Seth Mates
My name is Seth Mates. I graduated in 2000, and right now I'm an assistant news editor at Newsday down on Long Island.
I graduated only six years ago, and I have actually had some amazing opportunities thanks to my time at Binghamton. I graduated and I went to be a writer at World Wrestling Entertainment. I moved to California, worked in entertainment, got into a newspaper business, and now I'm working for I think it's the ninth-biggest paper in the country. I got my formal education at Binghamton but my real education at Pipe Dream, at WHRW, at BTV, all right here on campus. I learned more from late nights at WHRW over night shifts, mornings until 3 a.m. at Pipe Dream. I learned so much there that is invaluable to me for my day-to-day work, and I'm very fortunate.
The single most important thing I think I learned at Binghamton was anything is possible. I mean, when I came here there was no Bearcat. There were 35 people attending basketball games over at the East Gym. I said, "Well we can make something with this." You know my work at Pipe Dream and broadcasting games at WHRW and students got together and made it all possible. We made it happen and I would like to think without WHRW, without Pipe Dream, a lot of the students' institutions, there wouldn't be 4,000 people going to basketball games right now, that people wouldn't care about the Bearcat. You know, anything is possible when students get together, when they take their personalities, what they each bring to the table. There are so many opportunities on this campus. It's incredible. You just have to be able to find them. I knew the second I came here, when I was still in high school, the second I stepped foot on the campus-it was a rainy day, it was cloudy and it was absolutely disgusting outside-I knew I would spend my four years here.
My fondest memory at Binghamton was Feb. 3 and 4, 1999. Myself and three other people at the radio station, WHRW, did a 24-hour radio turn all over campus. Basketball game down at the West Gym. We promoted the last ever show at what used to be the Campus Pub. We raised lot of money for WHRW. It was a great bonding experience. You spend 24 hours with someone. I mean those are the college memories that you remember. One of the people we did the radio-thon with was Paul J. Battaglia '00, who was tragically killed on Sept. 11. So when I think back to my time at Binghamton, I think that memory is probably the one that stands out for so many reasons. Just having that time and that opportunity. It's one of those things I will never forget.
