Twenty-year-old Ryan Marcantonio '24 says Northwestern is a great place to start your journey as an adult. Marcantonio is a Northwestern 2024 graduate who grew up in Torrington and is now attending Boston University in Massachusetts.
“I attended Northwestern because I was home-schooled and didn't attend high school, and I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with my life,” he says. “My experience at Northwestern left me knowing more about myself and my aspirations. Northwestern prepared me for my steps after graduation by giving me a clear expectation of what I was going to do after I graduated. Northwestern helped me find my passions and now I am pursuing them at a four-year university.”
Marcantonio disagrees with the misconception that courses at a community college are easier than courses at a four-year university and stresses that Northwestern helped him adapt to life at the university level. “The rigor of the Northwestern courses set a clear expectation of the difficulty I would endure at Boston University,” he says. “I've found many students who arrived here (Boston University) right out of high school weren't as prepared for what to expect as I was when transitioning to this new lifestyle. For that, I will always be thankful to Northwestern.”
Marcantonio was involved in many activities on campus including the Poetry Club, the campus podcast, and the Student Government, which included serving as the student representative on the Northwestern Foundation board of director as a voting member. He was also employed on campus in the advising office, the president’s office, and as a tutor in the Academic Success Center.
“When I speak to my peers about Northwestern, I always describe it as the land of opportunity,” he says. “The power of a small school and the dedication to their students is phenomenal.”