In this episode, Neil O’Sullivan looks back at his time at Masters before leaving the community.

Podcast Credits:

• Music by Max Peters
• Editing by Ellie Yang

Transcript:

Everyone has a story. The stranger you sit by in the subway, the figure in the office window, and all the others you have grown to overlook. This podcast aims to highlight the stories in the Masters communities that although important, are often unnoticed. From security guards to maintenance staff, these are the people who play a big role in making Masters what it is, and these are their stories. 

Neil O’Sullivan started working at Masters in 2016. This year will mark his 6th and final year at Masters. During his time here, Mr. O’Sullivan has helped with the technology department and is currently the junior network admin, helping to ensure a stable network across campus.

Though his current career is focused on technology and network, Mr. O’sullivan was a special education teacher when he first started working. 

I did that for about seven, eight years. Then I spent some time transitioning from teaching to getting some IT certifications, and found the job at The Masters School. That was a great bridge for me from a familiar environment to get into it. This is, I would say more akin to. It’s closer to a college experience, even to what I experienced going to a public school. Um, whereas the special ed is more smaller quantities or, you know, the class sizes are smaller. They’re, it’s, it’s more, um, individualized. Um, and I guess it would be a slower pace, differentiation and scaffolding and.

All the teaching techniques that kind of come together to try to reach as many students who, you know, have a variety of needs and skills. 

There’s a lot more freedom around here. You know, like having a dining hall, having dorms, that kind of side of life that, you know, it wouldn’t be part of a normal experience, particularly in the special ed environment.

Mr. O’Sullivan has never had a real degree in IT, he majored in special education and psychology in college. He said that he had always been that tech kid in high school who built his own computers, and just figured out this area on his own from there.

I always wanted to teach a class that prepared students to handle systems, the computer, the internet, all that kind of a thing, and give them a full scope of how to protect themselves, how to navigate research. 

These days everything’s so commercialized your data is like packaged up and sold all over the place. And you know, a lot of people don’t realize just how much of themselves they’re giving away when they sign up for Twitter, so to speak or any social media.

Mr. O’Sullivan will be working at a IT service provider in Valhalla, New York next year. He said that he is grateful for the experience his time at Masters has given him and for the community he has been able to find.

I’ve never, never had a team, had a group of people that you can sort of be in the trenches alongside and, you know, also outside have, you know, a friendship with, so it’s been, um, that, that stands out, I think the most to me. 

Um, there was an instance, not too long ago. Um, where, uh, we had trouble with the network across campus. And that took lots of long hours of research and kind of looking in and digging through logs and everything and coming out the other side and being able to find that solution for me was just a big moment. I’ve also been in that crunch time where, you know, class was interrupted and, you know, teachers can’t access the internet and having that pressure of everyone, basically the whole place is at a standstill and everyone everything’s waiting.

So it was all hands trying to determine everything now, what was going wrong and, um, you know, kind of coming out the other side of those, um, it’s just like that feeling of success and relief as well. That it’s pretty incredible. 

We have things within the department that are kind of ongoing every day. That sort of sense of, “oh no, not again”. Um, but you know, ultimately my biggest thing coming out of this is being adaptable and flexible. Those two things have saved me so many times throughout just being able to, to kind of be persistent, but also be able to work in different situations.

Kind of take a new approach to every, uh, every problem or issue that comes up. 

It’s been a wonderful six years and I’m moving on with a lot of fond memories and I’ve met some great people and, uh, Nothing, but love.

There are 955 members at Masters, and behind each number is a story. Together they make up the Masters Community, our community.