For this spotlight edition, the senior I sat down with was Brandon Stewart. During Stewart’s time at Catawba, he was a part of the football team, one of the Head RAs for this school year, and last spring was named Mr. Catawba. Stewart is a well known guy around the Cat-U campus and I had the pleasure of sitting down with him and asking him a few questions before he graduates this May.

Me: How does it feel being in your last semester of undergrad?

Stewart: It feels good knowing that all my hard work over the past four years has paid off, sad
to see it coming to an end, but grateful that I was able to have the experiences during
my undergrad.

Me: What is your major? What do you plan on doing in that field?

Stewart: My major is Biology and my plan is to take this undergrad degree and apply it into
the Marine Biology field for graduate school.

Me: With you being in the class of 2022, COVID has impacted four and a half semesters of your education, what effects do you think that had on you and your college experience?

Stewart: COVID has affected my learning style and has taught me how to adjust to different
learning styles in order to not fall behind. My college experience on the other hand has
been altered due to a lack of events that I experienced my first three semesters [of COVID], compared to
what I experienced over the past five [ before COVID and now].

Me: Has your perception of Catawba changed from when you first stepped on campus to
now?

Stewart: My perception of the campus hasn’t changed, as I’ve always viewed the campus as
a family community, through COVID I would say that perception actually grew, and I
view this campus as my second home.

Me: Being from the north, Maryland, what were your first impressions when you first got to
Salisbury and NC in general?

Stewart: Since this wasn’t my first time in North Carolina, I had already known what to
expect of the state, but my first impressions of Salisbury itself were that it was a much
slower pace of life than what I was accustomed to back home.

Me: With you being an athlete during your time at Catawba, how was your experience being
able to be a part of an athletics team on the next level?

Stewart: My experience as being a collegiate athlete was everything I expected it to be, I got
to build a family away from home and will have relationships from this team that will
last me a lifetime.