How Northeastern University Teaches the Remarkable Power of Reinvention

In my senior year, Ms. Stewart, unaffectionately known as “Stewie” through the halls of Preston High School, suggested that I look into Northeastern. I’d never heard of it, but when I briefly researched, I saw it was in Boston which fit my almost only criteria for being “not too close and not too far” from home. Two girls from Preston were studying at NU at the time, both Black - and I couldn’t help but wonder if that’s why it was suggested to me. The point is, it wasn’t on my radar - “reach” or dream schools like Brown, Penn, and Emory were. Northeastern was what they called a “target” school at the time; it was good enough to be on the U.S. News and World Report Best National University ranking list, although not as high as my dreams, had some benefit called a “co-op” program (6-month full-time internships where studies paused for real-life experience) and I was more than likely to get in with my grades and SAT scores. I apathetically submitted my application. 

By the time I was crawling toward graduation in 2015, the best friends I’d made and I looked around at the freshman and knew without a shadow of a doubt that if we had applied at the same time as them, we would have NEVER received acceptance letters. Northeastern, within a few short years, had made a NAME for itself. Rising an impossible 20+ points in rank from 69th in 2011 to 42nd in 2015, up from 96th in 2008, Northeastern was now in conversations among Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, UC Irvine and of course, Boston University. When we applied the acceptance rate was 34.5% and had since dramatically dropped to 18.1%, with applications rising to 50,000.  The school that I nonchalantly applied to was suddenly a dream school to thousands of kids across the world - including myself, but luckily I was already there and on my way out. 

Rankings are important to universities because they grant the gift of prestige. They are determined by graduation rates, academic reputation, faculty resources, student selectivity, alumni giving and more. Northeastern, which was once known as a local nighttime commuter school, had grown to host one of the largest group of international students in the country representing 145 nations, became a research beast institution and made boundless deep and lasting connections between employers and students. Northeastern, in its demonstration of determination, and just from my own experience there time and time again, has taught me the undeniable power of reinvention. 

Reinvention - the action or process through which something is changed so much that it appears to be entirely new. 

When I applied to Northeastern, the first time, it was as a neuroscience major. Less than shortly after accepting did I realize I wanted to switch to business. A dramatic switch, from one college within the university to another, that was made effortless through advisors who advocated for the idea of it being okay to change your mind and chart a different course. When I applied to Northeastern again, I had gone to cosmetology school, written two books, done lots of marketing and never worked a “real” job (other than that first co-op that didn’t go so well), and they accepted and welcomed me into a Corporate Communications program because I’d written my reinvention story well. Allowing me, again, to continue carving my own story by designing my focus when none of the already created concentrations fit my goals. 

With Northeastern as the model for innovation, recreation and transformation, the institution allowed me to view myself as a whole person - with options to explore, ideas to uncover and a voice to be heard. College, by itself, anywhere in the world, provides the opportunity to learn about yourself more than all the coursework that they’ll feed you. It’s the chance to solidify, change, adapt to, consider and evaluate your mark on the earth. Northeastern made each of these steps easy, even if I had to make them several times.  The opportunity to create a co-op at a new blow out bar doing marketing and supervising, the flexibility to double concentrate in management and marketing and minor but still finish in less than 5 years, the chance to take courses in Cuba, London, India, or anywhere (I never did that and I’m still mad) and the adventure to return and take seriously the networking, experiential learning, mentorships, leadership, career development and competitions are invaluable. 

Hindsight is 20/20 and it’s easy to look back and say I could have done more and I should have done more - made more friends, took more trips, talked to more professors, accepted more adventures, did the extra co-op, entered the competition, applied for the society, wrote the speech, ran for the office, anything more. Some people take every opportunity that flashes their way and those are the people I admire and who perplex me. But, if Northeastern taught me anything, it’s taught me that when an opportunity comes back around, take it! 

In undergrad, there was a buzz on campus around something called RISE (the Research, Innovation, Scholarship and Entrepreneurial Expo). I’d see signs for it and get emails about not missing the chance to sign up, but I didn’t consider myself qualified for a seemingly techie competition like that.  Also, I never entered things I knew I couldn’t win. Sometimes I put that pride down, sometimes I still don’t. Late last year for my masters program, I took a cultural communications lab where my final project was an Equity and Inclusion in Storytelling project focused on Preston High School. My professor insisted that I submit it to RISE, in the Humanities and Arts or Social Sciences category, which I’d never imagined were possible groups for an “innovation” competition. I eagerly submitted my application. 

I didn’t win, but I did. I lived through a full circle moment. I had the courage to compete. I had the skill to confidently present. I had the wisdom to feel that even if I didn’t win, I shared something I was passionate about. I took a chance. That’s reinvention. 

Thanks NU! If you did it, I can do it. And if I can do it, YOU can too. 

Dominique Middleton
Double Husky July ‘21
Master of Corporate & Organizational Communications. That’s still on period.