People

Everyone’s Got a Story

by Lindsay Charvat – August 5-11, 2010

Name: David Stefanski

Your Chicago neighborhood: Lincoln Park

Your job or career: Graduate student, candidate for Master’s degree in accounting.

Is this your life’s work or just a job? Ultimately, I’d love to own my own accounting firm.

How did you get into this line of work? My mom is an accountant and I used to help her out on the side during college and high school. I never thought I’d actually be interested in it until I started learning about the more interesting aspects of it.

What do you like about this job? The logic required to complete the tasks.

Where do you see yourself career-wise in 10 years? Graduated from graduate school, with my Master’s degree and CPA certification, working for my own group of clients.

Are there any fun perks to this job? Slow seasons.

Are there any downsides to this job? Tax season.

Did you go to school for this job? Yes – I’m currently at UIC finishing up my hours so I can sit for the CPA.

What’s your background? I grew up on the Northwest Side of Chicago, went to Loyola Academy for high school and ultimately wound up at U of I in Champaign-Urbana. I lived in Verona for a period of time during undergrad and I’d move back in a heartbeat.

How are you involved in Chicago’s gay community? As the vice president of the Chicago Gay Hockey Association, I was absolutely thrilled to be able to be a part of bringing the Stanley Cup to the Chicago Pride Parade. In college, I was a founding member of a group called the Greek Allies.

Do you belong to any organizations or groups in your spare time? I got together with a few friends and created the “Homos are a Hoot” T-shirt to sell that would benefit local LGBT charities. We’ve sold quite a few so far, and hope to sell even more in the future.

Do you like to travel? I adore traveling. Any chance I have to get out of the city, even if just for a day, I jump at the opportunity. However, Chicago is my home and I love it!

Where is your favorite vacation spot? Positano on the Amalfi Coast in southern Italy. I have a lot of good memories there.

What do you like to do on your vacation? Depends on the destination. If I’m in Washington, D.C., most of my time would be spent seeing the sights. If I’m in Acapulco, you’d better check the beach before you wander anywhere else looking for me.

Do you have any hobbies? Playing hockey, and I love rollerblading along the lakefront. I especially like to spend time at the gym.

What do you like about these hobbies? Across the board these hobbies allow me to escape my everyday grind. I don’t have my phone or computer accessible during any of these activities, so it’s quite liberating to be cut off from most of the world.

Do these hobbies require any special skills? Only the ability to ice skate and take a hit.

What’s your latest project? Currently I’m working on a term project for summer school, but on a more interesting note I’m about to start helping on a new campaign being launched by Get Out The Vote.

How did this project come about? A friend of mine got me involved.

What excites you about this project? America has one of the lowest voter turnouts in the world, and despite what everyone thinks, their vote does indeed count. Having the ability to exercise your right to vote is one of the greatest freedoms we have and everyone should be proud to put their ballot in a box on election day.

One wish for yourself: To never have to be in school again.

One wish for others: Stop making yourself look like an idiot when you post a comment on Youtube.com. Someday, an anthropologist is going to look back at those transcripts and think we were morons.

Personal or organization website: homosareahoot.com.

Name: Andrew Sobotka

Your Chicago neighborhood: Boystown

Your job or career: I work in IT operations for an online media company. We do streaming video work.

Is this your life’s work or just a job? My job is a pleasant combination of my interests and skills.

How did you get into this line of work? I have always been interested in web technology, and I did a fair amount of video work in college, so after graduation I simply looked for a job that would help me use my skills and retain my interest. I was lucky enough to find a perfect fit.

What do you like about this job? I love the clients that I work with and I think that what we actually do (bring streaming video to millions of people a year) is very interesting as well as dynamic.

Where do you see yourself career-wise in 10 years? I would ideally be running my own web-based company. I’m not sure what the company will do, but as long as I am the boss I will be happy.

Are there any fun perks to this job? Well, working for a web company allows me to spend an ample amount of time watching Internet videos. The schedule is also completely flexible, so much so that I could actually work from home, bed or the beach.

Are there any downsides to this job? The hours are odd, which is good and bad. I may have to work every now and then at midnight, but I would then get compensatory time off.

Did you go to school for this job? At Michigan State I studied video production and I also took a lot of IT classes that revolved around streaming video and other web technologies, so yes, I did go to school for this.

What’s your background? I’m a Detroit boy, through and through. Michigan will always be my home but I’m happy to hang my hat in Chicago for the time being.

How are you involved in Chicago’s gay community? I am the president of the Chicago Gay Hockey Association, which is Chicago’s exclusive outlet for a discrimination-free zone for hockey players.

Do you belong to any organizations or groups in your spare time? In addition to the Chicago Gay Hockey Association, I am also on the board for an MSU alumni interest group.

Do you like to travel? Traveling is one of my favorite activities. I will go anywhere at anytime.

Where is your favorite vacation spot? Traverse City, Mich., and Barcelona, Spain, are my two favorite spots to go on vacation.

What do you like to do on your vacation? When I’m traveling I like to just enjoy the sights, sounds and cuisine of wherever I am. My favorite part of traveling is to be disconnected from my life. I like to leave my phone in the hotel and take off my watch so that I don’t feel any pressure to do anything other than go with the flow.

Do you have any hobbies? Did I mention hockey? I also enjoy filming with my video camera and will someday edit all my footage together. Going to the movies is also one of my favorite activities.

What do you like about these hobbies? I have always loved filming. It allows you to be behind the camera and really focus your view on what is being filmed. In essence you can ignore everything outside the frame that you’re shooting.

Do these hobbies require any special skills? Hockey and filming don’t take skill per se – hours and hours of practice help – but I think anyone could play hockey or film if they were interested.

Anything else that we should know about you? I guess if anyone wants to know more about me then they should come watch the CGHA play a game and say hello after!

What’s your latest project? I have been working on a music video with my friend Stephen Leonard for his album “With a Pen.”

How did this project come about? Stephen and I have known each other since college, and he knew that I like to film so he asked if I wanted to help him make a music video and I jumped at the chance.

What excites you about this project? I love working with friends on small projects, I love the collaborative process that a small team helps to foster. And I really love Stephen’s music, so to help bring it to more people is something that I am happy to do.

One wish for others: I wish that everyone were a hockey fan.

Personal or organization website: chicagogayhockey.org.