Moses Griffith can’t explain the raccoons.
A resident assistant (RA) in SUNY Broome’s Student Village, he and his peers play a major role in making the residence hall a community. To that end, they take turns planning and putting on regular fun events – such as a murder mystery program, or another styled on the game show “Family Feud.”
Anyone who has watched “Family Feud” knows that the questions concern surveys on topics both popular and quixotic. To prepare for game show night, the RAs interviewed their residents with tongue-in-cheek questions, such as “What animal are you most afraid of finding in your room?”
“We’re not afraid of cockroaches. The thing we’re most afraid of finding in our room is a raccoon. Which I don’t get – people in the city see a lot of cockroaches, and not a lot of raccoons,” quipped the Brooklyn native, adding that the striped bandits also beat out spiders and scorpions.
(For the record, we must point out: While SUNY Broome is definitely Upstate, there are no raccoons in our Student Village suites.)
At the end of his first semester, Moses decided to become an RA to optimize his SUNY Broome experience and help his fellow Hornets navigate the college “in a hands-on, interactive way.” He’s familiar with the traditional complaint of “there’s nothing to do in Binghamton,” and has a good counter-argument.
“Try to experience what’s up here before you say there’s nothing here to do. If you can’t find anything to do, make your own things to do. And reach out!” he said.
Learn about our Student Village and housing at SUNY Broome.
‘A sense of family’
On schedule to graduate in May 2021, Moses opted for a Paralegal Studies major to prepare for his lifelong dream of becoming a lawyer – more specifically, a criminal defense attorney.
“I like hearing people’s stories and helping where I can,” he explained. “Since I was a kid, I knew I wanted to be a lawyer.”
Learn about Paralegal Studies at SUNY Broome.
In fact, he initially intended to study law at Binghamton University and applied to the Binghamton Advantage program. However, his high school didn’t send his transcripts on time and he had to decide on an alternate plan: community college.
Sometimes, however, Plan B turns out to be even better than Plan A. SUNY Broome provides a path to Binghamton University all on its own; in fact, the college supplies most of BU’s transfer students. Citing his positive experience so far, Moses plans on finishing his SUNY Broome degree before transferring to BU.
He has particularly enjoyed his classes with English Professor Virginia Shirley – or as Moses calls her, Dr. V. At her recommendation, he plans to submit some of his creative writing to Breaking Ground, the campus literary magazine.
“She has seen my writing since the start of the semester, and I know she wants to see me go further,” he said.
While he has a passion for law, he’s also a proud “jack of all trades” who enjoys writing fiction and sundry other hobbies. He taught himself guitar, and took piano last semester as well as a beginning drawing course with Professor David Zeggert.
So far, he has found his SUNY Broome experience enlightening – and not just in terms of the subjects he masters in class.
“Coming here from the city, you see a lot of different kinds of people. The kind of people you meet up here are different,” he explained. “There are really good people here; you have a sense of family. It’s a nice contrast, coming from the city.”
Tags: Business and Professional Studies Division, Diversity, Housing, Paralegal AAS, Profile
