A Writer's Everything

The Scavenger Hunt exercise conducted during class required myself and my classmates to go out of our comfort zones and find new people to talk about random things. This was not the easiest thing in the world to do.

Dr. Jack Hill is one of the people I decided to interview, mainly because I only knew him in context from one of my friends taking some of his courses throughout her time here at Morningside. Dr. Hill is a Psychology professor as well as the Chair of the Department.

When first meeting him, I noticed he is a heavyset man of older years, mainly detailed because of his grayed hair. He was wearing a light striped shirt and suspenders, and we shared a commonality of not wearing glasses when looking at a computer screen. He only put his glasses on when I first came into the room and introduced myself and my assignment.

Dr. Hill’s first reaction to my question about finding an object with a Morningside logo on it was confusion. I further explained the assignment, and he started looking around his desk until he remembered his business card sitting on the front of his desk. Objective number one complete.

After obtaining Dr. Hill’s card, I asked him when and why he came to Morningside. He told me started working here in 1990 and said “I was looking for a liberal arts college to teach at” and also that those were the only kinds of schools he applied for work at.

The second objective we had to find was that of a conversation about the interviewee’s favorite movie. He reacted with an intake of air and smiled as he said it would be slightly difficult to decide on one because he is a movie buff.

I instead simplified the question, going with what his favorite genre might be. He said Science Fiction was his favorite genre, but his favorite movie, The Shawshank Redemption, fell out of that category.

Since I hadn’t seen the movie before, I asked for a little bit of background on it. He told me it’s “based on a Stephen King novella” and the reason why he likes it so much is because it “totally absorbs me” whenever he comes across it. He is unsure of the amount of times he has seen the movie.

After finishing my interview with Dr. Hill, I thanked him for his time and went searching for another person I wouldn’t know. My first idea was to head up to the English Department offices, but there are more faculty on the third floor of Lewis Hall than just the English staff.

On that same floor, I found Dr. John Pinto. I introduced myself once again, stating my assignment and if he had some time to talk, to which he agreed and told me to pull up a chair.

Dr. Pinto is an older man, made much clearer when he said he started at Morningside in 1981. I asked him what he does here at Morningside and he said he’s “in charge of institutional research and assessment of students.”

When asked why Dr. Pinto came to Morningside, he told me it was because of work, “a strong growing program and good students.” He also gave me his card when I asked for an object with the Morningside logo.

Dr. Pinto gave me much of the same reaction as Dr. Hill when asked about what his favorite movie is. Since movies are such a big source of entertainment, I wasn’t surprised that people had some difficulty with answering the question.

However, Dr. Pinto was more ready for this question. He answered with vigor as he said his favorite movie is Clockwork Orange, a movie about a violent person in a gang who is eventually conditioned to hate violence and even gets sick when witnessing it.

The reason for this movie as his favorite was because “the questions and issues it brings up resonated” with him.