On Monday afternoon, Binghamton University alumnus Dan Herman held a video conference with students to share his experiences as a high school English teacher and reminisce on his days as a college student.

Herman’s video conference was a part of the “Cool Connections, Hot Alumni” virtual speaker series for the 2014-15 academic year, a collaboration between the Alumni Association and the Fleishman Center for Career and Professional Development to connect BU students with alumni from different fields.

Herman graduated from BU in 2006 with a dual bachelor’s degree in political science and English. He received his master’s degree from Columbia University Teachers College, and currently teaches English at Bayside High School in Queens, New York.

Herman said that he started college with the intention of becoming a lawyer, but by his sophomore year had decided to pursue a degree in education because of his experiences at BU.

“I really don’t think I would be the person that I am today if it weren’t for being an RA, a [Teaching Assistant], a hall president, an area-wide president for College-in-the-Woods [and] a tour guide,” Herman said. “All these things culminated to me understanding that I need to work with people and led me into wanting to go into the field of education. I felt like I’d be able to help people more in that field than in others.”

Through his experience as a teacher, Herman said he realized that teaching provides not only the opportunity to educate students, but also the ability to mentor and support students through difficult times.

“I’ve had students that became pregnant halfway through the year that were freshman, that have been abused, every conceivable thing,” he said. “So, there’s a lot of time you have to sacrifice outside of class. There are meetings that you have to have, all sorts of work that you have to do.”

Herman said that his hardest challenge as a teacher was being able to motivate older high school students who were already disinterested in academics.

“I’m at what’s considered to be a fairly good school in New York City and we still have a lot of issues with students coming to high school unprepared, or students not having the academic mentality or understanding the value of academics in life,” Herman said. “Dealing with that in such a late stage in a student’s life is very difficult.”

Herman also offered advice to students pursuing a career in education based on his own experience in academic studies.

“My personal recommendation is to really focus on the content,” he said. “Try to branch out and take more classes in your major that may be disciplines you could eventually teach. And worry about the whole teaching thing when you get to grad school.”

Sharon Lau, a junior double-majoring in political science and English, said that she gained a better perspective from listening to Herman.

“I’m iffy about what to do in the future, so I wanted to get his intake on how he got into teaching and if that might be something for me, “ Lau said. “I really saw his passion in teaching and think I’m going to give it a try.”

Mandy Mazel, a senior majoring in psychology, said she was impressed by Herman’s openness to help current BU students.

“I realized that there are a lot of alumni out there that went to Binghamton that are looking to help,” Mazel said. “I never really went to alumni events before and it’s nice that he gave us his email and said we can observe him. It shows he really wants to help us.”

Herman concluded his presentation by reflecting on the teaching profession as a whole.

“Even though there are a whole lot of challenges to teaching and it’s a very difficult profession, I know that I’m in the right place,” he said. “I’m trying to do the best work possible.”