From Catering to College

Eric Newsome was finding himself increasingly frustrated. He had earned an associate’s degree at Piedmont Virginia Community College and was making a good living as the director of a catering company in Charlottesville, but he no longer found the work challenging. He had always intended to go back to school, but the time never seemed right. “The busier I became, the harder it was to make the move,” he recalls.  

Deciding to make a complete break and move to a larger city, he investigated schools and job prospects in the Philadelphia area. “I thought initially that I could use my catering experience to land a job in event planning or fund raising,” he says. I found a few positions that I thought I really could do, but I lacked the network of contacts and the diploma to be a successful applicant.”  

When Newsome’s focus returned to Charlottesville, his plans snapped into place. Having had a positive experience working as a caterer with the University community, he considered and accepted a temporary position at U.Va. He put to use his knowledge of fiscal and administrative policy gained through having conducted business with U.Va. His temporary assignment eventually led to a full-time job with the Department of Materials Science in the Engineering School. Soon after, he was accepted to the Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies program. “I remember driving around town feeling a lot less frustrated,” he says. He entered the program in Fall 2006.  

For someone returning to school in his mid-thirties, the program has its challenges. It had been a while since Newsome had done any regular writing, and he initially found the pace and volume of writing required by the program to be “astonishing.” But the more he wrote, the easier it became. He also appreciated the flexibility of the Materials Science Department, which has created a work environment that enables him to fulfill his responsibilities both as a student and employee, and he recently received an Osher Reentry Scholarship, which defrays some of his tuition costs.  

In the meantime, he is discovering a new way of looking at the world through courses like the one Assistant Professor Glenn Kessler offers on metaphor. “BIS has broadened my horizons,” he says. “It has reinvigorated me. I’m not necessarily feeling younger, but I’m thinking younger.”