Kyle Crocco, The Thinker, outside the Student Resource Building. "My father was a psychiatrist, which people say explains a lot about my behavior and personality," Kyle says. Credit: Patricia Marroquin
The GradPost’s new Funding Peer, Kyle Crocco, is a man of few words. This Education Ph.D. student thinks lives can be summed up succinctly. So he took our Graduate Student in the Spotlight questions and threw them out the window, so to speak. He categorized and rewrote the questions, then answered them in less than five minutes. He calls this “The Quick Graduate Student Interview.” Here, now, are the fast facts about Kyle Crocco.
BASICS:
Name?
Kyle Crocco, age 46
Year in grad school?
Second-year Ph.D.
Discipline/emphasis?
Education (Writing Studies)
Expected graduation date?
June 2015, if all goes well.
What other degrees do you have?
BA History (Penn State); BA French, MA Foreign Language & Pedagogy (University of Delaware)
BACKGROUND:
Where did you grow up?
Southeastern Pennsylvania near the border of Delaware.
What is the one thing people would find most interesting about your family, childhood, upbringing and/or early education?
My father was a psychiatrist, which people say explains a lot about my behavior and personality.
What is the one thing people would be most surprised to know about you? (Or to put it another way, what is one thing that most people don’t know about you?)
Kyle Crocco performs during an open mic night at Marquee on State Street in downtown Santa Barbara.I write original rock songs, play guitar, sing, and perform at open mics in Santa Barbara.
RESEARCH:
How would you describe your research in one sentence?
The differences in the use of visual and textual rhetoric when portraying a university's academic identity in their domestic and international viewbooks.
GRAD LIFE:
What is the single most important thing you wish you had known before you started grad school?
How to find funding, which may explain why I’m the Funding Peer now.
SOCIAL:
What is your favorite thing to do to relax? (a hobby, pastime, favorite place to go, favorite thing to do).
Have a good beer or coffee with friends in downtown Santa Barbara.
INFLUENCES:
What is your biggest accomplishment in life and why?
Publishing two humorous fantasy novels in my 20s: “Heroes, Inc.” and “Heroes Wanted.” Now I realize how difficult that was since I have not been able to publish any novels since that time.
What one event had the biggest impact or influence on you and helped shape who you are today?
Learning the French language changed my career path from writing into academics, opened my eyes to multicultural viewpoints, got me to travel the world, and showed me that you can accomplish anything in life if you work hard enough and are passionate about it.
FUTURE:
What is the one thing you hope to be doing five or 10 years out of graduate school?
Being tenured, but still writing, playing, and performing music.
Funding Peer Kyle Crocco thinks people don't want to spend a lot of time reading about other people. Hence, this "Quick Graduate Student Interview." Credit: Patricia Marroquin