Click here for the Daily Orange's inclusive journalism fellowship applications for this year
THE DAILY ORANGE Who is Syracuse?

Anthony Herbert

iSchool student immerses himself in campus organizations to pay it forward to other students

By Annie Palmer
Photo by Sam Maller Staff Photographer

Anthony Herbert shows a different side of himself to each person he meets. He’s not trying to be annoying or fake; he just has a lot to offer.

“Let me say this — if he could walk during the middle of a class change, there’s 10–15 minutes in between each class period, right? — it would take him 20 minutes to walk from Schine to Life Sciences, ‘cause he would stop and talk with everybody,” said Kunal Sharma, a sophomore system administration and security major and Herbert’s friend since high school.

But he’s also interested in what everyone around him has to offer, too.

“Everyone says it always seems like I know everyone, but it’s because I genuinely like meeting people,” said Herbert, a junior networking major. “To influence other people is just as good as my influences.”

Herbert spends a lot of time testing routers in the School of Information Studies — his most recent test involved trying to “blow up” a router with up to 13 devices at a time — but he has still managed to connect with nearly every corner of Syracuse University’s campus.



He is an inaugural Syracuse 8 Scholar, which honors members of the 1970 SU football team who fought for equal representation of players and coaches alike. He works in SU’s Office of Multicultural Affairs, helping to raise awareness for their many scholarship programs. Next year, he hopes to be a part of SU’s track team — his best event being the 200-meter dash. He also holds a job in the iSchool, trying out technology products that companies send to SU for testing.

With all his commitments, it’s easy to understand why Sharma described Herbert’s schedule as “crazy to watch.”

But even though he may be spread thin at times, Herbert is still outwardly and inwardly humble. His family and his upbringing back home in Queens, N.Y., is what made it possible for him to come to Syracuse, he said.

His biggest influence is his grandmother, who Herbert said, “didn’t have much to work with at all,” but was still able to raise nine children. Her hardship is what fuels his drive, he said, adding that though schoolwork gets hard, it’s nothing compared to what she went through.

When Addie Parsons, one of Herbert’s close friends since freshman year, thinks about their friendship, there are a lot of moments that come to mind, but especially one that happened during a particularly dark time in her sophomore year.

At the end of the semester, Parsons had an organic chemistry final on her 19th birthday and had spent the night before studying.

“I bombed it. I was very upset, and I went home and essentially slept the rest of the day,” Parsons said in an email.

But Herbert called Parsons and told her to come over, saying that they were going to do something fun. Parsons said Herbert made her SpaghettiOs at 11 p.m., and then they went outside together in the “frigid December weather” to watch the Geminids meteor shower.

“He really lifted my spirits and made me feel special on a difficult day,” Parsons said. “It was the best end to a difficult semester I could have imagined.”

For Sharma, Herbert was one of the reasons he came to SU. For Herbert, knowing Sharma, the only other person from his high school to come to SU, was a reminder of home.

“He’s the only person from my high school that goes here,” Herbert said, referring to Sharma. “People from my high school don’t really leave the city — some people go to SUNYs, but other than that, they don’t really go to private schools, they don’t really come here.”

Herbert said he gives everything at SU his all, trying to use his opportunities to pay it forward for those that may not have been awarded the same. Next year, he’ll serve as the co-chair for the Coming Back Together event, where alumni who were members of the 1970 SU football team travel to campus to celebrate the history of the Syracuse 8 Scholarship and welcome its new recipients.

Herbert earned co-chair position because he volunteered to welcome new recipients his sophomore year. He said he volunteered because he just wanted to meet new people, but realizes it might be something bigger than that.

“I’d rather know something I’ve done, or do, helps someone in some way,” Herbert said. “And it might be something you do anyway, but it still helps them out. So those are the things that make me happy.”