Today’s Project 100 memory comes from Ian Tyson.  He was born and raised in Barrington, New Jersey.  His parents both worked for a consulting firm in the Information Technology (IT) field.  When he was in high school, they worked primarily for IBM.  Their company was bought and sold several times, but it was the same people with the same jobs more or less.  He attended public schools and graduated from Haddon Heights High School in 2007.  He has an older brother and a younger sister.  He graduated from Rowan in 2011 having won several awards, including the Marius Livingston Scholarship, the Best Paper Prize, the Dean’s Senior of Distinction.  When he graduated, the job market was challenging.  He spent a year as an unpaid intern in the Office of Donald Norcross.  After some time, he decided that he wanted to go to graduate school.  To improve his chances of being accepted, he decided to apply for AmeriCorps Vista, to which he was accepted.  He ended up spending two years in that program, working in Jersey City in a small business development nonprofit.  He applied for and was accepted into the graduate program at the University of Pennsylvania’s Fels Institute of Government.  He really enjoyed his public finance classes in the program, and he really enjoyed one of his internships at Public Financial Management (PFM).  They consult with local governments to help them when they are negotiating bonds and similar matters.  After his internship was over, in 2014, he applied to stay on full-time at the company.  He finished out his Master’s degree part-time while working, completing the degree in 2017.  He has now been at PFM for nine years.

*****

I wanted to become a social studies teacher, so I focused on a state college.  I considered Rutgers, The College of New Jersey (TCNJ), and Rowan.  I narrowed down my choices to TCNJ and Rowan based on the fact that I could get certification while an undergraduate.  I visited both campuses, and I ended up choosing Rowan because I met Dr. Carrigan who told me about the CLIO program.  I also believe that I had a slightly better financial offer from Rowan. 

When I first arrived on campus, Rowan was in the middle of transforming.  I remember the campus being a patchwork of old and new buildings.  I really liked the CLIO program, the small classes and the ability to get to know my fellow students and the professors.

I also really liked Rowan’s extra-curricular activities at Rowan.  I remember playing a lot of racquet ball.  I was involved from early on in the Student History Association and Phi Alpha Theta (PAT).  I served as an officer for multiple years and was President of PAT in my senior year.  In my senior year, I presented one of my papers at Villanova University as part of the Phi Alpha Theta regional conference. That was a great experience, especially as I was considering graduate school.

The professors at Rowan were more engaged with the students than I expected.  They were always ready to speak with you before or after class or in their offices.  It was a very student-centered experience in my recollection. 

I enjoyed all of my history classes.  In my lower-level classes, I had fantastic faculty such as Dr. Morschauser, Dr. Kress, and you, Dr. Carrigan, who were very engaging and went beyond what I had learned in high school.  I had Dr. Blake for Historical Methods, which opened my eyes to what the history major was really about.  My upper-level classes with faculty were equally rewarding.  I enjoyed how much I learned and how the assignments pushed me to engage in the particular topics.  I took every single class that Dr. Wang offered.

I could not name a better major for my current job than one in history.  My job has nothing to do with the past, but it has everything to do with reading documents and teasing out what is important in them.  An even more important ability that I gained form my degree was the ability to write.  I can write both short and long form reports without any problem, and I learned the art of both at Rowan. 

I also do a fair amount of public speaking in my job, and I think my skills in this area really improved over my time at Rowan because of the small classes, which encouraged discussion.  Even though I left the education major midway through my time at Rowan, I do think some of the classes in that program helped in this regard.  The presentation at Villanova was also an important moment for me.

The peers with which I shared my classes and my time outside of the classroom at Rowan were fantastic. I couldn’t ask for better friends, ones that I met primarily through the CLIO program and Phi Alpha Theta.  We worked together so often. 

The level of engagement from the professors really stands out more and more over the years.  They were all great scholars who published their research.  Interestingly, I remember one moment several years ago when I overheard my wife watching a video about the history of chopsticks. I recognized the voice, came over, and saw my professor, Edward Wang.  In any event, I hear from others about how their college professors prioritized research to the detriment of their undergraduate teaching, but I never felt this was true at Rowan.

*****

This is part of the Department of History’s “Project 100,” the collection and sharing of one hundred memories by Glassboro State College and Rowan University alumni and staff in celebration of the 100^th anniversary of the founding of Glassboro Normal School, later Glassboro State College, and now Rowan University.  Thanks to Laurie Lahey for helping proofread and edit the final versions.  Email carrigan@rowan.edu with questions or corrections.  You can find the Link to all of the Project 100 entries on the Web:  https://chss.rowan.edu/departments/history/alumni_highlights/project_100/