As the new academic year approaches at Stetson University, there are nearly 40,000 alumni spread across the United States and 82 other countries around the world. Many of them are leading lives of significance, however they define it.

In a random and periodic look at alumni achievement at Stetson, here are three snapshot examples.

Shakespearean Adventure

“To be, or not to be: that is the question,” wrote William Shakespeare. Douglas M. Lanier ’77 has decided “to be.”

Lanier, a professor of English and director of the University of New Hampshire London Program, has received the Fulbright-Global Shakespeare Centre Distinguished Chair Award. The award enables him to study, lecture and research at Queen Mary University of London as well as the University of Warwick. He begins the adventure Sept. 1.

As a participant in one of the most prestigious and selective scholarship programs worldwide, Lanier will work on a book about screen adaptations of Othello from across the globe. He will also teach classes at QMUL and the University of Warwick.

“I hope this work will broaden my perspective on Shakespeare’s extraordinary cultural reach and provide me with material to enrich my classes and research for years to come,” he said.

Digital Dream

Bart DiNardo ’10 is giving Home Team Sports another meaning. That’s the name of his employer, but it also describes his employment. A lifelong sports fan while growing up in Rye, N.Y., DiNardo now is a senior research analyst for Fox Sports in New York City, not far from his hometown.

“This is a dream job for me, as I’ve always wanted to work in television, with a specific interest in sports,” says DiNardo, who joined the company earlier this year to oversee digital/linear television research and insights relevant to Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association and National Hockey League properties across the Fox Sports Regional Sports Networks.

Home Team Sports is a sales unit of Fox Sports that offers advertisers “build-your-own,” scalable branding opportunities for TV, mobile and digital media sponsorship of every MLB, NBA and NHL home team nationwide — reaching 94 million-plus homes with its platforms.

Sorority Surprise

For Viviana Vasiu ’16, year one at Stetson University College of Law was “incredibly challenging as everyone and every book says.” Yet, it ended quite well.

Vasiu finished in the top of her class, made the Law Review, received an award for the best exam in her 1L class for Constitutional Law (Highest Grade Designation, also called at other schools a Book Award), and received two research assistant positions offers from two top Stetson professors. In addition, she was published in an international conference book, with a short article combining both law and literature (to make the most of her previous English major and current law education).

Then her dream happened, when surprise news arrived from the national Grand Council of the Panhellenic sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta (“Theta”), that she was unanimously extended a bid to become a sister — even after graduating college.

While Greek Life makes very few exceptions in this area, “unique circumstances and blessings” resulted in Vasiu finally becoming a sorority sister.

“I wanted to be a sister in this sorority for a long time, as their values and everything perfectly fit with me, but Stetson didn’t have a chapter until this year,” she explained.

More good news, Vasiu adds: Because of new-member orientation and initiation, among other activities, she will be on the DeLand campus more often in the fall.

“I always tried to make the most of being a student at Stetson, from academics to leadership to athletics,” she concludes, “and this truly tops it off in a way I didn’t think was possible again.”

– Michael Candelaria