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Guest Column
The Path to Fulfillment
I am proud to be an NYIT alumnus. The college changed my life in such a positive and meaningful way. It helped me realize that the path to fulfillment, whether it be intellectual, social, financial, or otherwise, begins when one recognizes that the only limitations imposed upon us are those we impose upon ourselves. My story begins in 1980.
I was 25. I finally decided what I wanted to be when I grew up – a lawyer. The first thing I needed was a college degree. The problem was that I had not yet gone to college; in fact, I had not been in school for more than eight years. I hated school. For me, high school was nothing more than a disciplinary institution and upon graduation, I literally bolted into the world. |
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I felt I didn’t need college. Besides, it would just be more of the same. I could certainly make things happen without college – or so I thought.
I had done reasonably well financially up through that time. Right out of high school, I obtained a real estate salesperson’s license. Selling seemed easy. By the time I was 21, I had already purchased my first multi-family home and was learning the ups and downs of real estate ownership. I had also dabbled a bit in acting and made a fair amount of money doing television commercials.
But then I turned 25 and reality began to set in – I wasn’t a kid anymore. I wasn’t attracted to the same things, the same job, the same people, the same lifestyle that was once fun. I was growing up. I began to realize that the world was a much bigger place, with compelling opportunities and challenges, the pursuit of which required certain knowledge and skills that one acquired only by earning a college degree.
I knew I needed to go to college before I could go to law school, but an undergraduate degree required four years – way too long! Then I found NYIT in Old Westbury. It seemed like a great school, with a beautiful campus, terrific faculty and, best of all, weekend, evening and summer programs.
As you might expect, I became consumed with NYIT and was inspired by many of my professors, including Dr. Adele Deerson for business law and Dr. Luis Navia for philosophy, whose passion for the subject was contagious and intoxicating.
I founded the Law Club and the Economics Club and was elected president of both. I even joined the Student Senate. These were things I would have never considered in high school. One of the NYIT experiences I recall most fondly was an organization we founded through the Economics Club called “Skill Brokers.” This campuswide, student-only bartering system allowed students to exchange services, such as tutoring sessions or even a car wash, for other services or goods such as used textbooks. The experience taught me many valuable lessons about managing people and information, skills I continue to use today in my own business.
After my first semester, I enrolled in full-time day, weekend, evening and summer sessions, and finished my bachelor’s degree in much less time than would have been required elsewhere.
In fact, the hectic scholastic pace I had adopted prepared me well for law school. Years after graduating from law school, I started my own business and have been blessed with extraordinary success since. None of my goals and aspirations could have been achieved without NYIT. This was where I learned that school could be more than just an exercise in discipline and order; it could be a place to learn, a place to find inspiration, and, most importantly, a place to find myself. Thank you, NYIT.
Rory Cutaia is chairman, president and CEO of The telx Group Inc., an internationally recognized, premier operator of telecom network interconnection facilities. He may be reached at rorycutaia@telx.com.
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