It’s hard to know if you’re on the right track… until your passion shows you a better way forward.
That’s what Brandon Mackovick learned as he navigated his way from high school to college.
Born and raised in Youngstown, this Boardman High School graduate was drawn to the small regional campus at 91ֿ’s Twinsburg Academic Center (TAC) for several reasons, ranging from affordability to smaller class sizes. And he thought he knew what major he would pursue once he got here.
“My major kind of came all of a sudden and it’s a reminder of why you should always stay open-minded,” the college sophomore says now. “I was very much into business and marketing when I first arrived here. Then I took one IT class and just fell in love with it. I’m glad to say I’m very passionate and happy with my major so far.”
It wasn’t until Brandon took an Introduction to Information Technology (IT) that he experienced his ‘ah-ha’ moment and everything started to click.
Being in the right type of environment opened Brandon up to new possibilities he hadn’t considered before. He says, “I chose to come to the TAC because I am able to be away from home, my comfort zone, and explore not only Kent but to be able to explore myself, my interests, my hobbies. It took me a long time to understand myself and TAC gave me a lot of tools to be able to do so.”
One of those tools is small class sizes, where Brandon is able to interact more with his classmates and instructors. A natural introvert, Brandon says it would be easy to hide in a larger classroom setting, but with class sizes typically 15 students or fewer, “I feel completely free and comfortable asking a question or needing help because I don’t feel so small in a class so big.”
Brandon was an incoming freshman during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, so his first year of college was spent online, not on campus. This relative isolation was disorienting, making it “easy for me to lose my pathway,” as Brandon recalls it. “Once we started in-person classes with small class sizes, that helped me get comfortable being in-person again. I felt like I was back to normal.”
It also helped to have support from caring faculty. “While all of my TAC professors have been very supportive, Dr. Paternite has been like a mentor to me,” he says. Judy Paternite, Ph.D., is Program Coordinator for Computer Technology at the Geauga Campus (of which TAC is a satellite location).
Calling himself a “laid-back, chill person who enjoys being on my computer,” Brandon says that Dr. Paternite encourages him to interact, ask questions and explore his curiosity while in her class. “She took the stress and anxiety out of it,” he adds.
Recognizing how well smaller class sizes keep him on track, Brandon is very pleased that he can complete his entire bachelor’s degree at TAC without needing to transfer to the large Kent Campus for the last two years of the four-year process.
Brandon says, “My career goal isn’t complicated. I just want to be able to get my degree in something I’m passionate about, like IT. That way, when I go to get a job later, I’m not kicking myself for not choosing my passion and hating my job.”
While he is just 19 years old, Brandon feels like it has taken him a long time to land on his passion. Starting his college career online during the pandemic was a temporary setback that sapped away some of his initial motivation and direction. He almost got lost in his first step. But once he made the next step, he compared it to a breath of fresh air.
“Finding my pathway wasn’t easy. But now I understand that I had to go through a period of uncertainty first. I needed time to figure it out,” he says.
Grateful for being able to inspire and perhaps boost someone’s confidence when it comes to making decisions about their own pathways, Brandon says, “If you’re undecided or in an exploratory major, do not feel bad. I feel that college is really all about finding oneself, and I feel that I have done that here at 91ֿ.”