Why more responsibility is shaping Desmond Dixon for the rest of his life
By: Sean McChesney
In his junior year at Montclair State University, Desmond Dixon has taken on more responsibility than he could have ever imagined. Dixon currently serves as the vice president of his fraternity, Theta Xi, as well as working 20 hours a week as an area supervisor at the Student Recreation Center. If that’s not enough, he also has a second job off campus near the Willowbrook Mall in Wayne that helps him pay his way through college. On top of that, he is currently taking 17 credits to graduate on time.
“I started taking on a bunch of responsibilities in high school. I just took part in a bunch of clubs,” Dixon said. “That’s when I really started getting good at my time management skills and that’s the key of being able to do all this.”
Dixon’s busiest day of the week is on Tuesday where he gets up around 7:00 a.m. to work on his VP duties. This includes typing out the agenda for the next fraternity chapter meeting as well as checking on all the committees in the fraternity and anything else that may need to be accomplished. After that has been completed, he goes to work at the Student Recreation Center from 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. He checks to see if there is anything that needs to be fixed and or accomplished during his break period before he heads off to classes for the day.
After his day classes are completed, he returns to the Student Recreation Center for another shift that usually lasts from 5:00 p.m to 6:45 p.m. During this time, he works on all the tasks he organized that same morning as well as check in with his staff to make sure that they are doing their jobs correctly as well. After his shift, he goes to his night class that lasts from 7:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Finally, every so often he will go to his second job as a chef at Bahama Breeze where he will prepare all the food for the next day and help the closing shift clean up the restaurant.
Dixon explains that while he has many challenges, especially on Tuesdays, he focuses on the bigger picture and realizes that life is all about responsibility.
“Working two jobs and being a VP of an [executive]board can be stressful at times but you find a way to figure it out,” Dixon said. “Once you get older you are going to have to juggle things when you have a family and have kids…you get into that mindset of having responsibilities as a young person it’s going to be more beneficial when you are older.”
Jason Lewis, the coordinator of fitness equipment and point of sales, and Dixon’s direct boss at the Recreation Center, notices that there are times that Dixon is stressed, but overall, he explains that the pressure has not gotten to him.
“Surprisingly he knows how to handle it all at once, I see him a little bit tired sometimes so I always tell him to relax and take it easy…but so far he has handled it perfectly,” Lewis said. “It takes a lot to get used to and to get the staff to know who you are, once he got that down he was good to go.”
Another busy day on his schedule is Sunday, where only a select few get to see a different side of him. Sundays are his Theta Xi fraternity chapter meetings. Many students know Dixon as a funny and interactive person, but any of his fraternity brothers will say that during the meetings he is very stern, serious and will be the first person to get the room under control. His roles in the meetings range from writing down the meeting minutes, paying attention to detail and questions, controlling the room and making sure everyone pays attention, and stepping in for the president if he cannot attend the meeting.
Anthony Fastiggi, president of Theta Xi, always saw Dixon as a great leader and knew he could always trust him as a vice president.
“I always knew he was the type of person to take charge and he made being president very easy,” Fastiggi said. “Whenever I was in a pickle I would turn to him and he would help me get through it…we worked really well together.”
While Dixon currently serves as the vice president of his fraternity, he will take over as the president in the spring 2018 semester along with continuing his other responsibilities. Fastiggi feels that despite the big change in leadership, Dixon will gain an advantage when it comes to the amount of responsibilities he has.
“I personally believe that vice president does more work than the president…My biggest thing with Desmond is he gets to worried about a lot and stresses way to easily and I think with the amount of work the president does…it’s not as much as VP, it will be a good balance for him,” Fastiggi said.
Dixon explains the hardest thing to stay focused on during all of his responsibilities is not to stress out, but he believes that all these challenges helped him become who he is.
“I feel I can utilize every minute of my day, because of the amount of responsibilities I have. That is one of my greatest qualities, because I know I will always find time to get everything I need to get accomplished done,” Dixon said.
