Looking beyond the gate

Nelson Reveley '05 has loved golf since the first time he sent a golf ball sailing through the air at a driving range. At the time, the blond sixth-grader didn't realize the game might shape his career path a decade later.

Reveley had been begging his older brother Everett to let him play for years.

"I started dragging Nelson out there because I wanted somebody to play with who I could beat," Everett said.

Everett recalled Reveley standing on the range that day, his curly blond hair falling in his eyes as he shifted his weight, focused on the ball and pushed his sleeve up on his left shoulder.

"He basically had the pro golf routine down," Everett said.

Reveley, now a religion major, remains uncertain about what he wants to do following graduation. His interests range from golf to business, religion and community service.

Reveley is searching for a career that combines a range of interests. And with second semester speeding by, he — like many of his classmates — still doesn't know where he will head in June.

This is the first of four profiles focusing on seniors as they prepare to leave campus and explore the world beyond FitzRandolph Gate.

For Reveley, the immediate future might hold an interim job with the United States Golf Association (USGA) distributing grants to nonprofit programs that focus on giving golf instruction to underprivileged and disabled kids.

He interviewed for the position from a Comfort Inn in Mississippi, where he was conducting preliminary thesis research on martyrdom during the civil rights movement.

On the day of the interview, he took the afternoon off to wait by the telephone in the hotel. Reveley was nervous because he was inexperienced with interviews, but his roommate had coached him to answer questions directly and then to stop talking, he said.

Reveley's anxiety was intensified by technical problems at the beginning of the interview.

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"We kept saying, 'Hello, are you there?'" he said.

When a stable connection was finally reached, the four interviewers laughed. They then asked him eight questions over the course of about 30 minutes, covering topics from the challenges he has faced in college to what he would add as a fellow for the USGA.

Reveley will soon find out whether he has qualified for the final application round: a March weekend trip to Colorado. There, he and the other finalists will meet the current USGA fellows and find out if they got the job.

Until then, Reveley is hoping for the best and keeping his options open. He is also applying to various high school teaching jobs through the Educational Resources Group (ERG).

Teaching appeals to Reveley because it would allow him to continue pursuing academics through helping his students learn.

Growing up, one of Reveley's most influential mentors was Bruce Nystrom, his high school track coach, whose "yoda-like tutelage" inspired his decision to teach.

Reveley was not particularly talented at sports, but he went "from an eighth grader who hid behind a bush whenever sports were talked about to a senior captain of track and cross country teams," Nystrom said. "Everyone appreciated just how loyal and hard working he was."

Reveley said that though he "never ended up that great . . . it was just being there day in, day out and trying my best."

Reveley taught two ninth-grade classes and one 12th-grade English class when he returned to his high school for a visit.

His message to the students was that they "should plug on through high school no matter how distasteful it may seem because college would be a whole new world," he said.

Reveley is also considering more school after graduation — he may apply to seminary school in his home town of Richmond, Va., to continue his study of religion. Reveley spent 13 years at an Episcopalian boys' school and is now a religion major.

One some level, Reveley wishes he could "go to school for the rest of my life." Seminary offers him the opportunity to learn Hebrew and Greek, which would facilitate his study of early Christianity, and to "build a solid set of beliefs that won't blow over," he said.

Seminary also has a familial pull with Reveley. His grandfather and brother both attended the same Richmond school. While his grandfather continued on to be a minister, his brother went to law school.

Everett has seen his brother try "to wrestle with the big questions of life like, why are we here, does God exist?" He said that Reveley spent three years in high school trying to figure out the meaning of life, and it did not surprise him when he decided to major in religion.

One of seminary's main drawbacks is its tuition, which would cost about $4,000 per year after scholarship money.

"The only way I could get total funding would be if I said I would be a minister afterwards, but I'm not so sure that's exactly what I want to do," he said.

Reveley also wants to get out into the career world before continuing with his education. He has until the March 1 application due date to make his decision.