My Time as a History Major at Bonaventure by Max Schneller

My decision to choose history as my major in college was a relatively easy one. I grew up in Hurley, New York, a town that was established by the Dutch in 1662. Many of the old stone houses of the Dutch colony still exist along Main Street. This historic site along with many others is where I grew up and, ever since I was young, my parents told me about my area's history. Because of this constant exposure to history I quickly grew to love it.

My decision to choose Saint Bonaventure was also in large part because of young exposure. My grandfather and uncle both went to Bonas and so throughout my childhood and high school career I heard stories of Bonaventure. I truly knew that Bonaventure was where I was going to spend my college career, however, when I first visited the school and saw the history section of Friedsam Library. As a high school senior, I had never seen so many books devoted to history in one place. Even now, in my senior year at Bonaventure, I enjoy going down to the History section and simply skimming through the books.

Perhaps my favorite part of being a history major at Saint Bonaventure has been the way that I have expanded my knowledge of the histories of many regions and countries that previously I had no exposure to. These regions include the Middle East, Latin America, and East Asia. Before coming to Saint Bonaventure, I took many classes on European and American history, both of which I have learned a lot about at Bonaventure. However, once at Bonaventure, I immediately decided to take classes on Asian and Latin American history to broaden my historical knowledge. By my sophomore year, I was also taking Middle Eastern history classes. These classes offered a new challenge and were particularly interesting because of the way that all of the information was new. For truly expanding my knowledge in history and changing the way I look at the world I have to thank Dr. Horowitz, Dr. Zabad from the Political Science Department, Dr. Robbins and many other professors throughout this wonderful school.