By Jonathan Elkins
Originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, Zackary Bevins a junior at Eastern New Mexico University. The main factor motivating his decision to come to Eastern was his family. “I wanted to go to school somewhere that was near enough to my family to occasionally visit, but not close enough to feel like I had never really left home,” Bevins said.
Bevins is majoring in history and will soon be adding sociology as a double-major. “I have always been fascinated by history. I think that a good understanding of history can lend a lot of context to why things exist as they do today. I also think that studying sociology will add a lot more context to what I learn in history and lend more depth to my studies,” he said.
In his free time Bevins likes to read, cook, and play video games. In high school Bevins was ranked nationally in several videogame titles. He would eventually turn down offers to join the professional circuits to pursue his education. “The biggest reason I turned down the offer is because I didn’t really see the games, I was ranked in having too much of a future. Especially looking back, you often see professional team for smaller games perform well but never really reach further than the game will allow. I figured it would be best to focus on my degree and given how everything turned out, that was a good choice,” he described.
Bevins is a part of a few organizations on campus, namely he is currently serving as the Scholarship Chair for the Kappa Sigma Fraternity. A member for several years, he (along with many others) has led the organization into one of its most academically successful years in ages. “It’s my job to help all of the brothers succeed in what we all came here to do, to get a degree. I help them find tutors and make sure everyone is completing their assigned study hall hours each week. Last semester, we achieved our highest chapter GPA in recent history; that’s something that I am really proud of all the guys for coming together and doing,” he said. Bevins hopes to learn everything he can during his undergraduate studies here at Eastern and is working to use what he learns now to prepare him for his next academic milestone: graduate school, and eventually a doctoral program. He has always enjoyed learning and teaching others and hopes one day to become a professor so he can share his passion and what he learned at ENMU with others.
