Nick McAdam, Staff Writer

A fair amount of people in today’s world have that one occupational desire that they hope to achieve one day. It can start at a fairly young age, or spark at the top of one’s mind in their older years of life.

Graduate student Greg Copeland knows that he wants to be the president or CEO at a hospital one day.

“Right now, I’m working toward a Master’s degree in health care administration here at UC,” Copeland said. “I hope to make a positive change in people’s lives, along with providing high quality care for everyone.”

Utica College made Copeland’s goal of acquiring a Master’s degree easier by covering the costs of getting the degree. Since then, Copeland has figured out that success has no limits.

“I’ve known for around two to three years now that health administration is what I’m geared toward, especially with me working on my Master’s,” Copeland noted. “I’ve really enjoyed working towards it for a while now.”

Utica freshman Noah Tran also hopes to pursue his passion of working in the healthcare field one day.  

“I used to help my grandfather out a lot back home, which definitely inspired me to become a nurse practitioner one day,” Tran said. “Becoming a nurse practitioner wasn’t really on my mind until 12th grade in high school.”

Students like Tran believe that the hospital across the campus provides many programs to help students work firsthand in the field they desire.

“I agree that Utica provides enough to help me achieve my goals,” Tran added. “Our program insists that we complete visual hours at the hospital across the street. We get to spectate people who do what I want to do.”

Some student-athletes know their goals from a very young age. Usually the goal involves actually playing sports, but some choose to analyze through news programs as well.

Utica College freshman Brandon Levy would like to be a sports analyst one day.

“I enjoy watching sports and looking at in-depth stats and things relating to that matter,” Levy said. “I grew up watching a lot of football and basketball, so one day it’d be cool to become a Sports Analyst for ESPN or Fox.”

“It hit me in my freshman year of high school that I could turn my love for sports into a possible career in the future,” Levy added.

Levy believes that UC could offer more in the field he wants to pursue one day.

“I don’t think Utica provides enough towards sports analyzing or things related to that,” Levy said. “There isn’t a specific major for it, and if there was, I probably would’ve chosen that instead of criminal justice.”

Levy believes the school could add more clubs and majors available to people who want to analyze sports.

“UC could add more majors and a lot of clubs that revolve around that type of field,” Levy said. “They could add more core classes with it too.”

Other hopefuls within the sports world prefer to actually be on the field for their dream.

Freshman Adam Mann would love to be a professional basketball player in the NBA.

“Being in the NBA would likely mean that I have no stress, I’d be playing basketball all day, and I could potentially be a voice to the public,” Mann said. “The thought came to my mind around 4th grade, but I never really turned that into my actual inspiration.”

Mann doesn’t model himself after NBA stars such as LeBron James or Stephen Curry but instead after someone who has never played on an NBA court.

“You know what would be cool?” Mann asked. “Being like Zac Efron from High School Musical.  I’d love to play basketball and be like Zac Efron!”