Before deciding to attend Plattsburgh State, junior TV- Video production major and film minor Nate Winans visited Oswego first because both PSUC and OSU offered equal communication department. However, at the end, Winans chose PSUC as the place he was going to prepare for his future.
Being close to Vermont and Montreal, Plattsburgh is the perfect place to study for Winans. Especially with his major and his passion for film, this is “a huge place for film and TV production.”
At the beginning of his college life, Winans knew he wanted to do something with sports.
“When I took more classes, I figured out I wanted to do something about film more,” he said. “I first started to do news stuff, but that was not what I liked to do at all. I curved to other direction toward film.”
What Winans likes about his major the most is the creativity in which he can “come up with certain ideas and then be able to create them.”
“I have seen so many TV shows and movies,” he said. “I like the aspect of seeing things like, “Oh, it’s cool,” and trying to create it.”
Winans has a big passion for anything related to film, even writing for film. He is taking a class called “Writing for TV,” right now, and he enjoys it a lot.
Besides his major, Winans is involved in many activities on campus. He is an active brother of Delta Sigma Phi Fraternity and currently just got elected for Inter-Fraternal Council President.
Winans used not to want to join a fraternity because of all the stereotypes among Greek life. However, when he came to the rush event and met the brothers, Winans changed his mind.
He said joining Greek life is more about networking and friendship. He also said being in Greek life can open up many opportunities for students by meeting many new people.
“Over this past summer, I worked in a baseball camp,” he said. “I met many other brothers from different places like Michigan.”
Holding the IFC President position, Winans has learned that “it’s important to make the group together for the common goals such as diversity, service or general relation. His goals is to make people change their points of view about Greek life and “reinvent our names on campus”, especially after everything happened recently.
Comparing to the freshman version of himself, he said he is more open to people and has more connections.
“In my first semester, I didn’t have anything to do,” he said. “I just want to transfer because I didn’t know anybody. It was super boring.”
However, after being a brother of Delta Sigma Phi Fraternity, he said he started to know more people and learn about other people’s backgrounds.
Senior history adolescence education major William Hodge first met Winans during recruitment for Delta Sigma Phi. He is Winan’s big and was also new member educator at that time.
“Nate is fun, kind in every way and very hard-working,” Hodge said. “Nate and I both came from the same background.”
Hodge said both of them have the same mind set, which is, “The world is going to mess with you. That’s why “you need to step up, take it and live through it.”
“Through bad experiences come the most valuable lessons,” Hodge said. “That’s when I know I wanted him to be my little and my best friend.”
Senior political science major Mark Eckert worked with Winans through IFC when Winans was still the IFC delegate for Delta Sigma Phi. Eckert described Winans as a “honorable and kind” person.
“He is always trying to better himself,” Eckert said. “Overall, he is a great guy to be around and work with.”
In order to be successful in college, Winans encourages students to join many things as much as possible.
“Definitely get involved on campus and learn as much as you can,” he said.
Email Hilly Nguyen at opinions@cardinalpointsonline.com
