Joseph (Joey) Vines '07
BA Public Relations, Political Science minor.
Teacher’s Aide; Graduate Student. After graduating QU, I enrolled in graduate school at Boston University where I earned a Masters’ in journalism with a focus in political reporting. As part of my degree, I interned with the Atlantic Media Group in Washington D.C., where I covered the 2008 presidential campaign. During that time, I was also the Chief Washington Correspondent for the Keene Sentinel, where I covered the New Hampshire congressional delegation. I had always been a political junkie, so I had dreams of living permanently in D.C. and working on Capitol Hill in the press shop on the Senate side. I figured degrees in public relations and journalism would help me get the job I desired. But, after the campaign was over, I returned home to Massachusetts and took a job as a substitute English teacher at my old high school. I have grown to love teaching and I am still working at my old high school today as a teacher’s aide in our inclusive program for special education students. Last spring I reenrolled in grad school and am working on a second Masters’ degree in special education. I hope to finish in a year. My goal is to be an English teacher to students with social and emotional disabilities. The things I took away from my time at Quinnipiac and still carry with me today are things Prof. Duffy said at my Freshmen Installment ceremony on an unbearably hot day. He encouraged us to form our own opinions; have rigorous debates; never be afraid to ask questions; always have a sense of curiosity and healthy level of skepticism, and when you finish doing all those things, go where the road takes you. This has the basis of my teaching philosophy and I try my hardest to instill this in my students. This is also my advice to you: Take risks, but don’t take them blindly. If you could have snuck me off the quad, that miserably humid day in August of 2003, and told me that in 11 years I would be teaching high school, I would have asked you if you had fallen off the sleeping giant. But, on a chance, and with no better options, I took a job teaching in September of 2007 and, God willing, will remain in this profession for the next several decades. That’s where the road took me, and if on your 30th birthday, you can look yourself in the mirror and be able to say that you have no regrets, you’ve won. |