Brooklyn, N.Y. – It’s not often that one hears a contemporary young man talking about the power and beauty of nature. But for Staten Islander Jason Altilio, 21, who grew up in Middletown, upstate New York, it comes naturally, no pun intended.

            “In Middletown, you are surrounded by nature, the forest is your backyard and you have a lot of room to play and think,” says the philosophy major with a 3.99 G.P.A. and this year’s valedictorian at Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus. “Also in Staten Island, where I live with my grandparents, I have the beach nearby. So I’ve been exposed to different kinds of natural beauty,” he adds.

Living with nature has definitely led to the development of his views on life. Altilio, who will present his valedictory address at the Brooklyn Campus commencement on Thursday, May 15, expects to discuss aesthetics and how “philosophy is applicable to regular life and is not just an academic discipline.”

Assistant professor of philosophy Margaret Cuonzo, who has taught Altilio in several of her classes, says, “It’s hard to speak with Jason and not realize that he’s a very smart person and a wonderful human being as well. He’s got a rigorous, analytical mind, and he’ll make an excellent philosopher.” 

Altilio has focused on ethics and aesthetics in his philosophy studies at the Campus. “I feel that beauty is directly related to life – I’m interested in how conceptions of beauty influence ethical standards.” For example, he believes that if one has a concept of beauty, one is more likely to be an ethical person.

Philosophers have not connected these two categories often, says Altilio, but among those who have are Plato and modern philosopher Elaine Scarry. Other thinkers who have influenced him include Rousseau, Thoreau, Emerson, and other Transcendentalists because of the importance they gave to nature in their writings.

The son of a CBS TV engineer and a paraprofessional in an upstate school district, Altilio started off at Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus in its

 

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LIU Valedictorian –

 

Honors Program majoring in pharmacy, but later switched to philosophy. “I wasn’t exposed to philosophy before I came to LIU,” he notes, “The problem-solving aspect of philosophy is what really interested me.”

“The great thing I got at LIU is immersion in intellectual environments,” he adds. “It was in the Honors program that I found my most steadfast friends and supportive professors.”

Altilio was chosen as valedictorian not only for his high G.P.A. but also for his contributions to the community. He has served as a student mentor, advising freshmen through their first year and monitoring their progress, for which he was presented an outstanding mentor award.

Altilio has won numerous other honors. In March, he attended the prestigious National Conference on Undergraduate Research in Salt Lake City where he presented a paper on personal identity (to be published this summer in the conference publication, NCUR Proceedings). He participated in the National Collegiate Honors Conference, also in Salt Lake City, last November.

He was inducted into the Alpha Lambda Delta Freshman Honor Society and Alpha Chi and was on the Dean’s List and granted the Dean’s Award each semester of his attendance. He also won several University Honors and Philosophy Department Awards.

 Already accepted into two doctoral programs, Altilio plans to get a Ph.D. in philosophy and pursue an academic career and “make a splash in the philosophical community, “ he says. “The thing that appeals to me most is searching for the truth.”

 

Long Island University opened its Brooklyn Campus in 1926, welcoming a diverse population at a time when other major universities enforced quota systems against racial and ethnic minorities. Some 30,000 students currently are enrolled at the university’s three residential and three regional campuses, including nearly 11,000 at the Brooklyn Campus. Located at the corner of Flatbush Avenue Extension and DeKalb Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn, the Campus is accessible to all major bus and subway routes and the Long Island Rail Road.