Her Campus: What year are you?
Sean Morrissey: 2016
HC: Hometown?
SM: Albany, NY.
HC: What major are you?
SM: Double major in Economics and History. I came in as a history major and then my first semester I took macroeconomics. Everything went from there and I became an economics major.
HC: What was your senior thesis on?
SM: You’re gonna laugh, I did my economics thesis on the beer industry, and then I did my history thesis on the use of space in the Irish Revolution of 1798, so I was talking about different public places where people met and shared ideas as kind of the engine of revolution. That included public or private libraries, coffee houses, and pubs. Both of them were really fun and interesting. I wanted to do the history of taverns in America, there’s a book to be written there, I don’t know if I’m up to writing it, but it’s there.
HC: Wow, those sound like two truly interesting theses. Do you drink coffee or tea?
SM: I actually drink both, coffee at college and tea at home. I love both of them.
HC: What made you choose St. Mike’s?
SM: My parents met here, and I knew a lot of people on campus already. Specifically Professor Clary and Chris Clary are my sister’s godparents, so St. Mike’s had already become a big part of my life. It already felt like family by the time I arrived.
HC: What are you involved in?
SM: I come in and out of things like nobody’s business. There’s too much to do on campus to get bogged down in one or two clubs.
HC: Yeah! I heard you had a great performance in the Crucible.
SM: Thank you (chuckles), yeah! There was that and I was involved in Fix It With Five for a little while as Head of Marketing. I was Student Senator back in the Student Association for a bit and led a movement called We Want A Say my freshmen year that was trying to get a student on the board of trustees. It’s gained a lot of traction now that I’ve left it. Having an interest in a lot of different things allows you to do that. And then I was involved in the Honors Program for a while as Co-President. My interests are eclectic and I never want to focus…there’s too much to do and life’s kinda too short to focus on one thing. You meet a lot of people, too! I mean, why not?
HC: Absolutely! Did you study abroad?
SM: I went on the academic study trip to England with Professor Clary.
HC: Oh! And Joan Wry too, right? Do you know her very well?
SM: Oh my, she is a sweetheart. She is unbelievable, sweetest woman I’ve met in my entire life.
HC: I completely agree. How would you describe yourself, in three words?
SM: Oh, uh, could I do three favorite words instead?
HC: Yeah, absolutely!
SM: Okay, and maybe they’ll say something about who I am. I love the word seldom. It reminds you of something that didn’t happen often, but at least happened once. There was a college essay that asked you to write about your favorite word and why, and I wrote about the word seldom. Great prompt for someone who loves literature. Second word, I would say, oh, enfant terrible—
HC: Oh yikes, I assume that’s French?
SM: Yes, it’s a phrase, it’s a person who says controversial things that tend to shock people…something along those lines. It’s odd, it came up in something I was reading, and I had to look it up. And then for a third word, oh, I don’t know if it’s my favorite word, but equality. It sounds aesthetically pleasing, but it also has just infinite meaning. Kind of the way that I’ve grown into really feeling about equality, trying to relate it back to yourself. Being Irish, coming from a white male tradition, hundreds of white males before me, realizing that there are issues of equality that exist in the world. I think it was Professor Dave Flanders who says, “Once you’re aware, you’re responsible.”
HC: What is the greatest thing you are taking away from St. Mike’s?
SM: I guess, I’d have to say exposure. You’re as conscious in this environment and this community of what you are being exposed to as much as what you’re not being exposed to. So when you’re able to line up that division between what you’ve come to know and what you haven’t, you can take that and in the next step, post-grad, say to yourself, these are things I know that I’m not familiar with. Other schools of thought that I didn’t learn about in undergrad that I didn’t get to explore, I look forward to exploring. As economists, we only look at the surface of economy, we never really got into the philosophy behind economics. Just identifying what you do know and making a point to be open to and learn about the things you don’t.
HC: As a senior, what’s your perspective on when to take classes like LSC’s and major requirements?
SM: I spread it all out, it’s really good when you’re not…I know a person who took four histories in one semester and had that many of their major classes going on. I was like, why would you ever do that? Why are you not distributing these?? (Laughs) Like I said, I spread mine all out, I’m in Izzi’s Intro to Philosophy right now and I love it, but it’s hard to be engaged in a class that I’m taking a lot away from with people who aren’t as engaged.
HC: So! Post-grad, any plans?
SM: Uh, I gotta tell you, there are some people that have jobs…and then there’s me. And I have a girlfriend in Boston right now, at Boston Children’s Hospital, and so my initial plan was to try to make it to where she is, but I think I’m going to Albany now. Just kinda playing it by ear and, something will land in my lap. Things will work out and I think it’s important to say that, but also to believe it. Soon I’ll be graduating, things are gonna be changing. I want to be grounded, have a stable footing on life before I really think about the future.
HC: Okay, last question, what is one place you would travel to if you left right now?
SM: My girlfriend and I have actually been trying to go hike the John Muir trail in Yosemite Valley. It looks like we can go next summer, but yeah, I’ve been wanting to go there. There’s so many hikes in the U.S. and we weren’t sure if it was part of the Pacific Coast Trail, but that’s where I’d go.