Shannon Lucas- An infatuation with dolphins fueled freshman Lucas’ childhood dream of becoming a marine biologist. Who wouldn’t want to swim with dolphins and teach them tricks for a living? But then, “I realized I would have to spend time with other sea animals, even the ugly ones, and that I don’t like the smell of fish.” Letting go of that particular dream, she turned to her current love, writing. Moving from anthropology to being the next Tolkien, the common theme of putting thoughts on paper remained, and she now attends SHU with a major of creative writing and with goals to acquire a teaching certification.
Natalie Spanner- Notoriety is the basis of Spanner’s dreams, and has been since childhood. First, she wanted to be a super hero, a “real-life hero”, a firefighter. As her concept of heroism became diva-like, she determined that she simply wanted to be famous. Famous for what? “I was interested in everything. I realized I couldn’t choose, and that I didn’t have to choose if I became an actor, I could be anything.” She now throws herself into as many opportunities for acting and expanding her talent as she can, trying to explore every option. “I want to work for Disney’s creative department for children, I want to win an Academy Award, I want to write and direct my play on Broadway, I want to found my own theater company. But I can’t start with those or I’ll get nowhere.” The long term is too much to look at for the time being, and so the short-term goals, each show, each paper, each class, are her focus as she prepares to understand her long-term goals.David Beckage- The son of Nurse Jan, Beckage took time away from school to figure himself out before coming to SHU at age 27. Though his childhood was full of comic-book hero dreams, he chose to clear his head of high school, and spent time working in the “real world”. The years of working without worrying about a grade were freeing, and enabled him to explore his loves for art and music. Music became his public outlet, his bands Long Time Divided and Fell Upon Thieves placing him on stage to belt out his emotions into a microphone. His art, however, was a private release. Though he is attending SHU with the plans of getting a degree in entrepreneurial studies, his goal is not simply to run a business or be a musician. He returns to his childhood with his current goal, to be a hero. “ I’m really hoping that when the end comes, whenever that may be, that I’ll know that I left this world just a little better than when I came in to it.”
Sister Ann Infanger- Her family often teased her for aspiring to be a garbage collector as a child, but Infanger remembers her first dream as coinciding with her desire to be a wife and mother. Her love of math and science, and learning in general, led her to consider being a dietician, then a biology major, and then to nursing. It was her second semester of freshman year, though, that changed things. “For Lent, I spent five minutes a day praying in the chapel, and that is when I realized that learning about God never stops.” Though this was a revelation to her, her parents insisted that they had been expecting it for years. She became a sister, and eventually became head of the SHU biology department. She now teaches a Faith, Religion, and Society course, as well as Senior Seminar, and is head of the campus pro-life club, promoting “respect for human life, and the idea of talking to God.”
Sean Smith- When freshman Smith was little, his love was for dinosaurs. He wanted to be a paleontologist, but that dream faded into childhood memory as he discovered his love for art. Attending Seton Hill University (SHU) for art, he is bringing his love for cartoon animation into fruition by drawing all that he can, “trying to get realism in my art and understanding the form of my drawings.”