FIVE WITH A FALCON: Sydney Sartell, Early Childhood Education (EDUC '25)

In this episode of Five with a Falcon, Sydney Sartell ('25) shares her experience at Fitchburg State University as an Early Childhood Education major.  A personal challenge her first year set her back a semester but, with the help of her advisor, Prof. William Corteiza, and a close-knit group of friends, she got back on track.  Sydney reflects on the growth she's experienced as she looks forward to her senior year.  She also describes defying the dormitory odds and becoming legit best friends with her randomly selected first year roommate.

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Episode transcript available here.

Episode produced by McKenzie Calvao and edited by Adam Fournier. Both are members of the Perseverantia staff, and film/video production students in the Communications Media department.

Click here to learn more about Perseverantia. Join us for programming updates on Instagram. Or reach out with ideas or suggestions at podcasts@fitchburgstate.edu.

Transcript

[ Five With a Falcon theme fades in ] 

[ 00min 17sec ]

Prof. Kate Jewell:
Welcome to Five With a Falcon. Could you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Sydney Sartell:
I'm Sydney. I'm a junior at Fitchburg state and I'm an early ed and elementary major right now. 

[ Five With a Falcon theme fades out ] 

And I lived on campus for my sophomore and freshman year. And then I got an off campus house with my best friends. And we just signed our lease again to live here for a senior year.

Prof. Jewell:
So could you tell us a little bit more about your career at Fitchburg State?

[ 00min 43sec ]

Sydney:
So my career actually started a little different than most people freshman year.  I came in freshman year in September, found out I had a health scare, had to leave and come back. And honestly, I was kind of nervous coming back in January just because of being behind in classes and credits and not really knowing the college schedule and lifestyle.

And my advisor. My advisor, [ Prof. William ] Cortezia, he's an education advisor.  Really kind of took me under his wing that semester and had me and my dad and mom come in – 

[ 1min 15sec ]

– sit down with him before and kind of be like, even though you're a semester behind right now, like you'll be able to make up a lot of these courses throughout the year and graduate on time.

And I just found out recently that I will be graduating next spring. So – which is really exciting because, with his help, it made my process so much easier.  Of like adjusting and being on track for the whole four years.

Last year, I took six classes, both semesters, and it was a lot of core classes so I could get into, like, my field experience and stuff like that.

[ 1min 47sec ]

And then this summer too, I'm taking two electives over the summer and then next semester I'll take six and then the final semester I'll take seven.  Which will be, um, a little bit insane! Because I'm in the classroom every day.  And then three days after the classroom – so we go to elementary classroom. So that will be a lot, but trying to just even walk in the spring was just a goal.

And knowing that I'll get my like diploma will be a way to think, okay, I can do it. 

Prof. Jewell:
That's really awesome. Well, it sounds like you're working really hard and doing lots of really great things in the classroom. 

So, where in general do you find a sense of belonging at Fitchburg?

[ 02min 25sec ]

Sydney:
I think I find a really good belonging with my group of friends I've made. Um, I feel like this might not be, like, a universal experience, but the group I made freshman year, like, we have been the core group. 

We see each other every day.  Even, like, our guy friends that live down the street, they come over every day.  Like, we hang out with them all the time. And I feel like a lot of people have a stigma of like, “Oh, you might not be best friends with your freshman year roommate.”

And like, well, I want to live with someone I know. Me and my roommate only knew each other two days before we moved in. We met on the Facebook group chat.  And we are legit inseparable

[ 03min 00sec ]

People are confused when they see us not together. So it's kind of awesome that we've all been together the whole time and we legit met the second day, all of us in freshman year and we've been inseparable since.

Prof. Jewell:
So what is your greatest accomplishment so far while you've been here?

Sydney:
Um, probably making Dean's List every semester so far.  I think just because I'm taking a lot of extra classes and balancing school, friends, and the college life. Especially, like, when I came in, I was already a semester behind freshman year.

I feel like a lot of people knew how to balance and had, like, that, um, good schedule and I was still trying to figure it out. So, that, yeah, I think making Dean's list. I mean, I joke around with my brother a lot because I have it more than him. So having that too is kind of awesome. But yeah.

Prof. Jewell:
So in what ways have you grown or transformed at Fitchburg? I get a little bit of a sense of that. But can you talk a little more about that?

[ 3min 57sec ]

Sydney:
I think I've grown in maturity like 100%. I don't live that far – I live like 50 minutes away. But getting that aspect of living on your own is culture shock of like, “Oh, I can, I don't have to go to class or I don't have to do this or I don't have to do my homework.”  But I think freshman year is like knowing your balance of everything and having a sense of growing up, going home for the summer.

And I'll have to ask my mom, like, “Oh, can I go to my friends?” I was like, I can just go and tell her and have that sense of responsibility. And I feel like I'm still figuring life out as it comes, but I feel like living off campus is just even more responsibility in growing up, which is awesome.

[ 4min 33sec ]

[ Theme music fades in ] 

Prof. Jewell:
It's wonderful to hear the college process at work.  Sydney, thanks so much for taking this time to do a Five With a Falcon with us.

Sydney:
Thank you.

[ Theme music fades out ] 

[00:04:51] 

[ Perseverantia theme fades in ] 

Matt Mendrella:
This is Matt Mendrella. I'm a junior and I'm a Psych major at Fitchburg State University. And you're listening to Preserving Ants, the Fitchburg state podcast network.

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