“Stephen, kids in the hall preach and get part-time jobs, not degrees.” My Mother continues, “Look at what the Watchtower magazine says: ‘In view of the short time left as Armageddon approaches, a decision to pursue an education in this system of things is not only unwise but extremely dangerous. For all its presumed benefits, would four years in a university really be the best use of that remaining time?’”

Living in an environment in which negative attitudes toward education were constantly expressed by family as well as in talks given by Elders in the congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses (JWs) made it extraordinarily difficult to pursue my academic dreams, at times seemingly impossible. However, with the support of my Father (not a JW), I managed to move onto Millersville University’s campus in the Fall of 2007. During this first year I felt obligated to attend the three congregation meetings per week due to feeling disloyal to my Mother and younger sister (both JWs), as though I had abandoned them by pursuing an education. As such, my freshman year grades as an undecided student were far less than acceptable. “Maybe my Mother was right. Maybe I’m fit for preaching and a job, not a degree.” As my peers filled in study guides for final exams at the close of the Spring semester, I was filling in the “Official Leave of Absence Form.” In retrospect, this may be the smartest thing I’ve ever done.

As I began working at Siemens Medical Solutions as a Computer Operator (see résumé), acquiring my own apartment and learning to live independently as a young adult, it was not long before I began to appreciate the intellectual stimulation that a college education could provide me with. Out of school for the first time in my life, I began a life-changing self-start research experience. I dove deep into the theological arguments advocated by JWs with an insatiable appetite for knowledge, examining their interpretation of scripture and the relations of power within their organizational hierarchy. After sufficient analytical reasoning, I decided that although this particular faith may work for some of my close friends and family members, it is not what I wanted my life to consist of. The next week, a local Elder I knew since I was an infant walked up to the podium, took a deep breath, and said, “Stephen Salvitti is no longer associated with Jehovah’s Witnesses.” My Mother, sitting in the first row, stood up and hurried to the bathroom crying hysterically, leaving a tissue on the floor behind her in the aisle.

Despite the strain it took on my personal relationships, I chose to dictate my own actions rather than placate others. Re-enrolled and accepted into the Department of Communication and Theatre at Millersville University (I was previously undeclared), I moved out of my apartment and left my healthcare plan at Siemens. In the Spring of 2008 I left Millersville University as a small boy succumbing to pressures from every direction, but in the Fall of 2009 I returned as a rebel with an educational cause.

It is against this background that learning to think critically outside of what is normally accepted in a given culture has become my paramount tool of application both personally, academically, and professionally. One significant academic opportunity to implement my newly discovered intellectual device began with an internship in the Summer of 2010. The most captivating article Dr. Eger and I worked on was “Behind The Mask: A ‘Cultural Outsider’ With an Affinity for The Jewish Experience,” which included an interview with Doug Wright, winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize with the production of I Am My Own Wife. As a team, Dr. Eger and I unraveled personal information about the main character, Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, a transvestite woman who lived through World War II, with whom I seemingly had absolutely nothing in common, but established a connection on the level that we both were perceived as deviant in our respective environments. This is when I began to see the power in media and culture. If an audience could begin to accept the aberrant Charlotte von Mahlsdorf as depicted through her character on stage, maybe it was possible to transfer that acceptance into its reality.

The second opportunity to implement my critical thinking skills in regard to culture has been my work as a Production Assistant with award-winning documentary filmmaker, Dr. Changfu Chang (film trailers under 'video' tab). The story focus is on the subject of adoption as it centers around the formation of Ricki’s (the adoptee) identity in terms of nationality, social class, and gender as she grows up with a middle class American family in Seattle, Washington and then reunites with her working class family in China for three months in the Summer of 2011. Tossed into this unfamiliar country, she discovers men are more cherished than women, encounters hardships in adapting to her family’s lower socio-economic lifestyle, and struggles with accepting that her biological grandmother opposed her birth out of fear of disobeying the One Child Policy. Overcoming authoritarian oppression started to become a theme in the works I was involved in, and media always seemed to be a catalyst for liberation.

Over the course of these two internship experiences, it became obvious to me that Dr. Eger and Dr. Chang, conveying these two cultures (Jewish and Chinese) through two different media (print and film), are actually empowering the subjects they are representing by giving them a medium in which to voice their stories. These two professors found their calling by applying their academic knowledge to their personal history. It inspired me to do the same. One of my future goals is to produce a documentary that tells the stories of former JWs.

That said, as I dipped my toes into other topics during the past six years of studying communication, my interests have expanded beyond religion and into advertising, film, politics, news, social media, among many others. My time at MU and SU has provided me with the tools necessary to analyze the complex intertwining relationship of media, contemporary events, the collective social world, and individual psychological processes. This ability to critique has proved invaluable for me in my academic, professional, and personal life.

As I have endeavored to challenge the status quo, it is rather appropriate my time at MU came to a close with the presentation of my Departmental Honors Thesis under Dr. Gregory Seigworth, Collisions of the Collective and the Individual in a Theocratic Oligarchy ; my time at Syracuse University will also be coming to a close with my thesis analyzing the uses and gratifications of online forums designed for former JWs. There is a sense of irony in educating myself on the relations of power within the very organization that attempted to oppress my education. And so my story comes full circle; it's as if I were writing it all along but didn't know it.

As my graduate career comes to a close, I have discovered that I am not satisfied. My time inside academia has concluded, but learning is a lifelong process and I refuse to cut it short. “Would four years or more in a university be the best use of my remaining time?” I ended up doing six, and it absolutely was.