* * *
After today, Sean, Economics degree in hand, returns home to San Diego. His plans for the summer include starting a career in medical electronics or real estate and getting engaged to his high school sweetheart, with whom he has conducted a long-distance romance over the past four years. Even from 3000 miles away, Kelly Duncan has kept him on track, helping him through everything from injuries to his parents' divorce, which became final during freshman year.
You will hear Sean Doyle's name again. He knows where he's headed. He'll work for five to eight years, then, he says, "I've always had political aspirations." And if his friends are to be believed, there can be little doubt that before too long, he'll also have political accomplishments.
"He's pretty confident in his own ability, more in personal interaction than anything else. I think people just respect his ability to lead," says Musselman. "He's going to be making some big decisions over time."
He may already have made his biggest decision coming to Harvard in the first place.
* * *
Doyle is different than he would have been had he stayed in California, particularly if he had gone to UCLA, says Jack Duncan, father of his girlfriend Kelly.
"The cultures are diverse enough an meeting people from different parts of the even of the world, has made him see that country," adds Duncan. "He's a volleyball player, and a very good one at that, but volleyball players are a dime a dozen in southern California gone to UCLA, he might have made okay, but he certainly wouldn't have been a star."
Doyle has not, overall, been a standard at Harvard, but as Mielach says, "The successful kids at Harvard won't be the A students-it'll be B and C students that are personable. And Doyle is nothing if not personable. He is also, by his own evaluation, intense. "If he's going to do something," says Mielach, "he's going it." He's a closet studier. It doesn't seem like he's ever studying--but he gets good grades.
That translates, in the social arena, into gregariousness. "He likes crowds," roommate, adding, in a dead-on imitation drink, let's party, let's be loud and obnoxious.
The crowds at Harvard may not have been as rowdy as the ones he would have enjoyed in California, but even though "he always hated the place," Mielach predicts, "He miss it."
"I think the East has made a big change he continues. "It's the same Sean, but--it's matured him, Harvard matures you little faster-paced. He likes to get things done and get 'em done quickly."
If it comes to meeting people or getting things done, though, Doyle will take the already knows he can get things done. "When you want something to happen, you can make it happen," he says. "I'm just like any other kid-I'm scared. But I'm not scared of the future anymore, because I know I can control it."
He no longer regrets passing up Stanford, USC or UCLA. "It might be good for some Harvard was the perfect place for me what class is from Harvard--everybody at Harvard is a winner."
Would he send his children to Harvard? "I wouldn't tell them Harvard is the great the world, but I'd give them guidance them if that's what they want to do." He thinks it over for a moment and grins. "They won't go to Yale, that's for sure."