Stern’s New Campus Couple, Esty and Jonathan Schwab (affectionately known as Schwab), are excited to get to know you.
Esty (Stern ’10, Psychology major and English minor) is in her third year at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine. Schwab (Yeshiva College ’11, English major and Chemistry and Languages, Literatures, & Culture minors) is now the Assistant Director of Communications and Recruitment in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. The couple met as students at Yeshiva University and is scheduled to move into their campus couple apartment on 33rd St. and Lexington Avenue any day.
1. Does the campus couple have any other roles besides staying in for Shabbos?
Schwab: We’d like to be another touch point or friendly face if students want guidance or just someone to talk to.
Esty: We’re not just a “Shabbos couple,” we’re a campus couple. We don’t technically have office hours, but we do want to be present on campus throughout the week.
2. What were some of your best experiences when you stayed in as undergraduate students?
Schwab: There were lots of enjoyable shabbatot that we had when we were undergrads. Sometimes it’s the really big ones when you get a sense of being part of this great community and sometimes it’s the really small ones that have a really interesting theme or really interesting guests.
3. Are there any specific shabbosim coming up this semester that you would encourage students to go to?
Esty: Yes, the senior class shabbaton coming up. What I really like about this Shabbos is that it’s an opportunity for students to reflect on their time to look forward and anticipate their futures. We’ve been lucky to be here both participating in it and kind of leading it already. We hope that we model what it’s like to graduate from Yeshiva University but still remain close to it afterwards. The TAC shabbatons are also really good; I feel bad singling out specific ones.
4. As the campus couple, do you have any advice for students who are stressed out because of their schoolwork and involvement in numerous clubs?
Esty: Balance is a really important skill to develop in your adult life. It very much comes in handy when you’re a professional working member of your community with a family, and balancing all of that together. This is a skill that’s probably not easy for anybody, but it’s good that you’re all practicing it now. I think that you have to find fulfillment in the activities you’re doing, so if you’re participating in an extra-curricular activity and you’re not feeling fulfilled by it, you might have to prioritize.
Schwab: Or find an extra-curricular that is fulfilling. I think a lot of people have notions about what you’re supposed to do. You’re supposed to do this extracurricular activity, you’re supposed to major in this, etc. This is a time where you can really do what you want to do, within reason, and that usually actually gets you farther. A lot of graduate schools and employers are looking for you to have been successful and to have enjoyed your college experience regardless of what you have studied. And you’ll do the best with the things that you really like.
5. Any advice for students who are stressed out because they don’t know what they want to major in?
Esty: This is a lesson that I learnt at my time in Stern and by my experiences. I was also very stressed out and very linear when I came to Stern. I was very goal-focused; I knew that I was going to take this number of classes, and by this semester I’m going to graduate, etc. I had it all figured out and calculated. But there are so many things that you can’t plan. In the beginning of Stern I didn’t know that I wanted to be a doctor and that I would be going to medical school. It wasn’t a goal of mine, it was something that I had considered but I had kind of eliminated. I thought I was going to become a psychologist, and I majored in psychology because I enjoyed it very much. People should be open to whatever is interesting to them. It doesn’t have to be a very linear process; as long as you’re pursuing opportunities that are interesting to you and that you’re passionate about, it’s going to get you to where you ultimately want to go. It might not be where you thought you would have wanted to go when you started college, but it could be something even more fulfilling, meaningful, and better for you in the end.
Schwab: It’s going to be what you want at the end, not what you want at the beginning. Knowing what you want at the age of nineteen is rare. Some people know that, and that’s great, but then sometimes these three, four years of college are the time that you figure out what you like. I came into college thinking that I was going to medical school and then I realized that I loved English. I took as many English classes as I could and then a little bit after that I realized that I really wasn’t all that interested in medical school and that some of the things that interested me about it were really available in almost any field. I thought about it for a while and realized that education was where my heart really was. I don’t think I would have realized that if I didn’t explore it and say, “Here’s a class that I really enjoy, let me take more classes like it,” or “Here’s an extra-curricular that I really enjoy; let me get involved.”
Esty: We firmly believe that your college years are a journey and that’s why we’re so excited to be here with students as they go along this journey. We’re only a couple of years older than you are, and we’ve kind of set out on the journey fairly recently, but we have a couple of years of experience upon which to reflect and relate to you
Schwab: We’re a few steps ahead, so we can tell you what to jump over. (smiles)
6. Do you have a message that you’d like all the students to hear?
Esty: We want to thank everyone here for welcoming us to into your community and we really hope that we can get to know all of you. Please come over and introduce yourselves whether you’re here for Shabbos or not. We’re on campus; please get to know us and we hope to get to know you as well.