By: Katelyn Norris
This story is part of the It’s a Knight Life for Me series, which highlights the experiences of every Bellarmine cohort across a variety of students. This story contains the experiences of two sophomore students.
The sophomore year experience is all about firmly cementing students’ places at their university and growing into the roles they have chosen. This sentiment rings true for sophomore students Maame Dei and William Catalano.
Dei’s Bellarmine experience has been one of change. Dei said she originally came to BU to major in business. However, she said her second semester changed her outlook on her life and made her reevaluate her choices.
“I think going to college, choosing business was my backup. I wanted to do premed but I had this thought that said, ‘I really don’t know if you’re going to get into med school or not.’ I wasn’t trying to take the chance. I didn’t want risk it,” Dei said.
Dei (second from the left) with friends. Photo provided by Dei.
However, Dei is a biology major on the premed track. She said she changed her major around the time Covid-19 lockdown occurred, which was just after her Alternative Spring Break trip to Selma, Alabama, changed her life.
“It affirmed to me to change my major and I thought ‘I’ll just take the risk.’ I learned so much more about the history of some of our current issues we face,” Dei said. “When the pandemic hit and then the Breonna Taylor issue came, more of it made sense to me. It was just an epiphany, and I’m not here for myself anymore. It changed my perspective on why I was in school.”
Dr. Carrie Doyle, assistant professor of biology, said Dei is tuned into classes and she can see the passion she has for her future profession.
“Maame is really wise beyond her years. She carries herself with this soft-spoken confidence, and you can tell she truly cares about what she wants to do in the future,” Doyle said.
Catalano had a similar major change at the start of his sophomore year. He said his IDC about death and his interests in his nursing classes are what made him make the switch from nursing to health and aging services.
“I chose my major freshman year because I didn’t want to come in undecided. Then I took a class that talked about care for older adults,” Catalano said. “I’m choosing this major now because I can go into the financial aspect of nursing homes and helping them in the administration aspect of it. I think I didn’t I didn’t really want to be there. I want to help the people there in the nursing home rather than being on the top and looking over everyone.”
Catalano at an event during his first year. Photo provided by Catalano.
Dr. Amy Tudor, a Galileo Learning Community instructor, was one of Catalano’s professors he had early in his time at BU. He said she was his teacher for the IDC class around death studies, which helped him solidify his major.
Tudor said Catalano came into her class and showed a maturity and empathy she doesn’t see often in first-year students. She said he is the type of student who will be a leader in his field and excel in the care he provides.
“William is someone who seems to already know who he is and who he wants to be,” Tudor said. “He is an honorable student who wants to go into a field that many people his age have no interest in doing. I hope he puts himself in roles to help guide and lead others.”
Dei and Catalano both hold leadership positions on BU’s campus. Dei said she was inspired to get involved because of the great mentors and student leaders she interacted with.
Catalano said he saw a need to be filled within the mentor roles he holds. He said he wanted to give back and give new students a warm welcome to BU like he had.
Dei is a Knight of Color mentor (formerly known as Early Knights). She said her mentor helped her find comfort on campus and she wanted to do the same for other students of color. Dei is also a part of the Black Student Union and the African Student Association as well as of the biology club and the Multicultural Association of PreMed Students.
Dei along with other 2019 Early Knights participants. Photo provided by Dei.
“Early Knights gave me tips for being on Bellarmine’s campus, especially being a black woman of color. They give a lot of tips and wisdom that I didn’t know I needed, but it really helped my experience here,” Dei said. “I wanted to do the same thing: to be that support system that someone else might need and just build that community with someone else at Bellarmine, especially since it’s a predominantly white institution.”
Dei said she was very intentional about the leadership roles she undertook. She said all of these roles are very important to her and they are extensions of her identity. Dei wants to help others in the same way her mentors have changed her life.
Catalano is a Week of Welcome team leader and a Galileo Learning Community mentor. He said he enjoyed having a mentor and someone he felt he could reach out to. Catalano said he has this same frame of mind when it comes to working with first-year students.
“I could try to have a greater outreach to people and when they were able to tell me the issues that they were having, I was able to learn how to one give them their own space sometimes,” Catalano said.
Catalano said the pandemic had an impact on more than his communication style with his mentees. For his sophomore year, he has opted to be completely online. He said the classroom experience is different because he has a difficult time connecting to class. Catalano said he understands it’s difficult for professors to equally put time toward in-person and online students.
Catalano at his orientation event in 2019. Photo provided by Catalano.
“I think they’re doing the best they can. For me it’s hard to just text someone or email someone like ‘Hey I’m in your class. You haven’t met me before,’ so the social aspects are something I am really missing out on,” Catalano said.
Overall, Catalano said his second year at BU has been an eventful one and one of growth. He said he is happy with the choices he has made.
“I never thought I’d be taking college like this. It wasn’t in my original plan, but I had to get used to it,” he said. “Once I did get used to it, I realized that was a part of the transition.”
Dei said she highlighted her sophomore year with a sense of community through her leadership roles. She said she hopes to continue this into her junior year.
“I learned so much more from them [her mentees], and they’ve like really empowered me to like not settle. I don’t think they know that, but just hearing them talk about their dreams and goals just makes me wanna like do more,” Dei said.
Dei in Selma as apart of Alternative Spring Break.
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