THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 30, 1994 TAG: 9409290177
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JO-ANN CLEGG, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
FOR HIS FIRST two years at Virginia Tech, Dan Samek IV had, by his own admission, a double major: aerospace engineering and fraternity.
``I was a party animal,'' Samek, a 1990 Kempsville High School graduate and member of the Tech chapter of Tau Kappa Epsilon, said with a grin.
At the end of those first two years, Samek realized that he really didn't like aerospace engineering all that much so he changed his major to history.
And political science.
And economics.
And although he stayed active in his fraternity, his involvement dropped to minor status and remained there for the rest of his time at the Blacksburg school.
In May, right on schedule, Samek received undergraduate degrees in both history and political science. By the end of the summer session he had met all of the requirements for the economics degree.
In slightly less than four years of college he had finished two years of course work for one degree and completed three others in their entirety.
How did he manage all that? And, more to the point, why?
``I just like to learn,'' Samek said. ``I guess I'm motivated to be as educated as I can be.''
He was also motivated to make maximum use of his scholarships and the money his parents, Dan III and Charlotte, were laying out for his education. For starts there were the 24 hours of Advanced Placement credits he had earned at Kempsville High School, the equivalent of a full year of college for some students.
``Twelve hours (of classes a semester) is the minimum required to be considered a full-time student,'' he said. ``Any courses you take beyond that are freebies.''
Samek racked up lots of those freebies. For most of his last four semesters he took 21 credit hours. During summer sessions he took it a little easier, dropping back to 18.
During those two years he maintained a 3.7 grade point average, a bit higher than the average he carried during his freshman and sophomore years.
Since getting back from his summer session at Tech, Samek has been busy pursuing a couple of options for his future.
First there was the discussion with the Marine recruiter which led him to think that he might follow his father, a retired Naval officer, into a military career.
``I've applied for Navy air and I'm waiting to hear about that,'' he said.
Then there's the possibility of law school either in place of or along with a Navy commission.
At the moment, however, Samek is back in the comfortable Kempsville home where he and his sister Sandra, a Longwood College special education major, grew up.
It's a spot he shared with his parents and four dogs including two who list him as their nearest of kin: Gwen, a feisty Welsh corgi, and Alex (short for Alexandra), a keenly intelligent Shetland sheep dog.
Season tickets for Virginia Tech football games take him away from home these fall weekends. The school's record so far gives him good reason to believe that he'll be making a trip over the Christmas holidays as well. To a bowl game.
As comfortable as living at home is, like any 21-year-old college graduate, he's anxious to get on with his life. And like many, a summer stint as a Pizza Hut waiter made him realize that there had to be more to life than getting those anchovies and pepperonis to the right tables.
While waiting to see what the next step is going to be he decided to take a few courses at Old Dominion University.
Twenty-one hours of courses, to be exact. In engineering. ``I want to get that degree, too,'' he said with a sheepish grin. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by JO-ANN CLEGG
Dan Samek IV says he was motivated to take heavy course loads and
achieve multiple degrees at Virginia Tech by scholarships and the
money his parents, Dan III and Charlotte, put toward his education.
by CNB