Chapters

0:00 Welcome to Who Are You?
0:30 Who is Rebecca Huyck?
4:25 Where Quinnipiac came into the picture 
5:27 Curiosity in interdisciplinary studies 
6:30 Best ways to make friends in college
9:20 Starting your own clubs and what that can do for you
9:55 Mentors she had at Quinnipiac
11:30 How involvement and mentors helped her grow
13:16 Rapid-fire questions!
13:24 Her favorite place to eat on campus
13:53 Favorite place to eat off campus 
14:35 What should every first-year student bring to college?
15:09 What do you wish you would have known coming into QU?
16:29 What's one thing people worry about that they don't need to? 
17:21 Favorite weekend activity at Quinnipiac
18:15 Best event on campus 
19:15 Advice for coming to college

Transcript

Joel Vanner: Welcome to ”Who Are You?,” The Bobcats, you know, the stories you don't. I'm your host, Joel Vanner, inside the podcast studio at Quinnipiac University's School of Communications, and I am joined for today's episode by Becca Huyck. Becca, welcome to the show. 

Becca Huyck: Hi. Happy to be here. 

Joel Vanner: I'm so glad. I'm sure you could guess by the name of the program, what my first question to you is going to be. And that is, we know your name, but tell me who are you. 

Becca Huyck: Yeah, so I'm Becca Huyck. I'm a senior interdisciplinary studies major. I'm also a women and gender studies minor, and I'm a part of the four-plus-one Master of Arts and Teaching Elementary Ed program, and I'm from New Hampshire, but I love it here in Connecticut. 

Joel Vanner: There's a lot to unpack with the academics there, which we'll get to in the program. But let's start with how you decided you wanted to come to college? Was there an experience in your childhood that kind of defined that a mentor? 

Becca Huyck: Yeah. 

Joel Vanner: Tell me about that. 

Becca Huyck: So I know I've always wanted to be a teacher. I've known that since my third grade. My teacher, Miss Gill in third grade, was my biggest inspiration. She really served as a mentor for me and kind of guided me through to becoming the person I am today. Um, so basically since then, I've known that teaching was the path for me. And then in high school, I was able to take a teacher preparation course, both my junior and senior year. And then during my senior year, I was able to do an internship actually in Miss Gillian's classroom in fourth grade.  

Joel Vanner: Did you like her as a teacher?  

Becca Huyck: She still is my favorite teacher, like, of all time. I still talk to her now like messaging her on Facebook. See how she's doing. 

Joel Vanner: Because we're going to call references after the show. 

Becca Huyck: Oh, of course. We'll call her in. But she is just such an amazing person, and she still stays in touch with me even now, seeing how I'm doing. I bet I'll, like, reach out to her before I start my senior year. I always go back and visit her whenever I'm in my hometown, as well. She is just like this pillar of safety in my life and an inspiration for me. I truly do see myself a lot in her as well, and I've seen that a lot growing up, but she's really the reason that I'm here today pursuing education. 

Joel Vanner: And she called you very chatty and put you in time out, right? 

Becca Huyck: Mm, yeah. 

Joel Vanner: What was that about? 

Becca Huyck: So there was I am a very energetic person we'll call me. And one day I was just, I guess, more chatty than other days. So she decided like, Hey, Becca, for the next 10 minutes, let's just-. 

Joel Vanner: Sit on your hands. 

Becca Huyck: Yeah, be quiet a little bit, see what happens. And that was really the first time I had ever been given, like, feedback, I guess. My teachers before, I guess, decided to pick their battles and not fight with me and be like, Hey, we do have a chatty girl in the classroom. At least someone's talking. But I know a lot of students would typically take that as, Oh, my gosh, my teacher's mad at me. But I kind of took it as she cares a lot about me, she wants me to improve and be better. And that was really when I started to, like, see her as a role model and not just as my teacher. 

Joel Vanner: Guidance, giving you guidance.  

Becca Huyck: Exactly. 

Joel Vanner: And you do something similar. You did something similar with dance, right? You were an assistant dance teacher? 

Becca Huyck: I was. So I started dancing when I was about six, and by the age of nine, I was actually assisting in classrooms for students from ages I think two to 2.5 to my age as well, nine. I did that until I was 15 until I eventually left my dance studio, but it was the most fun I ever had. That was really where I had that inspiration and then was able to, like, build up on it before I entered high school and was able to take those teacher prep courses. But those were so exciting. I got the opportunity, as well, to be an assistant dance teacher in a classroom of special needs adults every Saturday, which that really helped me find a love for special education, as well, which is something I'm hoping to pursue in the future. So, like, that is something I'm very interested in. And it was just such a great experience. Like, being able to do that, even though I was doing it all for free, I would do it again in a heartbeat. 

Joel Vanner: It helped you find your thing?  

Becca Huyck: Find my love, yeah. 

Joel Vanner: And we have a great special education program here at Quinnipiac. 

Becca Huyck: We do, yeah. 

Joel Vanner: Speaking of here at Quinnipiac, how did Quinnipiac come into the picture for you? 

Becca Huyck: Yeah. So like I said, I'm from New Hampshire and a lot of the people from my high school go to schools just an hour away, hour and a half away in New Hampshire. So I knew that that was something that I wanted to branch out from. I wanted to go out of state. I was hoping for Connecticut, so ended up in the right place. But I did my college search looking for schools in Connecticut with great education programs, and Quinnipiac was a standout. A lot of the schools that I looked specifically in New Hampshire, they only had elementary education majors, but Quinnipiac offers a variety of different majors for the elementary education program, including interdisciplinary studies, which is what I'm currently pursuing. And that program stood out to me because it gives me the opportunity to get a more general education before entering the classroom or before immediately taking education classes in college, like a lot of my friends. 

Joel Vanner: So the Interdisciplinary studies major. 

Becca Huyck: Mmhm. 

Joel Vanner: What courses are you taking as part of that contributing to your four-plus-one program? 

Becca Huyck: Yeah, so I think everyone here takes their general education requirements, their you know, history, their English, their science, and their math. But for interdisciplinary studies, it gives you more of a taste of what you're actually going to be teaching in a classroom. So a lot of my friends at other schools are just elementary ed majors. So they're immediately learning about teaching, developing children, teaching in the classroom. They hop right into the classroom in their field study work. But for interdisciplinary studies, I'm able to take a few classes in each of those core four subjects, along with different university curriculum and fine arts credits as well. So I can build up some knowledge about the core things I will be teaching before taking classes about how to teach those things. So it helped me more like grow into a student so that I can view it from a teacher's perspective, which I really enjoy. 

Joel Vanner: So you are an orientation leader, which we'll get to later. You're also very chatty, which you self-admitted. But making friends. I'm sure when you came to Quinnipiac, it wasn't in New Hampshire. You landed in Connecticut, which is where you wanted to go. How did you make friends, and how did you get involved once you came here to Quinnipiac? 

Becca Huyck: Yeah, so it obviously was my choice to come 2.5 hours away from home, but I was still extremely nervous coming into my orientation experience as well. 

Joel Vanner: That's a lot at that age when you're entering college, a lot of things. 

Becca Huyck: Especially when they have you check in at 8:00 A.M., you've got to wake up at five just to get here. Like, I was not prepared to be talking to people at nine in the morning at my orientation. So it was very overwhelming.  

Joel Vanner: But common. 

Becca Huyck: But very common. We see it in every single first year. So it's not something, but it's something that not every first-year knows other people are going through.  

Joel Vanner: Because they hide it. 

Becca Huyck: Exactly. They put on the mask. But my orientation leaders helped me, like, take that mask off, meet new people, branch out. I met my first friends in my orientation group. I'm still friends with them today as well. But I really made most of my friends by joining a bunch of clubs and organizations, which I'm still involved in today. I did a few different things during high school, including Women’s Empowerment was, like, my main focus in high school. I was one of the board members. I was one of six. And now I'm the president of Women Empowered here. I'll be going into my second year of presidency, my senior year. 

Joel Vanner: What does that organization do on campus? 

Becca Huyck: Yeah, so we put on different events for people all over Quinnipiac's campus. We focus primarily on female leadership. So my board is made up of nine female leadership people, including myself, and we put on different creative events, social events, and educational events for people to come in and build community and, of course, make friends.  

Joel Vanner: That's awesome. 

Becca Huyck: Yeah, thank you. 

Joel Vanner: What other organizations are you involved in? 

Becca Huyck: I'm also part of the Quinnipiac Legends Acapella. So we're Quinnipiac's only acapella group. We are a co-ed acapella group, but we're not Quinnipiac's only singing group, which is a common misconception. It's made up of primarily 17 members, sometimes 18 changes year to year. But we compete in the ICCAs, which is the international collegiate competition of Acapella. Similar to the one that they compete in in "Pitch Perfect." The same competition. Yeah. But that's one of my favorite organizations that I'm in. I just love it, and singing is like an outlet for me. I met my best friends in the Legends. It's such an amazing thing. I don't know. It seems super out there. It wasn't something I was expecting to join coming to college because I'd never really been a singer. But my roommate freshman year was able to convince me to audition, and I'm so happy she did. 

Joel Vanner: You found it, and you're here, and you're finding what could be a passion area for you. That's the best thing. And if there isn't an involvement or organization that you find at the engagement fair, which is at the beginning of the fall term. Yes. You can always make your own, too. 

Becca Huyck: Yes, you can. I think you need just about four or five friends, and then you can go to the office of student engagement, fill out a form and get your org up and running. It's very, very simple to get an org started. And it's super easy to just find those four friends by talking to the people in your orientation group, honestly, is what I tell my first years. 

Joel Vanner: There's plenty to pick from that already exists, but there's that path there for you, too. Yeah. Let's talk a little bit about mentorship. So, you know, academics, you have your involvements. Something common on the show that guests share is that they've had mentors and that they've been able to mentor other students. You kind of do that with orientation. Have you had any mentors during your time at Quinnipiac? 

Becca Huyck: Yeah, a lot of my mentors have honestly been my friends, like upperclassmen that I've met, specifically through the Legends. A lot of the eBoard members have become mentors to me, kind of, like, older sister, older brother, kind of vibe, but I've also had a lot of faculty become mentors for me. One professor, in particular, Christina Pavlak, she is a professor for the education program that I'm a part of, and she's just always like a guiding light to me, whatever I need. I had her for both semesters, my junior year, and unfortunately, I won't be in a class with her going into my senior year. But I know she's always there. I emailed her, I think, like a week ago to say hello, check in with her, see how she was doing. She emailed back in the next 10 minutes. Like, she is such an amazing professor and even better role model. She's the exact kind of teacher that I want to be, which is, I think, why I kind of, like, attached myself to her because I want to do everything that she does. I just think she is the perfect depiction of a leader. 

Joel Vanner: And that had to help you. You said you had her in your junior year, but that had to just help you acclimate to junior year, getting ready to senior year graduate, go on, career, everything.  

Becca Huyck: Yeah. 

Joel Vanner: How have your involvements and then your connections with faculty like Christina helped you grow and solidify that education is the path that you want to go on? 

Becca Huyck: Yeah, well, I mean, being a teacher is basically being a leader, you know, it matters that you know all this stuff and that you're able to teach students things, but you have to be able to get up, lead a classroom, maybe lead a team. I would hope to go into administration in the future. So, like, leading a team of faculty, teachers and staff is something that I'm interested in, and being a part of three E boards now going into my senior year, I can say that, like, I've had my fair share of leadership opportunities. But being able to connect with faculty and staff like Christina Pavlak has allowed me to kind of get, like, the behind-the-curtain understanding of what it means to work at a college or to be a teacher or to, as I said, just be a leader. And I'm super excited to work with her going into my senior year, hopefully be able to work with her even more than just, like, over email, like, hopefully, doing things, going into the classroom, saying hello. But there's many other faculty and staff that I work with as well. Professor Eisbach. Anne Eisbach. She's the advisor for Women Empowered, so I do work with her as well in, like, keeping my board together, you know, finding new ways for us to, like, outreach students, new events for us to put on, as well. So. 

Joel Vanner: That's awesome that you are able to form those connections with faculty. And even if, you know, you're a first-year student on your first day of class, go and shake your professor's hand because you never know your junior or senior year, you may still have a connection with that faculty member, and just kind of release the nerves. 

Becca Huyck: Exactly. Yeah, totally agree. 

Joel Vanner: Well, you are an orientation leader. So I'm sure you get asked these questions quite a lot, but we're going to do them kind of rapid fire on you.  

Becca Huyck: Okay. 

Joel Vanner: And you ready to get started? 

Becca Huyck: Let's do it. 

Joel Vanner: Okay. What is your favorite place to eat on campus? 

Becca Huyck: I personally love Sushi Do, so it is our, like, rice bowl, ramen, sushi place on campus. I personally prefer the dumpling bowl with mixed sauce. If you know you know, you'll find out when you come here, but it is so delicious. The workers there are also so sweet. They know my order basically every time I go because I go there. I'm pretty sure every day, but that is my recommendation. You’ve got to go to Sushi Do. 

Joel Vanner: Go to put that on Yelp. That review there. What is your favorite place to eat off campus? 

Becca Huyck: Off-campus, I prefer Fresh Greens, so it's right at the light. 

Joel Vanner: Across the way. 

Becca Huyck: Right across the street. 

Joel Vanner: You can walk there, too. 

Becca Huyck: Exactly. And they have the Bobcat bowl, which is obviously for QU students, but that is my go-to order, the Bobcat bowl. It's delicious. It's very similar to Sushi Do, like, the rice bowl-esque type thing, but they also have, like, Açaí bowls and smoothies and things like that. But when I say fresh greens, like, it is fresh. Delicious. I go at least once a week, most likely on the weekends. 

Joel Vanner: So they know you there. 

Becca Huyck: They do. 

Joel Vanner: Maybe our listeners and viewers will run into you there and say, Hey, I saw you on the podcast.  

Becca Huyck: They probably will. 

Joel Vanner: Hopefully not in a creepy way, right? Uh, what is one thing a first-year student should bring when they move in? 

Becca Huyck: Lots and lots of chargers. I was always losing chargers. I recommend having, like, one for your backpack, one for your purse, one for your room. Honestly, like, one for your desk, one for your bedside table. Like, that is. 

Joel Vanner: Long chargers, too, if you're on the top bunk. 

Becca Huyck: Oh, my gosh, the ten-foot ones, I think you get, like, a five-pack of ten-foot chargers on Amazon. Those are always what I'm recommending to students because they're always lost, or someone will always need one or ask you for one. And it's better to just, like, have them than have to, like, order one on Amazon and wait a few days. 

Joel Vanner: Yeah, especially. What is one thing you wish you knew before coming to Quinnipiac? 

Becca Huyck: Hmm. I wish I knew just how involved I would get. I think I was scared because I wouldn't know anyone here. I was going 2.5 hours away from home. I would know no one from high school, and I was scared that I wouldn't be able to find my place, but going to the engagement fair, even though I was like, "forced to" by my first-year seminar professor for an assignment? 

Joel Vanner: It's a positive encouragement. 

Becca Huyck: 100%. Like, if I didn't go, I would not be involved in anything that I do here. So, honestly, I just wish I knew how much I would do, how many opportunities there would be for me, 'cause I was just so scared coming into school. 

Joel Vanner: And even if you go as a sophomore or junior, continuously go to the involvement and engagement fair because there may be new organizations that weren't there the first time around. 

Becca Huyck: I was gonna say exactly the same. 

Joel Vanner: And just because you go and you attend their first meeting doesn't mean you have to buy into the organization. You can kind of shop around and see what fits you best and where you feel most comfortable. 

Becca Huyck: Yeah, my orientation partner actually referred to this yesterday. I think it's the best way to put it. It's like signing up for a rewards program. You put your email down, and you'll get all the emails. 

Joel Vanner: You will get emails, that's for sure. 

Becca Huyck: But you don't have to use the rewards. You don't have to go, but at least you'll get all the info about it. 

Joel Vanner: Good tips. What is one thing people always worry about but don't need to? 

Becca Huyck: Making friends. It is the biggest thing first-years talk about. We do different activities to ask them about things they're nervous about, and the biggest thing that we get back is making friends, making connections, and talking to people. It happens so much more naturally than I think people believe. Even watching my first years just talk with each other about their nerves at orientation, I don't think they realize it, but we noticed that, like, those are connections. Those are friends. Those are people they'll see in the future. 

Joel Vanner: And we were there. We were at orientation. We felt that.  

Becca Huyck: Yeah. 

Joel Vanner: And you'll probably actually have some of your fellow orientation group peers in your courses as you progress, you know, up until your senior year.  

Becca Huyck: Exactly. 

Joel Vanner: I knew many friendly faces when I walked in some classrooms from orientation. What is your favorite weekend activity? 

Becca Huyck: So I might sound a little biased because I'm a part of this organization, but the Student Programming Board does events every Friday and Saturday. They do a variety of different events as well, such as craft nights, movie nights. I know sometimes they do game nights. They did karaoke night once. It's a bunch of fun, different things to do every single weekend. So you know you always have something to do on a Friday or a Saturday night. But those are always my go tos. I met some of my closest friends by being a part of the student programming board. 

Joel Vanner: And you can just show up, right? 

Becca Huyck: Oh, yeah. You literally just show up to the events. They do Bingos and trivia as well.  

Joel Vanner: They give away, like, TVs and iPads. 

Becca Huyck: Oh, yeah. I won, like a cheese board and, like, a comfy, like, a little red riding hood basket. But it was so much fun. I love it there, and my best friends are part of the organization, so I'm a little biased. 

Joel Vanner: Go win yourself some prizes. 

Becca Huyck: Yeah, exactly. 

Joel Vanner: And what is, in your opinion, the best event on campus? 

Becca Huyck: I'm also going to sound a little biased. But the student Programming Board puts on a giant concert every spring called Wake the Giant, and they invite a big artist here. They perform up at the arena on York Hill. Last year, we had Quavo. We've had Flo-Rida, we've had Offset, Kesha, Khalid, Ludicrous, like a bunch of big artists, and I think the most you'll ever pay for a ticket is $25. And you can be floor seats for $25. It's amazing. I think it is if not the biggest event, one of the biggest events on campus all year, but it's super awesome. It's super fun. It's like, great 'cause you don't have to go off campus for it, either. You just, like, shuttle up. You get to get all, like, dressed and look nice and feel good. Go with your friends. I love it. I have so much fun going. 

Joel Vanner: Yeah, it's on our York Hill campus in the M&T Bank arena.  

Becca Huyck: Yes, it is. 

Joel Vanner: That's the end of our rapid-fire questions, so you can take a moment. Um, for listeners or viewers who may not know what they want to come to college for or may not know if college is for them or if they'll connect or click with anyone or anything, what advice would you give them? You already gave them some advice, you know, make friends, get involved. Is there anything else you would suggest that they keep in the back of their mind? 

Becca Huyck: Yeah, it's very cliché, but it's cliché for a reason. Put yourself out there and try things that scare you. If you never make yourself a little uncomfortable, you're never going to grow, and you're never going to find exactly what you love. So if I had never auditioned for the Legends, something I never thought I would do, being in a singing group, I wouldn't have found my friends, my family, my best friends, the people that are going to be in my wedding. Like, I would have never made such deep connections with people if I had never tried something that scared me. So I think for me, my advice would be exactly what I said, doing things that might scare you because it could be the best decision you ever make in college. 

Joel Vanner: Find your passions. It's a blank canvas. Invent yourself, however you want to. Try all those things before you become an adult 'cause then it's real life. 

Becca Huyck: Exactly. New place, new you. 

Joel Vanner: Yeah. New place, new you. Well, Becca, thank you for joining me on the show, sharing your experience and your insights. 

Becca Huyck: Thank you for having me. 

Joel Vanner: If you enjoyed today's episode of ”Who Are You?,” be sure to find other episodes on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube podcasts, and like and subscribe for more. Until next time, when I ask my next guest, who are you? I'm Joel Vanner. Bye for now.