Dylan Fields

ETSU's Homecoming '18 Celebration, "One Giant Leap for Buc Pride," is Sept. 30-Oct. 7.
Visit www.etsu.edu/homecoming for a schedule of events.

Meet Dylan Fields

Dylan Fields is a senior health sciences major with a concentration in human health.  As secretary of state in ETSU’s Student Government Association for 2018-19, the Kingsport resident is serving as chair of this year’s Homecoming celebration (Sept. 30-Oct. 7).  He previously served the SGA as a senator and as a member of the judicial branch.  After graduating in 2019, Fields plans to earn a master’s degree before applying to medical school.  His goal is to become a pediatric oncologist, and during his time at ETSU, he has enjoyed shadowing a physician and working as a certified nursing assistant at the Niswonger Children’s Hospital at Johnson City Medical Center and its St. Jude Tri-Cities Affiliate Pediatric Oncology Clinic.

Tell me a bit about your childhood.

My grandmother was absolutely my best friend.  She was a hairstylist who had a salon in her house, and since both of my parents worked, I was always at her house from 8 o’clock in the morning until probably 6 or so at night. Family is a pretty heavy influence. I love to be with friends and spend time with them. I’m not a huge fan of social media – I like to be more one-on-one personable with people.

What drew you to ETSU?

When I came for orientation, I was kind of one of those negative students who thought, "Oh, this is just a local campus. It’s not something that I’m going to be drawn to at all." That was when an organization called POLO – that’s the Preview and Orientation Leaders Association – drew me in and really solidified my love for ETSU. It all started there.  I lived at home for my first couple of years.  Commuting was kind of a struggle, but once I moved up here, I got a lot more involved with organizations that have really made me fall in love with ETSU, including SGA and POLO.  And I tutor on campus. The one thing that draws me in with tutoring is helping other students, and that’s always something I’ve been passionate about.  It’s great to take a subject that students are struggling with and see that pay off for them – for them to say, “You’ve impacted me so much that I changed a whole letter grade in this course,” or “I was really worried about this test, but I passed it.”  It’s good to see that joy come out of them.

Talk about your involvement with SGA, and how your role in helping with Homecoming last year led to your service as Homecoming chairperson this year. 

Last fall, I worked with Emily Assenmacher, the previous secretary of state, and she’s so organized and put together, it’s hard to follow up. But she taught me everything about Homecoming, and I’ve had to lean on her a couple of times this year. Last year, I was over the Buccaneer Games, and I also helped with Skit Night.  Being able to see two diverse events for Homecoming week led me to be passionate about being the Homecoming chair for this year.  Although I already had a slight knowledge of the work it took, I think I kind of underestimated it a little bit.  It is a lot of work, and a lot of students don’t realize it starts in May – it doesn’t start just a couple weeks before Homecoming.

What is one of the most important things you’ve learned in planning this huge event called Homecoming? 

Definitely, one of the biggest things I’ve learned is the struggle of finding locations around campus for Homecoming events. Luckily, it’s all worked out and been really smooth.  Most things are going to be centered around the Quad area – the Quad, Pride Walk and Warf-Pickel Plaza, which is the area in front of Subway.  And then choosing committee members is always hard, because students are involved in numerous organizations, and sometimes they don’t have enough time to commit.  They might think they do, but they don’t.  So that’s been a struggle for sure, and especially finding my own balance between schoolwork and all this Homecoming business – responding to all the emails, processing applications, and all. 

How did you choose your major?

From the time I was in middle school, I’ve known I wanted to do pediatric oncology and work with children with cancer in a clinical setting.  That’s something that I’ve always been passionate about – I’ve volunteered, done internships and actually worked at Niswonger Children’s Hospital.  I was a biology major for my first two years, and I found myself a little unhappy in that major just because of the emphasis on plant- and animal-based classes. I found myself dreading to go to classes, which was not good, because I was afraid it would prevent me from going to medical school.  So my advisor introduced me to the health sciences major.  We went back and forth on what I wanted my concentration to be, but we finally figured one out – human health – and that has been amazing. I have fallen in love with the classes. It’s really good to be excited to go to a class, and be excited to learn something.

Do you have a personal connection that has led to your desire to become a pediatric oncologist and your work with Niswonger Children’s Hospital?  

Not to pediatric oncology directly, but my grandmother passed away from cancer about nine years ago, and that is what first sparked my interest.  In high school, we were offered a clinical course, in which we got out of class to do clinical rotations in a local hospital, and so I got to go and shadow nurses within different locations of the hospital. I truly fell in love with pediatrics.  My next rotation was oncology, and that was hard.  That was the same location where my grandmother had passed away, and the first patient we saw was in the exact same room, so that was kind of a struggle to walk into.  But it became easier, and I just had an interest for it and knew it was where I had to be.   

I’ve been told you love to dance.  Tell me a little about that, and other things you like to do in your spare time. 

My love for dancing started with POLO, because we have to learn numerous dances. I always knew I was inclined to dance.  My dad was a clogger for almost all his life, and so it’s in the family.  I never went to dance classes, because I always did sports.  So when I got introduced to dancing in college, I found that I really liked it.  My favorite ones were the ones we did this year at Preview.  It was really great to sit down and do a little flash mob with students, acting like we were new students ourselves; we had our Preview shirts on underneath other shirts, and then they were surprised when we got up to dance.

But in my spare time I love to be on campus. I just find that ETSU is my home, and so I love to be here in the free time that I do have, aside from my time in the library and studying. I really love tailgating at football games. For the first couple of years of my college career, that wasn’t a thing, but to do that the last two years has been amazing. It’s great just to see the alumni who come back and to hope that one day, that will be me, wearing that ETSU Alumni shirt proudly.

What is a fun fact that no one knows about you? 

I don’t share this with people a lot, but I love photography. That’s pretty much the only thing I do during the summertime, is go around different places hiking and taking pictures of the beautiful views. I’ve also done random anniversary shoots, some weddings or senior pictures. My favorites would have to be the shots from my retro camera that prints the pictures out immediately.  I love just to see that Polaroid that I have in my hand, knowing that’s the only picture of it that I have, and I can’t just pull it up on my phone.  I can look back at that photo that I took two years ago and immediately smile, because I know how much fun I was having in that moment.