Daniel Spruill Class of 2014

Story by Aneara Burns. Photo courtesy of Friendship Public Charter Schools.

Esteemed alumni Daniel Spruill always took advantage of what Friendship had to offer, and took his lessons learned to Princeton and beyond. His amazing academic and career trajectory are truly aspirational. I had the pleasure of talking with Mr. Spruill to discuss his college experience, career path and the adversity he has faced and overcome.

Aneara: What college did you attend and what year did you graduate?

Daniel: I went to Princeton University, and I graduated in 2018  with a degree in electrical engineering.

Aneara: What were some obstacles or challenges you had to overcome while in college?

Daniel: I think college is just really hard, and I don't think people do a good enough job of telling seniors how difficult college is. It was definitely one of the hardest struggles I've had in my life, and I've had struggles in my life pre and post college. But in college there were so many mental barriers, and so many times when you have to take time for your own mental health and your mental stability. There's so many things that you want to do, and there's so many things that you just can't do, because there's only so many hours in the day. Obviously, a huge skill you need is  time management. To get even more specific, classes are tough. I was an electrical engineer, and I had to take a bunch of prerequisite classes and those were especially difficult. Even physics, it may sound simple, but it’s difficult and you have to be prepared for an array of new difficulties you will face, and having to find new ways to learn and grow yourself. 

Aneara: Tell me about your career path. What did your career path look like after graduating from Princeton? 

Daniel: I have a pretty unique career path. I graduated from college in 2018 and my degree was in electrical engineering. But, I realized before I even graduated that this was not what I wanted to do. I was supposed to have a job in Syracuse where I would have been an electrical engineer for a radar systems company, but leading up to graduation, I started to realize that I absolutely did not want to do it. It wasn't who I wanted to be. It wasn’t the career path for me. Instead, I moved to San Francisco. I was coding my own game and building this educational shooter game. It was a really great and fun experience. I realized that this is what I wanted to do. Then after about nine months or so, I realized that not making money isn't the best, and had to put the company on the backburner. I applied to every game developer position in New York. I was rejected from all of them, except for one. All you need is one yes to change everything. I got a job at Tops, a baseball card company. They made digital trading card apps, where you would trade your baseball cards. They also worked with Disney, making Disney, Marvel, and Star Wars cards, like all the big entertainment things. Now I work at Nerd Ninja, and I love it. We actually work with really big titles including NBA All World. It's this new geospatial game where you can go out in the world and collect NBA players and likePokemon Go—which I’m also currently working on. It’s been a lot of fun, working on one of the biggest franchises in history and one of the biggest mobile games in history. 

Aneara: That's honestly amazing, and your job is really unique and sounds very fun. What is one lesson that Collegiate taught you about life after high school? 

Daniel: One of the biggest lessons was how to shift my perspective. I was valedictorian of the Class of 2014, so school has always been like, you know, a challenge, but a challenge I always knew I could manage. Princeton on the other hand felt at times like an insurmountable wall. I think that Friendship gave me a lot of tools to self-regulate, and to really adjust my perspective when dealing with situations that seem impossible, and I'm really thankful for that. I think it really got me through my four years at Princeton. 

Aneara: What advice would you give to the Class of 2023?

Daniel: I think that when you’re young, you don't realize how much your world is about to expand. In high school, you're very ‘DC focused’…meaning, only focused on the world around you and the community you know. But then, you can go to college, anywhere in the world. Isn't that so insane? You could just up and move to Scotland, attend college there, and learn an entirely new culture. Even if you stay in DC, your world will expand as you become an adult and have different experiences. So, I guess my advice is to be open to those new experiences and be open to your world changing. 

Aneara Burns is a sophomore at Arizona State University.