Find out what the members of the class of 2015 are up to in their first year of college. A college freshman is featured in the Freshman Focus every Friday.
Skovran Cunningham attends Boston University.
Q: What classes are you taking?
A: Psychology 101, Writing 100, English 127 and Spanish.
My writing class is a seminar based on Jack Kerouac’s writings.
In English 127, we’ve been reading Ralph Waldo Emerson and other American 19th-century writers since the class focuses on American literature.
Spanish focuses on how females are represented in Spanish literature and film.
Q: What’s your least and favorite class?
A: My least favorite is Psych because it has over 300 people, and at times it’s a really boring class.
My favorite is Spanish. It’s conducted completely in Spanish, and we’ve studied excerpts from books that go back to the 1400s. Right now we’re reading a book about the Spanish Civil War.
There are 14 students in my Spanish class.
Q: How’s your dorm?
A: Good. I live in a triple with two organized roommates who say that I am the messiest in the room.
I get along with my roommates pretty well. We hang out and have a lot of similarities. All of us like to listen to indie pop with a touch of punk.
Our dorms are coed with girls on one side and boys on the other. We don’t have coed bathrooms, though.
There are 30 guys on our floor, and we share two bathrooms and four showers.
Q: How’s the weather?
A: Pretty nice, it’s been in the 60s-70s this week.
It’s supposed to be really cold next month (projected highs are the high 50s to low 60s), and I’m pretty scared since I’ve never experienced East Coast weather. During the winter it gets dark really early, which means I won’t be able to be outside as much.
I don’t know how I’ll be able to withstand the severe cold.
Q: How’s the food?
A: Surprisingly good. Sometimes they have really good options, such as stir-fry, pasta, chicken and turkey, but sometimes the options aren’t good.
Pizza is always a good option.
There are three dining halls on campus, one on the west end of the campus, one on the east end and one in the middle.
Most freshmen eat at Warren (the dining hall in the middle of campus), but my dining hall is a mix of freshmen and sophomores since my dorm is a mix of these grades.
Q: Are you participating in any extracurricular activities?
A: I’m on the B team for my school’s club ultimate frisbee team.
It’s super fun, and my teammates are really goofy and cool.
We usually have practices twice a week for about two-and-a-half hours. Sometimes we practice on the weekends too. Our team plays against other schools at tournaments on the weekends.
We’ve had a tournament in New Jersey, and one in Rhode Island recently. In a couple weeks we have (one) in New York.
I’ve always been interested in ultimate, ever since I played it as a middle-school PE unit. I really got into it when I went to Hawaii and watched a well-known Hawaiian ultimate player play.
Q: What’s the town surrounding your school like?
A: Very urban. There’s lots to do there, such as visiting museums and watching sports games such as Boston Red Sox and Celtics games.
I’m going to watch the Celtics game against the (Sacramento) Kings and visit the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
Q: How are you adjusting to the campus?
A: Really well. At first it was fairly tough because I didn’t have a routine that allowed for me to have enough time to socialize and get work done, but once I established a routine, there wasn’t an adjustment problem.
Thankfully my schedule is never too heavy with classes, so I can always go to the library between classes to get work done.
I walk to all my classes, although I may start to use the bus when it’s winter because of the excessive cold.
Q: What has disappointed you?
A: The early closing time of the dining hall. It closes at 9 p.m., so if I want to eat at that time I have to go somewhere else to eat, which is more expensive than the hall.
Q: What has surprised you?
A: The small classes. Three of my classes (Writing 100, English 127 and Spanish) have less than 20 students. It’s surprising that such a large university (BU has 3,600 in the class of 2019) would have that small of classes.
Q: What makes BU special?
A: Being in an urban setting where you can go out and explore the city yet still have a home base makes it unique.
I haven’t really explored the city yet, except for visiting the Italian area (the north end of Boston), because I’ve been stuck on campus.
The Italian area has extremely nice restaurants, but they’re really expensive for a college kid.
Q: Why did you choose BU?
A: The city had a big draw on me. Boston allows for me to go out and explore it.
The large university life was also something I was looking for.
Q: What are some differences between high school and college?
A: In college you really need to be conscious of your work habits.
If you go back to your dorm, it’s really easy to choose socializing and hanging out with friends over studying and getting work done.
Budgeting time is a lot more important in college.
Q: Are you homesick?
A: I do miss certain things about home, such as family dinners, my dog and (history teacher Bruce) Baird. Sitting down with my brothers and parents for dinner was nice.
Besides that I’m pretty happy, but I’ll get more homesick in the winter when it gets cold because I’ll miss not being frozen.
Q: Any advice for the class of 2016?
A: Make sure to cherish moment every moment with Dr. Baird.
—By Katia Dahmani
