered, received donations for decorations, and hired a DJ who was blind himself.

This 6 month experience prepared me very well for my first semester in Oswego this past January. I will talk about the center more in other blogs. It was very interesting and I have some great stories. The bottom line is that the training really prepared me for Oswego’s Campus and being independent in the dining halls, going to class, the bus system, and getting my work and studies complete.

At first, I thought that SUNY Oswego was way too big for anyone to navigate, let alone a blind person. After walking around, getting involved with clubs and meeting people, it is very easy and comfortable to go from point A to point B both on and off campus. I consider Oswego to be my second home and I’ve made life long friendships with both staff and students.

How are you dealing with it, if you are at all? I know some students don’t even really miss home, and I don’t think that that is a bad thing at all; I think that that just means that they’ve settled in to their new environment really quickly, and considering the fact that SUNY Oswego is technically our new home, that’s probably not a bad thing to have happen.

I know that I am dealing with it, though. I wouldn’t say that it is to the extreme, but there are definitely a lot of things about my old life back at home that I am really starting to miss. Firstly, there’s my friends from home, who are all very important to me each in their own way, and I miss them a lot. It’s hard not having them with me since they were with me every day in high school! I think that’s normal though. College isn’t just one transition. Your life undergoes many, many changes that, for some people, just take some time to get used to.

There’s always some aspects of being home itself too that are dear to me that I miss. I remember a few months ago when my younger brother and I used to buy Monster energy drinks from Nice & Easy and watch episodes of LOST and pull an all-nighter, and then I’d sleep in until noon. Those were good times! I remember having my friend Zach over and staying up until 2 a.m. watching Sweeney Todd as he covered his eyes with his blanket every time Sweeney kills someone. I remember my friends Andrea, Laura, David, Mike and I as we took a half-hour road trip to see Pineapple Express only to be denied admission because not all of us had IDs, which resulted in us wandering around Wal-Mart.

These are things that I know aren’t ever going to happen again with those people until I go back home, and thoughts like that are what’s driving my nostalgia. I’m not going to say that I don’t like it here, because I do. I just figured that I’d share some of my memorable experiences from home, which we all have, most probably more exciting than mine.

I guess that it’s kind of like a bridge that you have to cross where one end of it is the life you’re used to and the other end is college life, and let’s face it, there are many of those bridges in our lives. There was the bridge that we had to cross between elementary school and middle school and then another one to high school. I think that the one leading to college has probably been my longest so far, maybe even my narrowest, but with every transition comes adaptation, so I guess I’m just still taking my time on that bridge, one step at a time. It has definitely been an interesting experience though!

I forgot how much work it really is to just apply for school!  After all, it has been four years since I have even thought about applying to school, let alone actually filling out the applications.  I just figured out that I want to do last semester, so now I have to decide where I want to go and visit the campuses.  I’ve visited a few (University of Rochester, St. Rose) but there are a few more I want to go see!  Visiting the school is really important for me in deciding where I want to go.  When I saw Oswego in the SUNY booklet as a senior in highschool, I said NO WAY because of all of the things I had heard about the snow.  I decided that I wanted to major in PR, so I decided to visit anyway.  I visited in October (I remember because it was so windy!) and it was so beautiful I just had to come here.    But anyway, the grad school search is kicking my butt and just thinking about all of it is really tiring, but really exciting at the same time!  I can’t believe that at this time next year, I’ll be at a different school.  It’s all starting to sink in that I won’t be here next year, which makes me sad (and jealous of everyone who will be back!) but also makes me excited for what is about to come!  I’ll keep ya’ posted on the search!