{"id":9037,"date":"2014-09-29T11:35:29","date_gmt":"2014-09-29T15:35:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=9037"},"modified":"2014-09-29T11:49:23","modified_gmt":"2014-09-29T15:49:23","slug":"new-kid-on-campus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=9037","title":{"rendered":"New Kid on Campus"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Heller, a basketball-loving freshman, is a student in TCNJ\u2019s Career and Community Studies program\u2014a four-year certificate program for students with developmental disabilities. Heller recently was featured on The Good Men Project\u2019s website, which explores the forms \u201cgood men\u201d take in the 21st century. TCNJ Magazine<\/em> talked with Heller about his newfound independence, the importance of following your dreams and how he became an Internet celebrity.<\/span><\/p>\n

><\/span>\u00a0 For the next four years, I\u2019ll take classes and live a block from campus with two roommates from the CCS program and a house mentor. I\u2019m excited for new adventures, for learning new things and to have some independence.<\/p>\n

\"Heller_final\"
Photo by Wayne Hollendonner.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

><\/span>\u00a0 I have a lot of friends. Some of them have Down syndrome, some don\u2019t. But they\u2019re all pretty much the same. We have the same interests, we like to do the same things, and we love to have fun.<\/p>\n

><\/span>\u00a0\u00a0 My mom went to The College of New Jersey, so that\u2019s part of why I wanted to attend. We\u2019ll both be able to say we graduated from TCNJ.<\/p>\n

><\/span>\u00a0 Packer Hall is my favorite spot on campus because I love sports\u2014especially basketball. I managed the boys\u2019 basketball team at my high school, and those guys were like my brothers.<\/p>\n

>\u00a0 <\/span>I met both of my college roommates before move-in. One loves music, and I hope he can teach me to play the piano. The other managed his school\u2019s basketball team, so we\u2019re going to cheer at the TCNJ games together. Our house manager is a TCNJ student, too.<\/p>\n

><\/span>\u00a0\u00a0 I want people to know that I\u2019m a loving, caring, passionate guy who\u2019s excited to be going to college. People should always follow their dreams and listen to their hearts. That\u2019s what I\u2019m doing.<\/p>\n

><\/span>\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019ve traveled a lot. My favorite trip was to Los Angeles, California, where I got to meet my favorite band, Big Time Rush, and ask them questions. My interview with them is on YouTube, and 23,000 people have seen it.<\/p>\n

><\/span>\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019d tell other college students to make sure you work hard, stay focused and whatever you\u2019re going for, go for it. And also, stay cool.
\n\u2014 as told to Molly Petrilla<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David Heller, a freshman in TCNJ’s CCS Program, on his newfound independence, the importance of following your dreams and how he became an Internet celebrity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63,"featured_media":9142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fall-2014","category-on-campus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/63"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}