Dion Nickelson – Back to the Future

Music Education Major
Class of 2022
Pacific Singers: President
Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society: Student VP
Pacific Stocktones: Music Director

“It’s gonna feel different not being around people like you, but honestly really appreciate the difference, use this as an opportunity to diversify yourself and it will make you a better person, and there’s nothing that’s gonna stop you but you”
-Dion Nickelson

thank you so much for joining our

project for being part of it can you

start by introducing yourself a little

bit about your major

you know um

when you’re going to graduate what you

hope to do

yeah yeah

my name is dionne nicholson i am class

of 22 so i’m going to graduate this

coming may

my major is music education

the primary in voice

and yeah when i

graduate i’m hoping to

continue my education go to grad school

for

choral conducting

that’s what i’m hoping to do in the next

coming coming years and then eventually

i want to

you know go and teach college just like

like our professors here

that’s excellent so what do you think

about teaching at you know as a you know

local school

yeah um

i’ve been teaching

at local schools uh you know as part of

my training in music education it’s been

it’s been

a really great time

and i definitely know that teaching will

always be part of my life and i’ll be

doing it

for

probably the rest of my life

fantastic

let me ask you do

did you how did you hear about ulp

yeah i heard about it i was at boys

state if you don’t know what that is

it’s like a

uh a summer camp kind of deal where

you’re in like your junior year a high

school

your

history teacher might recommend like

three

boys from your school and you can go you

go to sac state

and there’s like a bunch of other just

like guys

uh there and it’s like a simulated

government kind of thing so like you

kind of build up your own

system of government and stuff and it’s

like it’s like a fun thing and like you

you learn a lot about you know how

politics and stuff work and uop

was there on like their college

like fair kind of thing and that was the

first time i ever heard of it if you

were university pacific and uh

i like was

instantly like like oh wow this is super

cool like i i went and talked to him

after i got onto like the emailing list

and then they sent me like the tiger

the

was it the tiger

thing whatever the link that you can

like just use to

apply and i was i was just

hooked since day one yeah

you know many african-americans or maybe

i shouldn’t say many there are some

african-americans who have never had the

opportunity in their family to go to

university college and is your family

are you the first generation or

wow yes

yeah how does that make your family feel

um my family has always been super proud

of me um

they’ve shown it a lot they’ve shown

that

you know they’re very very protective of

you know um

but yeah my

sisters

you know they

went through schools uh one of them went

to like a trade school

but and the first one has been like you

know keep

continuing and continuing the education

it’s

it’s a lot um

there’s like a lot of aspects to like

being a first generation other than just

like academically that like i

don’t really realize like financially

uh it’s like the first time they’ve had

to like you know save the money and do

all this stuff to get me through school

and it’s been

it’s been all right but yeah

did you feel pressure

or do you feel pressure you know and as

a you know the person in the family

you know that to succeed to make sure

that money’s been well worth being spent

that kind of classroom yeah

i think i always feel pressure

but not not necessarily a bad way you

know uh just as a black male i feel

pressure pressure to

be successful and to be

be always on it but that’s kind of just

like my

that like drives me you know my pressure

it’s like knowing that

i have people who are expecting me to

succeed

that’s so cool you know i know that part

of being on campus um is

not only just focusing on your academics

but it’s about building community and

relationships are you involved in any

other

aspects of campus life apart from your

classes that you attend yeah um i’ve

been a member

of pacific stop tone she’s like our

collegiate acapella group for four years

um i’m a member of five you alpha it’s

like a greek life uh it’s like a music

fraternity on campus i’ve been a member

of that since

my sophomore year so this is coming on

the third year

of that um

yeah i’ve

you know i’ve been a part of a lot of

the culture of culture groups like like

kinsan filipino and

uh vsa i’ve like gone to a lot of their

their events and stuff so i i try to

keep myself kind of connected to these

kind of things and

um just kind of like available i guess

i’ve been you know contacted a lot by

psa and stuff and we’ve done we’ve done

some things

so uh

yeah i just really try to stay connected

you know not just like my

my own circle in the conservatory but

it’s kind of like a whole broader

university campus

that’s excellent being a small campus

and you know you know

there are aspects of it you’re able it’s

easy to stay connected i think but did

you feel even though it’s a small campus

that there were times

where it

yours your color could have been

an issue

i wouldn’t say issue

uh per chance but um

you know there’s just no there’s not a

lot of us

a lot of us on this campus

we kind of just stick out like yeah

yeah but since there’s not a lot of us

there’s um

you gotta get the both sides of it of

the like

there’s not a lot of us so we’re more

welcomed more loved or more

like like

you know we have kind of a little bit

more leeway kind of thing out the other

side where it’s like we’re kind of

feeling more ostracized more pushed away

just like not like not to be done with

um so you kind of feel both sides i

don’t see it as an issue because i you

know tend to stay on the good side

um and you know i just kind of ignore

the bad stuff because

you know

there’s that shouldn’t be a reason to

stop me from from doing the things i

want to do absolutely i want to go back

to the fact that you are involved in the

stocktonians and the stocktons

do you have any leadership roles in any

of those yeah i’m the i’ve been the

music director for pacific stock dance

for the last three years

you know so i like him putting all the

concerts and like we recorded an album

or an ep

this semester so that’s going to drop in

june so that’s really exciting um

and then i’ve been

uh just kind of like a representative of

finding alpha in terms of like uh

like the the whole

music fraternity council

um i’ve been a representative of that

for a year so yeah that’s excellent

you know i wanna thank you so much for

um you know giving your time and sharing

you know a little bit of your experience

here thank you so much i just wanna end

with something if you’re talking to an a

perspective or new student

african-american student male or female

on campus

is there anything that you would share

to encourage them

i’d say it’s gonna feel different

you know um

not being around people

like you

uh but i say like really appreciate the

difference

use this as the opportunity to diversify

yourself

and

it will it will make you a better person

and that there’s nothing

that’s going to stop you except by you

quiet

thank you so much dionne thank you so

much

Dion Nickelson, Elaine Hanly, Stockton, April 22, 2022.