HOMENEWS & EVENTSWhy Skidmore? Hear Jesse Epstein's story
Why Skidmore? Hear Jesse Epstein's story
by Julia Marco
In addition to being director of Skidmore EMS, Jesse is an admissions ambassador, past president of Hillel and a former participant in the College's First-Year Experience (FYE) in London program.
This semester, he's a research assistant in professor Mark Rye's Positive Psychology Lab as well as a peer mentor for one of the FYE London seminars.
Hear Jesse's story
"My name is Jesse Epstein and I'm a junior from Long Island, New York.
"Something that's unique about the Skidmore community that I'm immensely proud of is our care for interdisciplinary passions.
"Ultimately, the reason I chose Skidmore is that I couldn't find any other place I visited that encouraged me to explore all of my different passions.
"I'm currently the director of Skidmore College Emergency Medical Services. My passion, as a result of working EMS at Skidmore, has evolved into a life-long dream and goal of working with EMS providers from a psychotherapy standpoint.
"I thought at first, 'Okay I'll be a psychologist and maybe volunteer with a local EMS agency.' But I've discovered over time here in my experiences and talking to people that I really can merge those passions and develop a completely new field that doesn't exist.
Mental health for providers is a hole in our market right now and it's a gap that I want to fill. I want to develop programs and protocols and write books on it. I also want to help other people and come give talks here when I'm an alumnus to get other people interested in the field. I want to give back to the community when it's my turn."
What goes into building a new science center? Take a look at the staggering figures behind the first phase of the largest, single academic initiative in Skidmore's history.
A recent alumna reflects on the connections and inspiration she found as a member of the international scholarship program.