I give back to Stony Brook University because it gave me the education to fearlessly seek a great job in publishing.
I transferred to Stony Brook in 1980 after 2 semesters at Suffolk (and a semester each at two other colleges over the course of 10 years), and wound up spending four full years there, every minute of which I loved. Yes, I graduated with around 180 credits but, they were all worth the time and effort, as I learned so much from my classes. I was an English major but, also studied medieval history, behavioral psychology, and French. I think, because I was in my late 20’s, I had a more mature attitude towards education than I did when I was fresh out of high school. I excelled in virtually all of my classes because I was truly ready. While I had little in the way of a social life (I worked full time while also going to classes full time), I still consider my years at SB as among the happiest of my life, because I was learning something every day.
My final GPA was 3.85. I don’t say that to brag, because I know I couldn’t do that today; I say it because I was so motivated to succeed, and so encouraged by my professors. They were responsible for my success. Believe me, I was sorry to leave. But, I wound up working for a major scholarly publisher, where I stayed for 30 years. I could never have done this without SB. I count myself extremely fortunate to have studied there.
—Terese Handler Dickerson ’85, Facilities Manager at Oxford University Press
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