Student Spotlight: Danielle Young

By Logan Love

Danielle Young is a senior sociology major. She discussed her life and her future over lunch in the Holmes Student Center.

Northern Star: Why is sociology your major? What influenced your decision?

Danielle Young: I’m a people watcher. Probably it just interested me what types of people hang out together.

NS: What type of campus activities are you involved in? What are your hobbies?

DY: I’m the treasurer of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., a member of the Black Student Union and I’m the secretary on the Executive Board of the National Pan-Hellenic Council. I like to read and hang out with my friends.

NS: Tell me something very few people know about you?

DY: If I tell you that then everybody will know.

NS: Alright, then what is something that is especially interesting about you?

DY: I am taking Portuguese and would love to go to Brazil. It’s so pretty there and they’re going to host the Olympics in 2016, so it’s perfect timing.

NS: What is your plan for the next five years?

DY: Graduate school, for sure, here at NIU, hopefully. Then I’ll either find some sort of job with my sociology degree or get another master’s. I’m really interested in adult and higher education, I just wanted to finish out my discipline first. I’m sure I’ll end up getting my Ph.D. I just don’t know what it will be in, either sociology or I’ll apply my sociology degrees toward something else.

NS: What has been the most rewarding aspect of your college career?

DY: Being able to graduate in four years and becoming a member of my sorority. The community service, bringing up other women, it’s a lifelong commitment. I’ll be an AKA until I die.

NS: What is one thing you would like to try before you die?

DY: I’d really love to jump out of a plane–with a parachute, of course. It would be really neat. Airplanes, flying, heights or just being that high in the air is really a fear of mine, so it’d be getting over that fear. To say that I did it, I conquered my fear.

NS: What is one piece of advice you would give to fellow students?

DY: You can graduate on time. It’s just all about time management and color coding.