Student

“I think not overloading yourself with classes is the best way to begin at SMC. Go slow at first, and then pick up some speed.”

The rumbles and crashes in the background were the result of an online session of the videogame called ‘Quake Three’ that Russell Fullerton was heatedly engrossed in with his friends. Still, Russell was kind enough to explain what everybody wants to know: What’s the difference between a ‘geek’ and a ‘nerd’?

“They’re completely different,” says Russell, almost a little scornfully. “I’m a computer geek, for instance. A nerd is someone who excels in more than one field. So being a geek would just be one aspect of a nerd’s talents. You don’t have to be good at math to be a computer geek. So I just focus on my computer.”

Having set the record straight on the geek/nerd debate, Russell is parlaying his geek-ness into computer practicalities at SMC. “I’m already using what I’ve learned here to build computers for my friends as a sort of freelance technician,” he says. “And I’ve worked several summers fixing computers. So I have the feeling I’ll get a job in a large computer store as a technician. Unless I get involved with my sisters’ online videogame company and go to work for MTV,” he adds.

But with computers now almost as common as toasters, Russell affirms that his SMC days will be put to good use. “I’d been to another local college before I came here, and the teachers were terrible,” he says. “At SMC, I’ve had nothing but good ones. And the level of the work here is a very high level.” Even a high level, as Russell might say, for a geek.

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