Published on June 07, 2019
The following thoughts were written by Michael Theriault, 2019 graduating history major and Eastern senior class president.
Entering Eastern as a history major was one of the best decisions I have made in my undergraduate career. Many of the courses I enrolled in really made me stop and realize why I entered this field in the first place. The faculty went out of their way to treat all of their cohort like family and really wanted their students to succeed.
As president of the senior class I was able to give a speech at this past commencement. In it, I reminisced on the university’s many resources that helped us succeed in our academic journey. I could not help but think about the history department and how much of an effort they put in to make everyone feel proud to be in that field.
This past semester I was honored to receive the Victoria Soto Award at the Phi Alpha Theta induction ceremony. Obtaining this had me remember why I wanted to be a teacher in the first place and the tremendous sacrifices we will all make for our students. My goal is to end up as a history teacher and give students the opportunity I was fortunate enough to have.
The senior class committee and I presented Dr. Núñez with a scholarship in with the intention of passing our journey on to a new eastern student. As I said in my speech, we shouldn’t be sad that our time at eastern is over, but instead be glad that it made us into the people we are today.
