In a recent interview, we had the pleasure of speaking with Jason Dunlop, an oncology nurse who went to Northport High School. He overcame his own health crisis and, in addition to his nursing work, Jason also does Civil War reenacting as a hobby, so you may have seen him playing a period character at Old Bethpage Village. He told us about his time at Northport High School and his path since then.
What was your time before and during high school like?
I grew up in Levittown and moved to Northport when I was 10 years old.
The first couple of years were trying, being a new kid in town and everything. I went to Norwood for a couple of years, and I went to Middleville Junior High School, which was seventh grade through ninth grade. I wasn’t a very good student in junior high school. I just wasn’t interested. I wasn’t motivated. In ninth grade, I didn’t do too well. I had to do summer school and everything. How it turned out was that, in order for me to go to high school, I had to go to special education. That was a little tough for me because I knew I didn’t have any learning disabilities, but that was the deal.
When I got to high school, things changed.
Because it was a bigger school, a lot more kids were going there and they gave students more autonomy.
In my senior year, I decided to join the E-Team. I thought it would be an interesting path to take in high school, something you don’t normally see anywhere else. And I really do feel that that taught me a lot of different lessons. It was a lot of people skills and learning to work as a team with other people.
We had a lot of fun, and we got to learn. It wasn’t typical, like learning in a classroom, but we covered a lot of different bases and a lot of different things. We also did trips, like we went to Cedar Point and learned how to live off the land for a weekend. Then we went to camp down in the Virgin Islands. It was fascinating. You had to shake out your shoes and make sure there weren’t scorpions in there.
What teachers did you have at Northport High School that had a big impact on you?
Three teachers in particular always stood out to me that always had my back through the days of teenage angst and everything. Those three teachers played an integral part of my existence going through high school. I’m 53 years old now, and I still think about them often.
I always wanted to thank one teacher in particular, Lynn Bagley. She was an English teacher. Mrs. Bagley was a kind, decent human being that tried to forge personal relationships with all of her students and make them feel that they were worthy. That was important to me because, like I said, I wasn’t a very good student, not because I was not capable of doing it, I was just not interested. But she always made a point to make you feel that you are worthy. And that you just have to work hard and try, and you always ask for help if you need it. I always remember that, even after all these years. Mrs. Bagley is, hands down, probably my favorite teacher I’ve ever had in my life.
Another important teacher was my music teacher. Dr. Schneider was an eccentric fellow. If you first meet him, you’d think he was an oddball. But that was his character. And that’s what all the students dug about him. If we were talking or just being teenagers during class, he would do some weird stuff, like he would call like a crow, or do other stupid stuff like that just to get our attention. Mr. Schneider took us on trips to Manhattan to see operas. I never in a million years thought that any high school student would never get the opportunity to see an opera, let alone five.
Last but not least was Mr. Casey, my history teacher, another teacher that was an integral part of my high school experience. He was great at delivering content to us in a way that we were able to really absorb everything that he provided, all the coursework and beyond. He didn’t make it boring, let’s just put it that way. I’m a history nerd to this day, you know? I do Civil War reenacting and stuff on my own time, like at Old Bethpage Village and things like that.
Do you think that the teachers at Northoport High School were a part of your interest in Civil War reenacting?
Big part of it. In the third grade, they got their hooks into me early, field trip and everything. Also Mr. Casey, who lit the fuse to something that I appreciate, which is history. Mr. Casey wasn’t a Civil War reenactor, but when he was teaching history, he was passionate about it. And he wanted us to have that same emotion about it. And so that’s one of the reasons why I started doing it. I started getting involved in 2020. And I still do it to this day. I go to schools and do Civil War presentations. I like to do those things just as a hobby, just for fun. When you make it tangible, if you go in uniform and bring out things from the past that really imprints in someone’s mind and allows them to be more involved and more interested in the subject.
What was your path after high school?
When I was 19 and stupid, I just wanted to hang out with my friends and I didn’t do too well in college. So I stopped going to college for a little while and worked and started adulting that way. Then, I went back to college. I went to Farmingdale State, and ended up getting my degree in biology there. After that, I was working for a lab for a long time, but it wasn’t something that I’ve always wanted to do. My passion was nursing.
As life progressed, I ended up losing my job due to illness. I was out of work for 10 years due to a chronic illness, Crohn’s disease. When I got better, I ended up going back to college again, and got my baccalaureate in nursing in 2013. I’ve been an oncology nurse for over 10 years now. And even though it took a while for me to go back on the path that I wanted to go on, I always still kept in mind these three teachers that really made a difference. They helped me remember that, even though you might deviate from the path that you wanted to be on, that doesn’t mean that you can’t get back on that path again.
What would you say to your high school self?
I would say, with all the hardships that you’re gonna face, just keep going. What’s that Churchill quote? “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” Yep.
