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Hometown: Marietta, Ga.
Majors: Management, with a concentration in finance, and Hispanic Studies.
Notable activities: Presidential Scholar; co-captain, men’s swimming and diving team; record-setting diver; All-Atlantic Coast Conference Academic Honor Roll three times; recipient, James J. Kane Academic Award; winner of the 2009-10 Athletic Director’s Award for Academic Achievement; recipient of the ACC’s Weaver-James-Corrigan graduate studies scholarship.
Post-graduation plans: Consultant at Deloitte LLP.
Overview: While shouldering the academic load of a double major and logging long hours at practice, Long still found time during the last two years to serve as a Big Brother at the West End House Boys and Girls Club in Allston. As part of the Presidential Scholars Program, he spent one summer volunteering and teaching in a juvenile detention facility. After sophomore year, he held a marketing internship in Buenos Aires. Last summer, when visa problems scuttled a corporate internship, he taught English to children from one of the poorest sections of Sao Paolo, Brazil.
What word would you use to sum up your four years at BC?
Conversation. I feel like my time at BC, with the experiences I’ve had inside of class and outside of class, has been a series of conversations. What I take away from Boston College is that I’m better at having them. I’m better at listening. I’m better at understanding that there are 1,000 ways to look at the same issue. It’s important to have compassion and to be willing to hear another person’s side.
Which professors had the biggest impact on your academic work?
My top three would be Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures Elizabeth Rhodes, who is a faculty member in the Hispanic Studies program; Founders Professor of Theology James Keenan, SJ, who is the director of the Presidential Scholars Program and my professor for the class Ethical Issues of HIV/AIDS; and Carroll School of Management Adjunct Associate Professor of Finance Michael Barry, who has been a finance professor of mine, but who I also count as a friend and as someone who has become a mentor to me.
What did the Presidential Scholars Program do for you?
The program really gives you the opportunity to dream big. In the context of your summers, you’re given the possibility of doing things that might otherwise be impossible. It really sets in you this attitude that whatever you can dream, they’re here to stand by you and support you and, as long as it makes sense for who you are and what path you want to take, they support you along the way.
Which experience has made the biggest difference for you at BC?
One of my proudest accomplishments has been being named one of the captains of the swimming and diving team. I had wanted to study abroad as a junior, but as a sophomore I made a decision to forgo that opportunity with the prospect that I would be eligible to become a captain during my senior year. I think that taught me that if you stick with something and see it through, if you’re loyal and honest, people will respect you and you’ll be a leader in ways you didn’t necessarily expect.
What will you miss the most about BC?
I’ll miss having so many of my dear friends so close. But they will always be there. People who matter, they will always be in your life. Friends who matter will always be there. But I just won’t see as many of them as much.