By: T’Neil Gooden
Brooklyn College’s (BC) History Department welcomed first-year and veteran students on Sept. 4 to celebrate the start of the Fall semester. Boylan Hall 1112 was filled with sushi, trivia, and prizes, and flooded with chatter as students loaded in to learn more about the BC History Department.
“I really just wanted to welcome students back, even if they’re already history majors or they’re familiar with the department. I know coming back into the fall semester can be kind of scary,” Lina Mazioui, President of the BC History Society, told The Vanguard. “It’s like a change in routine. I just wanted to let them know we’re here for you guys, and I wanted everyone to really have fun.”
Students and faculty members greeted and interacted with students, explaining that being a history major or minor is more than what meets the eye.
“Students who have history majors at Brooklyn College and other colleges and universities go on to work in all different kinds of fields. We have our [students] work in business, finance, accounting, medicine, law, media, education,” History professor, Stephen P. Remy, told the Vanguard. “They do all kinds of things. A history major is a marketable major.”
Students participated in history trivia, with prizes such as Funko Pops and figurines at the forefront. The winners of the game have as much passion for the history department as they do for their winning prizes.
“You should look into the history department because there are so many facets in it. There’s not just classes and lectures, there’s also personal outreach opportunities,” Winner of history trivia and junior at BC, Emma Bodzin, told The Vanguard. “There’s also the lounge where you can meet people and hang out, and study.”
Faculty staff emphasized to students that to reap results, they would have to do more within their college careers.
“One of the most important pieces of advice I have for our majors and really all majors, but particularly in the humanities and social sciences, is you have to do things while you’re here as a student to develop your professional profile. And fortunately, we have the Magner Center,” Remy said.
Upperclassmen shared the same message when speaking about the History Department.
“The History Department is the intellectual center of Brooklyn College, especially in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, and on the campus in general,” Mazioui told The Vanguard. “The kind of conversations we have here, what we learn in class, we’re mixing economics, language, politics, math, and we’re just doing all of these things, and that’s why students should look into the historical department. It’s so interdisciplinary.”
Students are encouraged to work on building their connections by those who guide them within their undergraduate studies. Students are guided to take the opportunities provided by BC to enhance their college careers.
“We try to use our networks and connections to help students find internships and then make the most of them when they get them. But you have to do that while you’re a student. That’s really crucial. So one of the things we’ve done is over the summer we developed a combined four-year degree map and career development map,” Remy said.
Seasoned students want first-year students to understand that support is available within the history facility.
“A professor will come and give an interesting talk about a special aspect of history. Even a professor might be teaching in general some part of history, they might have an extra specialty in a specific facet of that,” Bodzin told The Vanguard.
BC educators want students to know that the community may be small, but there is a lot of substance for history majors to participate in.
“We have a relatively small department in terms of faculty, but we’re able to cover a lot of different parts of the world. We have a number of different approaches to studying the past,” Remy told The Vanguard. “We don’t all go about it the same way. That’s a strength, I think. So if you’re a history major, you get exposed to a lot of different ways of thinking about a lot of different ways of interpreting the past.”
Returning students encourage incoming students to take advantage of the faculty that BC has for them.
“My favorite part is […] probably how tight-knit we [History Department] are. All the students know each other, and all the professors know each other. It’s so close. Of course, we still have that professionalism with the professors, but really, they’re like our mentors,” Mazioui said.
The History Department has more to offer when it comes to conveying to students what their future holds for them, as undergraduates in history.
Mazioui told The Vanguard, “We’re gonna have a lot of events and we’re gonna be doing so many amazing things, going on trips, creating art, doing lectures. I mean anything you can think of.”
Students interested in the History Department can visit their office at Boylan Hall, Room 1115, or follow them on their official Instagram.