BY KISA SCHELL
It's not often that you hear of a child raised in New York City longing to become a park ranger in Yellowstone National Park. Yet for Sean MacGuire Reinicke, a high school senior at Beekman High School, this dream is becoming a reality. Sean was born in Lithuania and brought to the United States at the age of four. Though Sean had difficulty grasping the English language at first, he quickly surmounted this challenge and has excelled in many endeavors, both scholastically and creatively. Currently, Sean is taking advanced English courses at his high school where he is inspired by an animated teacher, James Vescovi: "We do everything from "Romeo and Juliet" to James Hanley. We just read the book "The Dragon Can't Dance." My teacher is very wonderful. He's so nice and he's so lively and he's Italian- he just has this vibe where everyone in class just enjoys [the lesson] and we just come in and he has coffee waiting for us. No one does that and it's just amazing because we sit down and everyone talks to each other and it feels great and the vibes are amazing." Sean describes many of the teachers at Beekman as influential figures in his life: "They all helped influence me to follow my dreams and none of them said that I should focus on something that can make me more money." In a society where class and status are emphasized, it's not often that students are encouraged to pursue their dreams, no matter how unconventional they might be. The small class sizes and seminar-style settings have helped Sean feel at home and in an environment where people genuinely care about his interests and well-being. In the fall of 2015, Sean will be starting school at SUNY Cobleskill. With the motto: "Real Life. Real Learning," SUNY Cobleskill encourages students to immerse themselves in hands-on fieldwork and internships to help them secure employment after graduation. At Cobleskill, Sean plans to concentrate on courses that are related to nature, from zoology to botany to wetlands to biology. Sean is most looking forward to working in a fish hatchery, as well as study abroad opportunities that will bring him to Hawaii and the Galapagos Islands. He is also excited to be in a rural environment with likeminded peers who have had different backgrounds: "I've always been a kind of country kid. I've never really been interested in the city and I've always wanted to go out and see more of the countryside. I think that me, a city kid, going to college at Cobleskill will be very interesting because not a lot of kids from NYC go to college there. Not only can I tell my stories, but [the Cobleskill natives] can tell their stories to me about what their life is like." From Lithuania to New York City to Cobleskill, New York, Sean has had an interesting journey. His interests in nature and the outdoors have grounded him and pushed him to pursue the career of his dreams at a school that emphasizes education through experience. As the old (and very corny) adage says, if his future were any brighter, he would have to wear shades. #
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