Home & Community

Transcript

The SHU community is made up of students, faculty, staff, local businesses and the university’s neighbors. Here, there is an energy that just welcomes you. This campus community is known for holding doors and lending a hand. On the upper quad, I’ve got my friend Deandre here to tell us a little more about this incredible community.

– Hey Alex, I wanna talk a little bit about home and community here at Sacred Heart. Coming from Atlanta, Georgia, I never even heard of Sacred Heart, let alone think I’d be going up North to play football. So, at the end of my postgraduate year, I received a scholarship offer from Sacred Heart. I wasn’t sure about it at first because of how small the school was. My parents trusted me that, I wanted it to be small, so I don’t get lost in the shuffle. The entire coaching staff made me feel as if, even with me being so far away from home, it wouldn’t be a problem because of the home atmosphere SHU brings. I was different from most kids who wanted to be close to home, I prefer to be far away. I wanted to go off and start my own legacy in a sense. My dad would always tell me, “You’ve been here your whole life, “well start something new.” So, that’s what I did. As soon as I stepped on campus, my freshman year, the love I was getting from everybody was unmatched. Through my three years here, I’ve been blessed just with so many different people that will last a lifetime, I’m talking outside of football ’cause those will be my guys forever. I realized how genuine my friends were from here when my dad passed away last year. If anyone has ever lost a parent, they know how dark that moment can be. You could see that some people are actually down for you, and that feeling makes you run through a wall for them. And some of my housemates, teammates, and some of my best friends from here were the reason I kept going hard every day. You make SHU feel like home to me. I want you guys to meet one of my best friends from here who makes SHU feel like home to me, Big Red, team mascot. Back to you, Alex.

– Deandre, thank you for sharing your story and inspiring words of courage with us. You show us what type of people you find here at Sacred Heart. Great job, thanks again for that.