FAST TRACKAlums on the move

Fear NotBy Joan Lynch

WHEN SHE ADDRESSED her fellow class-mates at Northeastern’s Commencement in May, Christie Civetta, SSH’15, said she no longer fears the unknown.

Although she had never been abroad by her-self, the human services major accepted her first co-op 7,800 miles away in Cape Town, South Africa, where she would be counseling survivors of rape and domestic violence and using sports as a tool for drug rehabilitation.

She worried about her qualifications to help the survivors but worked through her fear, which gave her the courage and confidence to accept many other challenges while at Northeastern.

“I believe that the core of a Northeastern education lies in pushing all of us to challenge ourselves through risk and experience, ulti-mately providing each student with their unique story—and for this, I am eternally grateful.”

She leaves Northeastern with a clear direction in life: helping individuals

turn traumatic events into a form of self-empowerment. As a gradu-ate student at the University of Bristol in England this fall, she plans to continue work she started at Northeastern: using exercise therapy to treat war veterans suffering from post-

traumatic stress disorder.

CHRISTIE, QUICKLYShe met her two best friends on a co-op in South Africa.

She’s a crazy good cook. Best concoction: tortellini pie (“Look it up,” she says.)

She’s a powerlifter on the Northeastern team, which took sec-ond place in the na-tional competition.

She ran a marathon on the Great Wall of China to raise money for the Boston Marathon bombing victims.

BYRON HURT, AS’93, is an award-winning triple threat—a writer, director, and producer of six documentaries that have tar-

geted controversial aspects of black cul-ture, from soul food health problems to troublesome views of masculinity, while also demanding justice for blacks and vic-tims of sexual violence.

In Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes (2006), for instance, Hurt challenged the male posturing and misogyny celebrated in hip-hop music. Rather than facing blowback from the black community, the movie was widely embraced.

“It was a film whose time had come,” says Hurt.

A Powerful Lens By Joan Lynch

Photo: M

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By Magdalena Hernandez

IT TURNS OUT that the Magic Kingdom has as much to do with creating magic onstage as it does with sophisticated engineering behind the scenes. Kevin Jimenez, E’17, should know; he did his most recent co-op at Walt Disney World Resort.

The civil engineering major enjoyed a vantage point few people ever have: He worked side by side with professionals who engineer the magic behind that seamless facade.

His co-op focused on a nuts-and-bolts aspect of engineering: monitoring the safety of employees as they maintain existing attrac-tions and facilities. As an intern, he also had access to the complex engineering that goes into the “back of the house” operation of famous attractions, including Star Tours, the famous Star Wars-themed flight-simulation attraction at Hollywood Studios.

“It’s eye-opening when you see the backstage here,” he says. “Most engineering is purely about functionality, but it goes far beyond that to create magical guest experiences.”

“Many other theme parks are seasonal and have a block of time every year when they close to update their facilities,” says Jimenez. “But Disney is open 365 days a year, often with extended hours, and that means extra planning is needed for ‘engineering the magic.’”

Just because he’s privy to the inner workings of Disney doesn’t mean he was immune to its magic. He recalls walking the park with his boss when Minnie and Mickey walked by. “I struggled to stay professional. I wanted to ask for their autographs.”

KEEPING THE MAGIC ALIVEAn engineering co-op at the happiest place on earth

CONTINUED

Fall 2015 | NORTHEASTERN MAGAZINE 17

northeastern.edu/admissionsIN THE CLASSROOM