Author finds success living, working at U.

When Brian Peterson first came to Penn for Minority Scholars Weekend in 1989, he knew right from the start it was the place for him. "I came up for Scholars Weekend, and it was like, 'This is good, I can see myself here.' And that's really when I was set." More than a decade later, Penn is still the right place for Peterson. After receiving a bachelor's degree in Computer Science in 1993 and a graduate degree in Education in 1997, Peterson still lives in DuBois College House, which was his undergraduate home for four years. While his fellow graduates headed off to corporate jobs in other cities, Peterson said he wasn't quite ready to leave campus. Consequently, for the past five years Peterson has been at DuBois working as a GA and an Information Technology Support Specialist. And Peterson revisits his undergraduate experience in more ways than his choice of residency. His recently released debut novel, Move Over, Girl follows a college student as he experiences misadventures with women, sports and academics. Peterson said he wanted to write a book that undergraduates could relate to. "It was around my junior year of college and I couldn't really find any books that were speaking towards what I was looking for -- something from a male perspective on relationships, kind of upbeat, something easy to read." The novel's protagonist is Tony Norris, a junior basketball star at the fictional State University. The plot follows Norris after his basketball career starts to fall apart due to injury, through his relationships with women and his path to self-discovery. "The book is interesting because being in college you can relate to it," College junior Mecca Madyun said. Peterson sold the book to Random House in late February, after a successful run with his own independent publishing company, chance22. The novel's initial, independently published run of 1,500 copies sold out in only a few months and it is now selling well under Random House. His recent success as an author certainly showcases different talents than Peterson uses in his day job. At Penn, he oversees computer labs across campus and supervises a wing of students in DuBois, providing advice and support and planning social activities. According to Peterson, the book has been very well received thus far. "People who have read [the novel] from black schools and down south, on the west coast, everyone says they can relate to what's going on in the book," Peterson said. "It definitely touched on a lot of things people really feel." Peterson is already working on his second novel, which he hopes to have published by the summer of 2001. One of the themes Peterson wants to deal with in this novel is the idea of "following your path." "That's the thing a lot of people ask me, too -- you know, 'You were a CSE major, how'd you write this book?'" Peterson said. "Just because you're in a particular major doesn't mean you don't have other interests." Peterson also worked with three current undergraduates to found the Ase Academy, a Saturday school program for area middle school students run out of DuBois. "It's amazing how active he is in all realms of Penn," said Amy Phillips, associate director of college house computing. "He just handles it all and that's really impressive." Peterson started his independent publishing company when he decided to self-publish his book, and he hopes to expand the company to publish work by other budding authors. While Peterson said he plans to stay involved in all of his occupations and to focus more attention on chance22, he sees teaching as his true calling. "Ultimately I want to teach, maybe develop the Saturday school into an everyday school," Peterson said. "Just bringing it all together, just providing different opportunities? just trying to find some way to tie all this together and try and do some good along the way."

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