By Daniel Afanasyev
After only two semesters at The Vanguard, this will be officially my last piece for the paper. Having periodically read the paper over the years at Brooklyn College, only in my senior year did I first consider contributing, not expecting a whole lot. Instead, what I stumbled upon was a career-altering realization and a college-defining experience.
There is no experience save writing for The Vanguard when it comes to truly getting to know BC and the diversity that exists on such a compact urban campus.
I began my undergraduate years like many others, only going to my classes when on campus. After joining the paper I began to feel like an actual member of the BC community, and got to witness the countless events that occur on campus on a daily basis.
There is a profound professional advantage to be had working with an incredible group of people that bring you in and constantly offer their best advice and wish for you to succeed. I have to take a moment to personally thank Kate Dempsey and Paulina Gajewski for their boundless support and guidance. They treat The Vanguard like a full-time job, and it is thanks to people like them that the paper is currently in such a great place.
As I reflect now on the closing of my undergraduate career, one of my biggest regrets is not joining The Vanguard earlier and missing out on the incredible amount of things that it would have had to offer. The Vanguard is a world within a world at BC, and my advice to current students is to reach out and try and find a group or collective on campus that you can become a part of. Even though BC, like the other CUNYs, is a commuter school, that doesn’t mean students should miss out on what makes college college. Zooming between class and home, when there most likely exists on a campus a collective that you can connect and assimilate with, should not be the only part of a student’s experience.
BC wouldn’t be what it is today without a student newspaper like The Vanguard, and I am grateful for the opportunity to participate in a publication with such a rich history, and interact with its wonderful and dedicated people.
Thank you once again to The Vanguard and all the people that make it happen!