Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/517095
Global campus Andrew Dickerson might win the prize for the best-traveled flag. He took his CMU flag with him when he moved to the Middle Eastern country of Bahrain in August 2014 to teach high school, joining three other CMU alumni teaching there. Actually, he took two CMU flags: the one he received at graduation and the one his parents bought him his freshman year to hang in his room. One hangs in Dickerson's apartment, the other in his classroom at the Modern Knowledge School, where he teaches ancient and modern history to ninth and 10th graders. When he travels, Dickerson takes his flag and snaps a photo. He's proudly stood in front of the pyramids of Egypt and on a sunset beach in Thailand, clutching his CMU flag. "It shows how far a Central degree can take you," Dickerson says. "It can take you anywhere. I'm halfway around the world with three other Chips." His pride is well founded, he says. "Central's education program is really respected," Dickerson says. "Not just in the U.S., but around the world." His CMU education prepared him for the rigors of teaching, he says, from the long hours to the need to teach students in a variety of ways, to meet their different styles of learning. CMU also prepared him for life halfway around the world, he says. "At Central, I had friends from Asia and the Middle East and all over the world," Dickerson says. "So I wasn't too afraid to go to a different country. Because I had already met people from all over the world who were good, nice people." He teaches an American curriculum to students from Bahrain, Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Asia. "I'm bringing my students the same thing they're bringing me," he says. "They can connect to someone from a different culture, just like I'm doing with them. They can see a real American. Not like the Americans they see when they watch 'Jersey Shore.' They see we're not all crazy partiers. We're not all right-wing or all left-wing. We're just people. Like them. "That's what drew me to teaching in the first place," he says. "The chance to connect to my students on a personal level. When they ask me about the flag, I tell them it's where I went to school. That's pretty cool." 18 centralight spring '15 Comforts of home Zach Mackowiak happily hung his CMU flag in his Chicago apartment. His education at Central helped him achieve his dream of working in Chicago. Plus, it matched his furniture. "I'm a grown-up now," he says with a laugh. "I have a color scheme." Mackowiak works on the 66th floor of a downtown Chicago skyscraper for Edelman, the world's largest public relations firm. He says other CMU alumni working there helped pave the way for him. Mackowiak is a digital intern on Edelman's paid media team, working on content distribution, Facebook advertising, media partnerships and social media for several large national brands. "I'm learning something new every day," he says. "I love seeing something about a national brand on social media and knowing I had a part in it. Or seeing an ad I placed on Google pop up." He's always dreamed of working in Chicago and admits he's now a bit of a pest about it. "I'm so obnoxious on social media," Mackowiak says, laughing. "I'm posting a picture every day of the view, of the sunset, of the lake. My friends say, 'Oh no, not another picture.'" An added bonus: his twin brother, Kyle, also a CMU alum, lives down the street as he hunts for a job in sport management. When Mackowiak goes home to his studio apartment at the end of the day, he loves seeing his CMU flag on the wall. "Central is where I called home for four and a half years," he says. "I know this sounds melodramatic, but Central saved my life. I spent my first two years there as a closeted gay man. I was depressed. But people there gave me the courage to be myself." Mackowiak came out the summer before his junior year. He got involved in CMU's Office of LGBTQ Services, where he says director Shannon Jolliff supported him and taught him about social justice, diversity and inclusion. He also could go confidently toward his new career, he says, because of what he learned from Dr. Elina Erzikova, assistant professor of public relations – "my mom away from home," he calls her. "I can't say enough good things about how CMU helped me become the person I am," he says. "I couldn't be more proud to hang that flag in my apartment, forever."