Tyler Turnbull

Reporting and News Writing

May 3, 2012

Profile Story

            Mike Cronin is currently a freshman at Stonehill College. He is an English major, and he grew up in Beverly Massachusetts, going to high school at Saint John’s Preparatory school. What’s interesting about Mike Cronin is that he’s about a year older than most other current freshman at Stonehill. Upon graduating high school, Mike applied to a number of colleges, was accepted to Stonehill, and came here in the Fall of 2010 as a part of the graduating class of 2014. Mike came to Stonehill and stayed on campus for about a month, before making the decision that college was slightly too much and he moved back home for personal reasons. Since then, Mike returned to Stonehill College at the start of the 2011 academic year, again as a freshman. I decided to ask Mike about what that process was like for him, and the difficulties of coming back after a brief hiatus of College life.

            The first question I asked him was whether or not it was difficult to bring himself back to living on campus at the start of this academic year. “Yes it was. I had experiences of living on my own before, with a roommate. But then I had to utilize those skills again to meet new people and get myself out there more because I would be living in a hall where everyone was one year older than me, or at least a class year older than me, with already established friendships.” Mike replied. Mike came back to Stonehill with a difficult situation. He was going to be living with people his age, who had already gone through a year of education at Stonehill. This would mean, as he points out, that he would have to start interacting with people who have already established groups of friends. The challenge of coming back was a difficult one, but making the decision to leave and come back in the first place was also a trial. The second question I asked Mike was when did he decide to come back to Stonehill? “After I left, I knew I would come back and live on campus, but it took a matter of time because there were other priorities that I needed to attend to.” he answered. His situation was an interesting one. There was no question in his mind that he would be returning for his education, however he was free to do so on his own time. I then asked him if he thought there were many others at Stonehill that went through a similar situation. “I’ve been told that a lot of students do a similar thing, where they take time off as well, to tend to other things. People have been telling me that college isn’t like high school where you have to go for all four years at the same time. It can be spaced out.” He replied. Learning that what he was doing wasn’t so abnormal was somewhat comforting to Mike, and he would take on college when he was ready. So Mike was back home after a few weeks at school, and he would live on campus again when he was ready. He came back for the start of the next academic year and has been living on campus ever since. But one question I had for him was what did he do during his time away from campus? “I was commuting to Stonehill, I took 3 classes. During that time I also worked at a preschool as a volunteer. And during the summer I worked as a camp counselor at the same place, with 9-10 year olds as a full time employee.” He said. Mike did continue to study at Stonehill, taking only 3 classes as a commuter. He also volunteered, and worked during the summer. Leaving campus to take 3 classes as a commuter did not mean that Mike was going to be taking it easy; he had a busy life during his time away from campus.

My next question was about his return to school at the beginning of this year. I asked him if Stonehill made it easy for him to come back or if he had to go through the application process again. He told me, “I had to do the roommate questionnaire again, but other than that I was still considered a student even though I only stayed for about a week. So I didn’t have to register or apply like I did the previous year.” Mikes transition back to living on campus was easy enough for him in terms of paperwork. He was still in the Stonehill system as a student, and he simply had to fill out a questionnaire when he was ready to come back to live on campus again. Stonehill was helpful in making this process an easy one for him. I asked Mike if he had a lot of support with each decision he made from the beginning of last year to the start of this one. He answered, “Yes I did. Father Cregan was very supportive, I talked to him. I had great support from the health and wellness center in adjusting to college life.” The departments that Mike had to talk to about his decisions were all very helpful to him, which he appreciated. This made the process easier for Mike and he was guided back to Stonehill to live on campus with ease. My last question was asking if this process has changed his perspective on being in school this year and if it changed his thoughts about college. “It really changed it. I thought it was like high school, where it would be very rigid and not flexible. What I learned is that college is all about learning at your pace and the school allows you to do that. I have 3 extra courses that I got last year from commuting, and in high school you wouldn’t have been able to do that” Mike said. Mike’s thoughts about college changed with his break from living on campus and coming back to it. He’s learned that college is more about one’s goals and that they can be accomplished on their own time. There is no set schedule that is downright necessary for him to stick to, and he can still do great things by doing things on his own time, and he’s shown that he’s certainly doing just that.