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Kevin Keeker

Kevin Keeker

Principal researcher | Sony PlayStation North America | Class of 1990

To the freshman psych lecturer who set Kevin Keeker straight 22 years ago, a belated thanks.

“I lived in Allen Hall, in a corner quad on the fourth floor. My Psych 100 class was at 10 a.m. in the basement,” says Sony PlayStation North America’s principal researcher (BA ’90, psychology).

“There was a sprawling ’70s-style carpeted room ringed on two sides with four or five carpeted steps perched slightly above a healthy smattering of rounded-block ottomans, fractured sectionals and bean bags. It was like a Greek-theatre for ‘Sesame Street,’ or a classroom for the exceptionally lazy — me.

“In my memory, at least, that was our basement classroom. Sad but true: Sometimes, I had a hard time getting down those five flights of stairs to the basement. More accurately, sometimes I had a hard time waking up.

“My freshman year was, at times, an experiment in just how much I could get away with on the basis of BS alone. But my psych lecturer was encouraging. Maybe she saw promise in my particular brand of BS.

“She suggested that maybe I should get in the habit of staying after class to watch ‘General Hospital’ with some of the more socially-engaged students. Maybe the power of habit would overcome my powers of mischief.

“It did. I did.

“Thanks to a couple of crushes, the irresistible draw of vapid daytime TV, and the threat of failing a 100-level class that was in my own basement, I found the motivation to get to class. Eventually, I chose to graduate with a BA in psych.

“Thanks, Freshman Year Psych Lecturer — without you, I might have had a completely different life.”