Travis Nykaza, a Scranton native, began his work here in June of 2011, just days after graduating from Scranton Preparatory School. He was eager to begin working and got a good head start working with us all summer before his freshman year began. He has faithfully continued his tradition of working every summer since then. Those summers included several “shifting” projects in the stacks that most student workers just hear about later. Of course he has put in many hours during the Academic years as well.
Although his family is just across town, he lives on campus in order to get the full college experience. However, having his family nearby allows him to visit his parents and his beloved cat “Snowball” often enough. In his spare time he enjoys chess, writing, watching movies and reading. Some of his favorite movies are Interstellar, Twilight Samurai and Spirited Away to name a few. His favorite books are A Song of Ice and Fire Series, Dune, Ender’s Game Series and Shogun.
The thing he loves most about working in the Weinberg Library is that he gets to interact with people from every level of The University community. Working in the Library has helped him to learn more about the many services the Library has to offer. His advice to other students is to explore the Library’s web pages and the building itself.
Travis is majoring in Education with a concentration in English. After his 2015 graduation, he hopes to find a job teaching at the Middle School level. He enjoys the classroom experience so far and loves to tell the tales of interacting with the young people he meets. This semester may be his last time working with us. He will spend spring 2015 student-teaching. We’ll miss him and look forward to the occasional visits and stories of student teaching. Thank you Travis and good luck!