Stuyvesant in Y2K: A Glimpse Through Adam Dick’s Eyes

Name: Adam Dick

Age: 40 

Date of Birth: May 6, 1983

Graduation Year: 2001

Occupation: Manager of Digital Platforms at John F. Kennedy Airport

Q&A

1. What were Stuyvesant students’ sentiments on the transition to a new century? 

I remember that people didn’t know what to call the generation. Millennial, that term didn’t exist, and they were hunting around because we [had before us] Gen X. There was not a clear understanding of what we were going to be called as a generation.

1. How did your time abroad help you grow as a person?

I think you [get] a lot of perspectives about what people are learning when they’re growing up. Just like in New York, it’s multicultural. Going into some place, or tossing yourself in, really shatters a lot of things that you only get by reading the internet or reading books. Being [in Germany] was totally different [...] Our sense of geography changed, just why things are the way that they are in the world. We got a lot of perspectives about what people are learning when they’re growing up. Studying internationally totally changed my perspective on a lot of different things.

1. How did you overcome the challenges of the 2008 economic crash when searching for a job? 

I had a schedule [for] what my job would look like [and] where I would search for jobs. We think we take it for granted, probably now that we have Google and LinkedIn and all these kinds of tools. This was 15 years ago. A lot of that stuff was in its infancy; Facebook was three years old. So, I had to be a lot more organic with reaching out to people in [my] network. I recall going through all the engineering companies in New York; there was a list on the American Council of Engineering Companies. And I basically just went A to Z. I got hired by W. It wasn’t completely [bad].

PROFILE

The 2000s was a decade filled with momentous and defining events. The rare transition to a new millennium, the 2008 economic recession that drastically affected the lives of millions, and thousands of more events forever altered the lives of Americans. Consequently, the stories that emerge are filled with love, appreciation, reflection, fear, and hope. One of these stories is located right here in New York City and involves a place that many of us are familiar with: Stuyvesant High School.

 Adam Dick graduated from Stuyvesant in 2001, an especially eventful year. While at Stuyvesant, he described himself as an “average student in the middle of the pack.” However, Dick was far from average outside of the classroom, where he involved himself in a variety of extracurriculars. He was the president of the table tennis club, a part of the Seekers (Stuyvesant’s Christian group), a member of ARISTA, and a dancer on the hip hop team for SING! in his junior and senior years. Dick’s experience in SING! was especially memorable, considering the juniors had won the show for the first time in a while, a joyful flip of the script that still occasionally occurs during SING!. “There was an every seven-year thing where the juniors would beat the seniors; we were able to do it my year. Everyone was super excited after we got there,” Dick recounted. 

Another memory that Dick humorously recounted was the senior tradition of assassins; however, it was dubbed “water flower” at the time for security reasons. Just like how the game operates today, students were given the name of another student, who they would have to try and tag while still going through their typical school schedule. Sadly, Dick wasn’t able to make it far through the game as he was unluckily tagged during the first period on the first day of the game. “I had class on the 10th floor on the first day. And I remember Eric Broder [the student who tagged him] or somebody else [got] me and literally told their boyfriend or girlfriend where my class was, and then got me right in the stairs. And so I was out,” Dick narrated. Despite this setback, he still enjoyed the rest of his senior year activities and traditions, even partaking in the now-discontinued senior trip to Cancún, Mexico. 

When further reflecting on Stuyvesant’s impact on his life, Dick reiterated his appreciation for the “very good foundation” that the school had provided, especially during his transition from high school to college. Like many other Stuyvesant students and alumni, Dick remarked that the stressful and rigorous high school experience resulted in a closer community of students and eventually became all worth it in the end. “We pushed each other, but we were also in it together,” he noted. 

After Stuyvesant, Dick attended The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor as an engineering major. Residing in a college town proved to be drastically different from the urban life he had been used to in New York City, especially since he’d grown up in Chinatown. “That whole experience, people driving cars as an 18-year-old, is normal in Michigan,” Dick expressed. Despite this transition, Dick believed the college to be on par with Stuyvesant in terms of rigor, especially surprising when considering the difficulty of the engineering major. His pursuit of engineering caused him to pull frequent all-nighters to complete assignments and study for exams. “I definitely had all-nighters and lots of courses and work that needed very specific answers; we did lots of math, tests, and experiments,” Dick described. This academic rigor only grew when Dick took a step outside of his comfort zone and decided to attend graduate school abroad at the Technische Universität München, or the Technical University of Munich in Germany.

While the transition from New York City to Ann Arbor was already unnatural for Dick, the change from the United States to Germany proved to be even more unexpected. When he was at the University of Michigan, Dick had some friends from Stuyvesant, whereas at graduate school in Germany, he was much more alone in his endeavors. Despite the challenges associated with adjusting to a new language, culture, and education system, he immensely enjoyed his German education, as it deeply broadened his perspective outside the American life he had been so accustomed to. “We learned a lot about different cultures and different foods. Our sense of geography changed, just why things are the way that they are in the world. I think we got a lot of perspectives about what people are learning when they’re growing up,” Dick reminisced. 

Once again, Dick majored in engineering, except this time, he had to get used to the new grading system. “It was completely different because you had homework and all these things that you needed to do, but 100 percent of your grade, for the most part, was based on a final exam [...], and portions of the class would typically just fail,” he recalled. However, no matter the academic barriers, Dick remembered his study abroad experience as a joyful endeavor that opened his eyes to the various cultures, geographies, and lives outside of the New York City life that many of us are familiar with. 

After graduating from university, Dick pursued a career in engineering before focusing on digital management, where he currently works at JFK International Airport managing digital signage systems. His job is essential in helping travelers arrive efficiently at their destinations every day, as these signage systems display flight information and conduct announcements regarding any changes. Dick’s profound expertise in engineering has led to his involvement in numerous industries, some of which include defense, transportation, and e-commerce. Uniquely, as an engineering consultant, he advised the U.S. Department of Defense and state governments in vulnerability assessment and hazard mitigation.

However, the experience for Dick wasn’t always acclaimed. His initial job-hunting experience right after coming back to the United States coincided with the infamous 2008 economic crash that left millions of Americans jobless and homeless, which proved consequential to Dick. “Looking for a job definitely took me nine months at that point because the market basically completely imploded,” he said. 

Furthermore, job hunting proved to be especially difficult because of the time Dick spent studying abroad; he recalled, “I didn’t have a network to actually [search for a job].” Eventually, though, Dick was able to find a job after tediously searching through an alphabetical list of all the engineering companies in New York and was finally hired by a company.

Overall, Dick’s life during and after Stuyvesant epitomized his and the school’s trailblazing nature, from being the first junior class to beat the seniors in SING! in seven years to going international and learning German. Through the stress of applying to college and, eight years later, applying for a job, he recommends current and future Stuyvesant students to be in the moment. “Put yourself out there so that you can find yourself,” Dick advised. Following the interview, Dick spent time with his old Stuyvesant classmates to watch the New York City Marathon, demonstrating the lifelong influence that Stuyesant will forever leave on our lives even after we graduate.