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A Computer Whiz and Force on Slam Poetry Circuit? That's Deidre Mike, City Tech's 2006 Valedictorian
"One question I always get is, 'You're a computer student; why are you studying poetry?' People don't have to be pigeonholed into one thing. Leonardo da Vinci didn't just paint. No one said, 'You're a painter; why are you designing all these futuristic things?'"
So explains Deidre ("Dee") Mike, a computer systems technology (CST) major who has been chosen valedictorian of New York City College of Technology's (City Tech) Class of 2006, the first in her family to graduate from college. With an almost perfect grade point average of 3.975 out of a possible 4.0, she will receive her bachelor of technology degree and deliver the valedictory address on Tuesday, June 6, 10:30 a.m., in the Theater at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan.
But the 31-year-old Gravesend, Brooklyn resident, originally from Queens, is not just a computer "geek"-- she's also a poet. Dee, as she is known on the poetry circuit, is an energetic competitor in the Bowery Poetry Club "slam" contests in Manhattan, and has performed with the City Tech Slam Team at college orientation. Her poem, "Justice, Not This,"* won first prize in City Tech's 2005 Adolphus Lee Poetry Contest, and will appear in the inaugural edition of City Tech Writer, a publication of student work. In addition, one of her short stories was runner up in the 2005 Charles Matusik Fiction Contest.
Obviously no slouch in the academic arena either, Deidre has been on the Dean's List since 2003 and is a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars. In 2005, she received the computer systems technology department's Mark Eisendorf Memorial Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement, the departmental award for Excellence in Computer Information Systems and the School of Technology and Design's Academic Excellence Award. She is an A+ Certified Computer Repair Technician, a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer and expects to be a Cisco Certified Network Associate soon.
Her start as a slam poet has everything to do with City Tech. When she was about to enter her last year of study, she decided to try a creative writing class after realizing she was about to graduate without having taken any courses just for fun. Her City Tech English professor, George Guida, who helped launch the intercollegiate slam at the Bowery Poetry Club, offered students extra credit for participating -- so Dee did.
"The first time, I was almost sick; I was so nervous," she confesses. "I went onstage and my knees buckled. I still get nervous, but it's so much fun, because everyone's clapping and cheering. If you get low scores, everybody boos the judges, so that helps, too."
Dee comes by her literary bent naturally. She taught herself to read as a toddler, she says, because her parents were tired of reading the same old stories to her -- "and I'd tell them when they messed up!" Her literary talents were nearly stifled in second grade when she got in trouble for writing too much. "In our language arts class, we were supposed to write three paragraphs, and I would turn in three pages. The teacher said I was creating extra work for her and she'd lower my grade if I didn't start following directions. So I got out of the habit of writing for a long time." Dee returned to it at 13, when in an eighth grade workshop she began composing poetry as a way of dealing with her father’s recent death. "All through high school I wrote the typical teen angst stuff about 'woe is me, I hate my life,'" Dee admits, but her topics now range from politics to sex, with a healthy dose of humor.
Although she began her higher education at a college in upstate New York, the frigid weather took such a toll on her health that Deidre dropped out and returned home. She joined the City Volunteer Corps as part of its AmeriCorps program and was stationed with the Union Settlement Association's Department of Child Care Services, later transferring to Senior Services. When her year of service ended in 1996, Deidre was offered a job there. A settlement house teenager first introduced her to computers nine years ago. After a 6½-hour lesson, Deidre was hooked, and as she puts it, "I never looked back!" She loves computer technology, she proclaims, because "I'm a control freak, and networking is the ultimate in control. I even wrote a poem about it, called 'Computer Goddess'."
Computer Goddess (excerpt)
When I was a little girl, I wanted to grow up to be God.
If you think about it, it’s the best job in the world:
…
The best part: there’s no oversight. After all, who will people
complain to -- Satan?
Unfortunately, the position of God had already been filled.
But I found out about the next best job:
Network Administrator….
Deidre's college education was supported by the United Neighborhood Houses Scholarship Fund, and her family. "Education was my Dad’s focal point,"she says. "He pushed education to levels that were insane when I was a kid. I couldn't understand what the big deal was. If I got less than a 95 on my report card, it was an issue." She later learned that her father was forced to quit school after the eighth grade to work and help support himself; he finally earned his GED in the Army. Though Deidre has two older brothers, "Whatever I need I get, whether it's quiet time, money for books -- whatever it takes for me to do well. I am the first one in my family to graduate college."
Currently she works in East Harlem as the United Settlement Association's youth services department technology specialist, keeping the department's computer network running smoothly and teaching children aged six through 18 in its summer day camp program. Deidre is proud to be a role model and share her enthusiasms with teenagers, but acknowledges that her greatest challenge is "getting them interested in what computers can do beyond surfing the internet for the latest styles in jeans and sneakers." Her solution: teach them to design their own Web pages.
Deidre characterizes the City Tech community as "amazing -- literally a microcosm of the melting pot that is New York City. The professors push you to do better than you realized you could do. They make you want to do better." Her team spirit is obvious: recently, on a day off, Deidre was on campus at an engineering conference. "I came by to say hello to someone, and ended up helping out at the conference, even though I don't know anything about engineering!"
She has served as a member and recording secretary of the City Tech computer systems technology department's student/faculty committee and has contributed as a proofreader to the textbook Computer Security-Lab Manual, published by McGraw-Hill.
Commuting across Brooklyn to school and up to East Harlem to work, Deidre spends hours a day on subways. She uses the time to "read, write and daydream." Her writing has expanded well beyond poetry; she belongs to two online writing groups and a writers' workshop, and has produced horror, romance, fantasy and science fiction pieces. She wants to pursue an MFA in creative writing or poetry at Columbia University. Says Dee, "My goal is to be a well-known science fiction writer, who also writes in other genres."
Besides her talent in two disparate fields, Dee has another advantage: her last name. "It's my father's last name," she clarifies. "It's really not a stage name, though it comes in handy. My middle name is Jean, so I'm D.J. Mike. I'm not good at using a microphone. But with a last name like Mike, who needs one?"
* Justice, Not This
It hurts my brain to write this
It bleeds my heart to write this
It rapes my soul to write this
Because I don’t know how to fight this
Can’t sit back and take this
No one can explain this
Can’t imagine this pain this
Verdict must have caused. This
Senseless act of fear, this
Murder in cold blood, this
Travesty of justice, this
Slap in the face of all this
Country supposedly stands for. This
Cannot be excused and this
Guilt can’t be refused. This
Family only wanted this
Act to be acknowledged, this
Murder to be admitted this
Pain to be honored this
Wound to be healed. This
Wasn’t too much to ask, this
Shouldn’t have been too hard, this
Simple family request -- this
Was for justice, not this.
5/11/06
