By Kristin Vorce

It happened when she was in New York interning at Forbes Magazine in the summer of 2003. A blackout had spread throughout the city. Sweaty New Yorkers evacuated subways and groaned as police officers directed bumper-to-bumper traffic.

That’s when Amanda Vasilikos decided Manhattan was the place to be.

“One of the girls in my department basically took me under her wing because no one knew what was going on and it was pretty scary,” she says. “She was pretty young, had a nice apartment, and a pretty cool life.”

Amanda, a native of Garden City, Long Island, is now a senior wants to find a job in New York after graduation.

“I aspire to be like Carrie Bradshaw in ‘Sex and the City,’ ” she says.

An English major with a concentration in journalism, Amanda’s goal is to be a writer for a fashion magazine. She says she imagines herself click-clacking down the streets in Manolo Blahniks, heading to a chic restaurant or an art gallery opening.

“That’s what I’d like to fill my time with as opposed to drinking at a college party,” she says.

With a busy schedule full of writing papers for class and meeting deadlines as a staff reporter for The Review, Amanda says she’s a constant worrier.

She says during her sophomore year of college she was experiencing a quarter-life crisis, and unable to decide on a major. A friend took her to the university’s art studio.

“I just sat there for hours with my iPod, just painting without even thinking about it,” Amanda says.

She says what “just came out” was a woman’s face infused with the elements of nature – earth, wind, water and fire. The acrylic painting hangs in her apartment today, a constant reminder of why she ditched a major in psychology.

“Sometimes I think I should’ve been an art major,” Amanda says. “But I like expressing myself through writing, too. I have no regrets.”

She’s also a lover of classic rock and indie rock. Her favorite band is Death Cab for Cutie, but she also enjoys Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan and Bob Marley.

In her spare time, Amanda volunteers with America Reads, tutoring elementary school kids in reading and writing. She says she loves kids and can see herself as a teacher someday.

But first, she’s headed to the honk-your-horn, walk-while-you-talk world of Manhattan.

By Sonia Dasgupta

“Mom! I’m gonna try the triple axle!” screamed 9-year-old Kaitlyn DeRoy.

She skated around the rink, attempted a jump and made it, when a skate coach noticed her and decided to help her improve.

Soon after, senior English major Kaitlyn began regular lessons and now, 12 years later, she has traveled across the country competing in skating competitions and she is the president of the university’s club ice skating team.

“I knew from that moment it was what I really wanted to do,” says Kaitlyn.

She says after the day at the rink, she would watch competitions on television and want to be like those skaters. Kaitlyn says she knew she wanted to learn every aspect of skating, wear those dresses and really learn how to do those jumps.

“It was kind of natural for me,” Kaitlyn says. “I learned really quickly. I kept wanting more and learning jumps.”

Ice-skating was one of the primary reasons Kaitlyn, a New Hampshire native, came to the University of Delaware over schools like Northeastern and Boston College, she says.

Kaitlyn says she still competes regularly and is looking forward to October when she will compete in the New England Regional Championship. If she places in the top four, Kaitlyn would move on to sectionals and then nationals where she would skate with world-class skaters like Michelle Kwan.

Kaitlyn placed third at San Jose State skating competition and wants to join a figure skating world tour after graduation.

She says ice-skating takes up most of her day. Kaitlyn has one to two hour practices and regularly exercises at the gym, where she does both cardio and weights. She says however, she still takes part in hobbies like yoga club, scrapbooking and baking.

Kaitlyn says she has dreams she would love to fulfill: competing in Hawaii, going back to California and traveling in a skating tour that spans Europe. She says she also wants to become a sports journalist, covering ice skating competitions.

“My dream job would be to become one of the top reporters working with the U.S. Figure Skating Association,” Kaitlyn says.

By Adam Asher

If you were to call Katie Bennett at one of her busier moments in the day, you might get an answering machine message urging you to email her for an appointment.

“I get really annoyed when sources call back and don’t leave a message,” she says.

The answering machine is for people who she is looking to interview or has done so in the past.

At the age of 20, many students are still clueless about a possible career path. Katie, on the other hand, has it all planned out. She’s wants to be a medical journalist.

“Most magazines have a doctor and a writer,” she says, “I would be that in one person.”

For Katie, career inspiration came in the form of a rewarding summer internship. She spent the summer working at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia making children’s experiences there as comfortable as possible.

“It was really neat to see how kids worked out their problems through play,” Katie says. The experience convinced her to add biology as a course of studies on top of journalism.

Katie grew up in Bucks County, Pa., with her quiet family and prefers the equally quiet neighborhood where she currently lives to a noisy college campus.

“I’m just not a normal college person,” she says, pointing out her preference of a quiet Saturday night with a good book over the loud, alcohol-drenched college party scene.

Her quiet surroundings give her plenty of time to focus on academics. She has spent much of that time writing a book that began as five articles she wrote about her internship. The tentative title for the book is “Untold Stories of the Chronically Ill Child.”

“My advisor said I had way too much good material for that,” she says. She hopes to finish her book by the end of next summer.

By Katie Bennett

Adam Asher is a big man on campus.

“My friends say I’m the guy who knows everybody on campus,” he says — and his friends aren’t kidding. In walking about 200 feet, Adam stopped three times to talk to friends.

Adam is ridiculously outgoing and extremely friendly, and his Facebook photos prove it. Whether looking at him hung-over in only smiley-face boxers or attempting to eat “the dome of the rock” in Jerusalem, Adam shows he learned early on to discard feelings of self-consciousness or fear of embarrassment.

Adam believes his outgoing personality was largely influenced by moving four times because his dad changed jobs. He’s moved from Kansas, to Minnesota, to Connecticut, and then to Delaware.

“I kind of had to learn to be outgoing to make friends,” says the junior journalism major.

Not all the moves were smooth ones. He remembers that leaving Connecticut was particularly rough.

“I had a lot of close friends there,” Adam says, “as well as a serious relationship, and a band I’d been in for three years.”

It was his guitar playing and singing, he says, that helped him adjust to new places and new people.

“I put a lot of my personality into my music — there’s no point in playing if you aren’t going to throw yourself into it,” he says.

And because his music is so personal, he has found it opens doors for him.

“When I play, I just put myself out there with my music,” he says. “And people begin to flock to me.”

In the end, it’s been a combination of his personality and his music that has made him such a popular and successful guy. And that – the musical, friendly, outrageous, funny guy – is Adam Asher, plain and simple.

By Jena Levy

Growing up, Alex Honeysett was not a big traveler.

“The farthest my family and I have ever traveled was vacationing in Martha’s Vineyard every August,” she says.

Wanting to put a stamp in her empty passport, she spent her summer studying in Rome, Italy.

Everything about her trip appeared to be standard for study abroad. She was in Rome from the beginning of June through the beginning of August. Alex, a communication and journalism major from New Rochelle, N.Y. , took a screen writing class every day where “the teacher was an Italian hippie.”

She lived in an apartment with two other girls in a residential area called Monteverde, and traveled throughout Italy on weekends.

“The most insane part was being in Rome for the World Cup,” she says. “I was never a soccer fan, but it was pretty intense. People were wearing the Italian colors all week, driving around like maniacs with Italian flags waving from their windows.”

Sneaking onto a train after a weekend away really got Alex’s excitement going. She and her friends had just spent the weekend in Verona, and were rushing to make it back to Rome in time for a game. When they finally arrived, she says, the streets were filled with people and restaurants were mounting TVs outside.

“When the game went into overtime, I asked for a beer and no one would serve me until the game was over,” Alex says. “I waited for 20 minutes.”

“No one slept that night,” she says. When she returned to her apartment at 5 a.m., she could still hear the screaming and celebrating from the streets.

“The next couple of days, the city basically shut down so everyone could get over their hangovers,” Alex says.

Alex thought that immediately after college she would follow in her father’s footsteps. He works as an editor for “60 Minutes,” and she planned to pursue a career in television media as well.

After her adventures and experiences this summer, she decided she is not ready for a job. She wants to travel the world and see what else is out there after she graduates in May.

For Alex, this was not just a summer studying in Rome.

“It turned out to be the summer of a lifetime,” she says.

By Becky Polini

Maria Micchelli tosses back her chemically-straightened hair and takes a sip of coffee, her third cup of the day.

“Half of my day I watch ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ ” she says. “The other half I spend gazing out my window at Starbucks. I’m such a sad little coffee-drinker.”

A self-proclaimed Martha Stewart at heart, Maria says she would easily trade a career in journalism for a career in baking.

“Ideally, I’d like to own a deli/bakery/food place and when I wasn’t busy, I’d paint picture frames and sell them,” she says. “I feel like everything I want to do in life is very silly, 50s-housewife. But unless a giant check falls into my lap, I don’t think it’s going to happen.”

Born in Bloomfield, N.J., Maria says her creative interests were sparked by being an only child and having to fend for herself socially.

“I feel like being an only child really screws you up,” she says. “You don’t have that built-in group of other kids that you’d have with a sibling.”

Maria’s mother was unable to have more children after her birth.

“They tried everything,” she says. “I would definitely have more than one kid. If it wasn’t physically possible, I’d adopt.”

Maria says she sought company in her two cats, Dodger and Patch. She also began painting, writing and cooking to occupy her time growing up.

“I’m 100 percent Italian, so I can’t have a favorite food. I do love cheese, though,” she says. “And anything and everything having to do with pumpkins.”

Suddenly, Maria’s eyes light up.

“Do you want to get a pumpkin spice latte at Starbucks?” she says.

And with that, we’re off for cup number four.

By Dane Secor

The first thing you notice when you walk into Geoff Schoenberg’s living room is the rich smell of leather and a stack of polished rifles leaning against his couch. When you take a closer look, you might wonder why you notice gun belts, holsters and six-shooters.

Geoff spends his summers robbing banks.

Since he was 12 years old, Geoff has been working at Frontier Town, a Western theme park in Ocean City, Md.

While some weeks he might be enforcing the law, he said, his occupation in the Old West can vary. He still has his favorite role, though.

“I like being the outlaw because you get to be goofy,” Geoff said. “You get to interact in a more entertaining way.”

Geoff said his father helped spark his interest in the shows.

“I went to this place a lot as a kid,” he said. “When we were going like 15 times a summer, I decided I wanted to work there.”

Geoff worked his way up from helping out with paddle boats to bank hold-ups, shootouts, Can-Can acts and showdowns at the O.K. Corral.

“I like interacting with the audience,” he said. “I like making people laugh.”

The senior English major said he would like to be a screenwriter one day, and participating in the shows has helped his writing.

“I’m always looking to spark an emotion when I write, or get that laugh,” Geoff said. “The performance acting really helps that.”

Geoff’s occupation with the Wild West isn’t limited to acting in shows. He also spends time doing complicated leather work, which his father also introduced to him, he said. He makes the leather he wears during the show, which includes holsters and decorated belts.
Geoff said his work as a gunslinger could have an impact on his career choice.

“I think it might,” he said. “You never know where life’s going to take you.”

By Laura Lopez

Enjoying the simmering summer sun or a cool ocean breeze is a common pastime for many students during break. Not Mike LoRé , who was confined to playing cards with his family in their Seaside Park bungalow. It’s not that Mike doesn’t enjoy the beach. In fact, the beach is a great love of his — along with soccer, the sport that ruined his summer.

“Sports and the beach, both taken away this summer,” he says.

It was May. Before Mike could pack up his belongings and head home, he played in the last game of intramural soccer. The game that would “kill his summer,” he says.

Mike charged for the ball, the green grass passing under his cleats. Ready to kick “I planted my feet, and my body just kept going forward,” he says.

Losing his footing, he crashed into the field, tearing his ACL.

“It was very painful, physically and mentally,” Mike says.

Mike underwent surgery in July, followed by weeks of intensive physical therapy.

Being unable to walk was difficult for him, particularly after having always been active, especially in sports.

At first impression, seeing his long, slender legs, Mike says people are unaware he is an avid soccer player.

“You look at me, and I’m not that big, but I can hold my own out there, or at least I try to,” he says.

Instead of kicking a ball around or swimming in the ocean, he was stationed in a beach chair, leg propped up, crutches at his side.

Even with the restrictions, he’s taken away from summer an appreciation for family and the simple tasks he couldn’t perform.

“It was as if I took all that stuff for granted,” he says.

Now, entering his junior year, his injury healed and the dull summer behind him, Mike says he is ready to get back on the field and play the game he loves.

By Sarah Lipman

“Luna” doesn’t just mean “moon” to Joanna Wagner, a sophomore Spanish language major.

To her it has a much more significant meaning. At least five days a week, rain or shine, the Long Island native drives a half hour away to a barn where her “best and most loyal friend,” Luna, a 12-year-old bay thoroughbred mare, resides since Joanna’s start at the university.

Luna, or Lulu, as Joanna sometimes refers to her, was a gift from her father in late 2000.

“He had cancer and thought he was dying, and he wanted to leave me with something special,” she says.

Her trainer helped them find a horse, which she then test-rode for two weeks, and fell in love with.

“I ended up with Luna, and my dad recovering — he’s been in remissions for a few years now — so I was really blessed,” she says.

Joanna became interested in horses at a very young age, when her grandmother would take her to feed them near her home on Long Island, N.Y., she says. By the time she turned five, she was enrolled in both group and individual riding lessons and continued them until she was almost 11. In that time, she gained a lot of experience riding all different kinds of horses.

“My family and I leased a bunch of other horses for me to ride before I got Lulu, but none were nearly as special to me as she is,” Joanna says.

After she received Luna, Joanna worked for months to train her, without the help of a professional trainer.

“It took a lot of time, pain, work, and disappointment, but it the end, it really paid off,” she says.

Joanna and Luna have won many awards at horse shows and riding competitions together. In 2003, they placed third on Long Island for the Pre-Children’s Hunter Horse division. More recently, this past May, they again placed third, this time in the Adult Hunters division.

When it came time for Joanna to leave for college, she couldn’t bear to part with her closest friend.

“I promised my parents I would ride her and take care of her just as well as I did at home,” she says.

The thought of leaving Luna at home while she went away to college and the idea staying home on Long Island for college both tore Joanna apart.

“I begged and begged and finally they gave in,” Joanna says. “We have such an incredible bond, she’ll nuzzle up to me when I call her name, and we just know each other so well…it was too hard for my parents to say no.”

By Lori Goldson

“My mother guilt-tripped me into moving here,” Ashley Durán says of Delaware. “She told me I would have my own space, and it would be good for me to be near the family.”

Two years ago, no one could have told the 21-year-old English major she would spend her junior year of college at the university.

Alas, here she is, two years later residing with her Colombian father, Puerto Rican mother, 18-year-old sister, Tiffany, and 13-year-old brother, Rocky.

“My entire family had to relocate because of my father’s job,” she says. “I was going to stay in North Carolina, but I am close to my family. So, I decided to move with them.”

Ashley’s father, the head of quality assurance for AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, moved Ashley and her mother, now a teaching assistant for Wilmington Christian Academy, to Wake Forest, N.C., from New Brunswick, N.J., when Ashley was only five.

“My parents both went to Rutgers University together,” Ashley says. “They’ve been married for 24 years.”

Although her family makes trips back to New Jersey, Ashley says she vaguely remembers her childhood in N.J.

“I lived in North Carolina for 14 years,” she says. “I had my first kiss in eighth grade, and was on the prom court when I was a senior.”

Ashley says her parents we and still are very strict, but she had a typical upbringing.

“My family went to Myrtle Beach every summer, and holidays were always great because I love being around family,” she says. “After being here, I miss it more because people were friendlier and just nicer to be around. Here, if you speak to your neighbors, they look at you like, ‘Who are you?’ ”

At the time, Ashley just didn’t seem to appreciate the simplicity of life in the South.

“I guess I did take it for granted,” she says. “I do have family in Jersey, but North Carolina was definitely my favorite place to live. It will always be home.”