Daniel Hong’s Stuyvesant Journey Amidst 9/11

Name: Daniel Hong

Age: 36

Date of Birth: 12/31/1983

Graduation Year: 2005

Occupation: Northwell Health FlexStaff Team Lead 

Daniel Hong’s (‘05) first-year Stuyvesant experience was like no other. On his fifth day of high school, the tragedy of the September 11 terrorist attacks unfolded, and Stuyvesant was a close spectator. In the aftermath of the attack, some students, including Hong, temporarily relocated to Brooklyn Technical High School. During his high school career, Hong was actively involved in various extracurriculars. He was a part of the Seekers Christian Fellowship and monitored the Biology department: “That was definitely cool as far as getting to know all the teachers at the department and all the faculty there,” Hong said. After Stuyvesant, Hong attended Williams College. He majored in Psychology and Asian Studies with a full-ride scholarship and graduated in 2009. After Williams, he worked at a financial services company until 2012. Since then, he has worked for Northwell Health.

Hong worked in the Talent Acquisition Department at Northwell Health from 2012 to the beginning of 2022. After that, he transitioned to Northwell’s internal staffing agency, FlexStaff, which manages short- and long-term hires. Hong specializes in recruiting and onboarding for advanced providers, including nurse practitioners and physician assistants. He guides potential hires through the pre-employment process by ensuring that their paperwork is accurate and up to date, that he has everything he needs for their file, and that their background check has no issues. Because the process for onboarding advanced providers is extremely comprehensive, the job can be very tedious and busy. However, his heavy workload at Stuyvesant taught him the time management skills he needs to succeed in his career: “Coming out of Stuy and Williams, I am a busybody, I’d say. I like to be kept on my toes, and I love putting my hands into different pots and working on different things, so I don’t mind,” Hong said. 

1. What was your day like on September 11, 2001?

9/11 happened on my fifth day of high school. Obviously, something like that—especially when this is so up close and personal—it’s something that sticks with you pretty much forever. [...] I think just that whole day was a general whirlwind. I remember I was in English class on the 10th floor when it happened. I was sitting on the other end of the class, [away] from the windows, and then at 8:46 a.m., the first plane hit the tower. I heard a loud sound which sounded like thunder. My teacher didn’t know what was going on, as well, because she was facing the class. We heard the sound, and we all wondered what was going on. Someone looked out the window and said the World Trade Center was on fire, and then from there, things just started unfolding very quickly. Then the second plane hit, and then the principal came on the loudspeaker and told everyone what was happening. We all just cut our classes at that point, or we could be in homeroom. Before we knew it, we were on our way out the door, evacuating the school and trying to make our way as far uptown as possible. It was a very eventful day, as far as doing a lot of walking around and running and trying to get to a place of safety as quickly as possible. There was a whole throng of people in the street, and I don’t think anyone really knew, in the greater picture, what was going on. Other than the World Trade Center being on fire for reasons that may not have been clear to us at that time, obviously, we didn’t know that it was an orchestrated thing. We couldn’t wrap our heads around that at that point. We were clouded with uncertainty and frightened apprehension. I remember I was with a group of other students, and we waited a long time until the subways opened up again. As soon as the train started running, we just got into the first open car that we could see or that we could get into, and we did eventually make our way back to Queens, and we huddled in one of those prep centers in Queens for some amount of time, until we could get our parents on the phone and also wait for the buses to start running again. So, it was a very memorable, eventful day [...] trying to get ourselves out of a tough situation and make do in light of all the extenuating circumstances that were going on.

2. After the 9/11 attacks, Stuy students temporarily went to Brooklyn Tech. What was your time at Brooklyn Tech like?

There was obviously an interesting aftermath from the incident [with] Stuy being so close to Ground Zero. First of all, in the immediate aftermath, the building change was out of environmental concerns. It was not feasible for us to go back to the building, at least immediately. Also, Stuy was being used as a rehab center for the first responders who were working there. So, all the Stuy students had to share Brooklyn Tech’s building with the regular Brooklyn Tech students. Basically, the Brooklyn Tech students had their academic day for the first half of the day, then the Stuy students had their academic day right after that, and the schedule was condensed. I think each period was only 25 minutes long. It was obviously a very trying set of circumstances for everyone. The teachers had to squeeze as much instruction as they could in two-thirds of the time, and then I think with testing as well, we had to make do in light of the shorter periods. But the Brooklyn Tech students pretty much had their school day from 7:00 a.m. till 1:00 p.m., and then the Stuy students had their day from 1:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. So, not a typical school day at all. [...] I think we were there for about two months or something like that. [...] I live in Queens, and my mom actually accompanied me most of the time because she didn’t want me to make the trek on my own. So, we did take the 7 train from Flushing, and then we took the G train from Queens Plaza all the way to Fulton Street in Brooklyn, where the school is. I remember we would always get there around 12:30 p.m. And then there’s a McDonald’s right by Brooklyn Tech, so we would have a quick lunch there. And then I [would] go into the building at 1:00 p.m. to start my day, if you will.

3. How does your time at Stuyvesant compare to the rest of your life? 

Each chapter of your life is unique, and the earlier experiences help to build ports and set a foundation for your future experiences. [...] Just dwelling back on my time at Stuy, I think when you’re a high school student, you’re only in the moment, or you’re predominantly focusing on your studies and just trying to do the best you can in your classes. I mean, I think that’s pretty much your primary mindset, so it’s hard to think about what the future or what the time after Stuy might look [like]; it’s basically pointless to even think that far, but I would say that, at this point in my life, my time at Stuy was definitely foundational and very influential in a positive way towards getting me to where I am today. Obviously, my time and my success at Stuy allowed me to matriculate to a very good college, a very reputable high-level institution at Williams, and then the study habits I developed at Stuy allowed me to transition into college and college life fairly smoothly. There were some adjustments I had to make because studying for college exams—just a heads up—is very different than studying for Stuy tests. The good habits I developed at Stuy were very conducive to me transitioning easily, or more or less smoothly, to Williams and college life and studying for college. My time at Williams allowed me to get into the field and the career that I am in today. So, I don’t know if it’s fair to compare my time at Stuy to other parts of my life because I think they sort of are symbiotic, and they play off of one another, and they really go hand in hand—at least, that’s how I see things. So I would say that my time at Stuy was eventful and unique in many ways, but it’s not fair for me to say whether it was more memorable or more positive or less so than other parts because I’m very grateful and appreciative of my time at Stuy and everything I went through.