Chantelle Boateng, Social Media/ Online Editor

My name is Courtney Kennedy, and I am currently a junior majoring in cybersecurity with a concentration in cybercrime and fraud. I am from Long Island, and I came to Utica College because they had a great cybersecurity program. I have always liked smaller schools, so class sizes at Utica College were important to me.

Being away from home made me nervous at first, but, when I arrived on the campus and adapted to living here, everything went by at a such fast pace that I did not realize how homesick I was. So when certain holidays came around, it was nice to be able to go home.

Being homesick, I had to find my own way to cope with it, so I threw myself into schoolwork. Then, during the second semester of my freshman year, I  joined the water polo team. Becoming a part of the team allowed me to make more friends and find a community to be a part of and create a home on campus.

Other than being part of the water polo team, I am also a member of Theta Phi Alpha and the Organization of Justice Studies (OJS).

The same reason I joined the water polo team connects with why I also joined Theta Phi Alpha because during my freshman year I was looking for people to be friends with and to find a community. Looking back, I can honestly say I have been able to find the community I was looking for, and I found it with not only my sisters but teammates as well.