Alumni Spotlight
Justin Normandeau, 2017 MassSTAR Conference Alum
Interviewee: Justin Normandeau
Interviewer: Chris Ackerman
List of acronyms: JN=Justin Normandeau, CA=Chris Ackerman
CA: Hi Justin, thanks for being our first alumni profile this year! Can you give us a quick intro about yourself and your most recent involvement with the MYL Foundation?
JN: Sure! I'm a 2017 alumnus, and I was the delegate from Hopkinton High School. I'm currently a freshman at the University of South Carolina (go Gamecocks!) where I'm majoring in finance and minoring in sport and entertainment management. I was a Junior Operations staff member at the 2018 conference.
CA: That's awesome! Can you walk us through a typical day at USC?
JN: Well, the biggest thing in college is that there's lots of freedom. When I was in high school, I was either in "school mode" or "summer mode", and I'd transition back and forth at the beginning/end of school. Now it feels like I'm in "life mode", and that's a permanent situation. Unlike in high school, there isn't the clear separation of classwork, time at home, etc.
The two biggest adjustments to college were, funny enough, eating and chores. When I was in high school, my parents made my food for me and I didn't have to clean my room. Now that I'm at school, of course I have to clean and do my own laundry, which takes more time that I thought. And I also have to remind myself to eat---I'll wake up and go to class, and then try to get some studying done, and before I know it it's 4PM and I forgot to eat lunch.
One of the things that is really cool is that I live with all of my friends. When I go back to my dorm, everybody on my floor leaves their doors open, so even if we're all doing homework it feels like a nice community. We also hang out most nights---it's important to get schoolwork done, but after that I try to have some time to just hangout with the people on my floor. And (if I remember) we all get our meals together, too.
CA: Outside of class, what are some of the things you do at USC?
JN: My biggest extracurriculars at school are my fraternity (Alpha Epsilon Pi), intramural soccer (I'm both a player and a ref) and my living learning community. Just like the first day of the MassSTAR conference, the first day of college is kind of awkward---you're in a new place with tons of new people, and none of you know each other (but remember, everyone else is in the same boat). I actually knew a few people going into USC: there was an upperclassman from Hopkinton, and two other guys from my grade ended up going to USC. The upperclassman was in a fraternity and he invited both me and the other guys from Hopkinton to lots of social events, and we ended up joining. I didn't think I was going to join Greek life when I started school, but I really liked the community I was spending time with, and it's super helpful for networking, too.
The other thing I carried over from high school was an interest in soccer. I knew I didn't want to play on a competitive team, since that's a huge time commitment and I wanted to be able to focus on my schoolwork, but I also didn't want to just give up on soccer. Intramural ended up being the perfect level of involvement---it's great exercise, I've met a bunch of people, and I still get to enjoy the sport I love. Even though it's intramural, it's still competitive, but we don't spend much (any) time practicing. I also have a work-study program as a referee. It's awesome that I have a fun job, and working on campus is super convenient---there's no commute, and of course I like the extra money.
I'm also a part of the "Capstone Scholars Leadership Program". It's a living-learning community at USC, so all the people in my dorm are in the program, too. We have to maintain a certain GPA, and we meet with an advisor every semester to work on a "community impact statement" and set a personal challenge. I've really liked spending time with like-minded people; everyone I live with is interested in being a leader and making a difference, so it's easy to make friends.
CA: Those all sound awesome; the Capstone program sounds a lot like the MYL Foundation! How did you end up choosing USC?
JN: I started with some "need to haves". I knew I wanted to be in the South, so that narrowed things done, and I knew I wanted to study Sports Management (I just switched to a finance major and Sport and entertainment Management minor). Sports Management is pretty niche, so that narrowed down my choices a lot. Then, I started visiting schools---my junior year I went on a road trip down South with my family, and we looked at a bunch of schools I was interested in. I wasn't so interested in USC at first, but I fell in love when I visited. The campus is beautiful, and everyone in Columbia, SC is so nice and happy.
After I got my acceptances, I looked at the package each school offered. In addition to financial aid, USC admitted me to their Capstone program. Initially I wanted to join the Honors program, which I didn't get into, but I'm actually really glad I did Capstone instead. The Honors program just offers harder classes, but the Capstone program is more closely aligned with my goals and values, and it has a really nice sense of community. I would definitely recommend looking at special program outside of just "regular admission" when choosing schools; I think my experience at USC is probably different from most students.
CA: Okay, time to wrap up---let's do some fun questions, rapid fire.
CA: What's your favorite cheer?
JN: "Get Loose"! I used this for my application video, and my soccer teammates found it and had a good laugh, but I'm not embarrassed!
CA: What flavor were you in the ice cream game?
JN: I was a chocolate as a delegate, and a cop when I was on Operations.
CA: Who is your favorite athlete/what's your favorite sports team?
JN: Tom Brady is my favorite athlete, and the Patriots are my favorite team. I was in Switzerland during the playoffs last year, but I set my alarm for 2am to watch the Pats game! As a side note I do think Brady going to the Bucs was a dumb move. I love Brady but disrespect him leaving and think he won’t do anything successful in Tampa Bay because his competition is too hard. He’ll be good with the Gronk addition but still not that successful.
CA: Oh wow some strong words on the Brady move but only time will tell! That's all we have for today. Thank you Justin for your time.
Interviewer: Chris Ackerman
List of acronyms: JN=Justin Normandeau, CA=Chris Ackerman
CA: Hi Justin, thanks for being our first alumni profile this year! Can you give us a quick intro about yourself and your most recent involvement with the MYL Foundation?
JN: Sure! I'm a 2017 alumnus, and I was the delegate from Hopkinton High School. I'm currently a freshman at the University of South Carolina (go Gamecocks!) where I'm majoring in finance and minoring in sport and entertainment management. I was a Junior Operations staff member at the 2018 conference.
CA: That's awesome! Can you walk us through a typical day at USC?
JN: Well, the biggest thing in college is that there's lots of freedom. When I was in high school, I was either in "school mode" or "summer mode", and I'd transition back and forth at the beginning/end of school. Now it feels like I'm in "life mode", and that's a permanent situation. Unlike in high school, there isn't the clear separation of classwork, time at home, etc.
The two biggest adjustments to college were, funny enough, eating and chores. When I was in high school, my parents made my food for me and I didn't have to clean my room. Now that I'm at school, of course I have to clean and do my own laundry, which takes more time that I thought. And I also have to remind myself to eat---I'll wake up and go to class, and then try to get some studying done, and before I know it it's 4PM and I forgot to eat lunch.
One of the things that is really cool is that I live with all of my friends. When I go back to my dorm, everybody on my floor leaves their doors open, so even if we're all doing homework it feels like a nice community. We also hang out most nights---it's important to get schoolwork done, but after that I try to have some time to just hangout with the people on my floor. And (if I remember) we all get our meals together, too.
CA: Outside of class, what are some of the things you do at USC?
JN: My biggest extracurriculars at school are my fraternity (Alpha Epsilon Pi), intramural soccer (I'm both a player and a ref) and my living learning community. Just like the first day of the MassSTAR conference, the first day of college is kind of awkward---you're in a new place with tons of new people, and none of you know each other (but remember, everyone else is in the same boat). I actually knew a few people going into USC: there was an upperclassman from Hopkinton, and two other guys from my grade ended up going to USC. The upperclassman was in a fraternity and he invited both me and the other guys from Hopkinton to lots of social events, and we ended up joining. I didn't think I was going to join Greek life when I started school, but I really liked the community I was spending time with, and it's super helpful for networking, too.
The other thing I carried over from high school was an interest in soccer. I knew I didn't want to play on a competitive team, since that's a huge time commitment and I wanted to be able to focus on my schoolwork, but I also didn't want to just give up on soccer. Intramural ended up being the perfect level of involvement---it's great exercise, I've met a bunch of people, and I still get to enjoy the sport I love. Even though it's intramural, it's still competitive, but we don't spend much (any) time practicing. I also have a work-study program as a referee. It's awesome that I have a fun job, and working on campus is super convenient---there's no commute, and of course I like the extra money.
I'm also a part of the "Capstone Scholars Leadership Program". It's a living-learning community at USC, so all the people in my dorm are in the program, too. We have to maintain a certain GPA, and we meet with an advisor every semester to work on a "community impact statement" and set a personal challenge. I've really liked spending time with like-minded people; everyone I live with is interested in being a leader and making a difference, so it's easy to make friends.
CA: Those all sound awesome; the Capstone program sounds a lot like the MYL Foundation! How did you end up choosing USC?
JN: I started with some "need to haves". I knew I wanted to be in the South, so that narrowed things done, and I knew I wanted to study Sports Management (I just switched to a finance major and Sport and entertainment Management minor). Sports Management is pretty niche, so that narrowed down my choices a lot. Then, I started visiting schools---my junior year I went on a road trip down South with my family, and we looked at a bunch of schools I was interested in. I wasn't so interested in USC at first, but I fell in love when I visited. The campus is beautiful, and everyone in Columbia, SC is so nice and happy.
After I got my acceptances, I looked at the package each school offered. In addition to financial aid, USC admitted me to their Capstone program. Initially I wanted to join the Honors program, which I didn't get into, but I'm actually really glad I did Capstone instead. The Honors program just offers harder classes, but the Capstone program is more closely aligned with my goals and values, and it has a really nice sense of community. I would definitely recommend looking at special program outside of just "regular admission" when choosing schools; I think my experience at USC is probably different from most students.
CA: Okay, time to wrap up---let's do some fun questions, rapid fire.
CA: What's your favorite cheer?
JN: "Get Loose"! I used this for my application video, and my soccer teammates found it and had a good laugh, but I'm not embarrassed!
CA: What flavor were you in the ice cream game?
JN: I was a chocolate as a delegate, and a cop when I was on Operations.
CA: Who is your favorite athlete/what's your favorite sports team?
JN: Tom Brady is my favorite athlete, and the Patriots are my favorite team. I was in Switzerland during the playoffs last year, but I set my alarm for 2am to watch the Pats game! As a side note I do think Brady going to the Bucs was a dumb move. I love Brady but disrespect him leaving and think he won’t do anything successful in Tampa Bay because his competition is too hard. He’ll be good with the Gronk addition but still not that successful.
CA: Oh wow some strong words on the Brady move but only time will tell! That's all we have for today. Thank you Justin for your time.