Dr. Craig Nakashian credits an encounter with an educator while applying for doctoral programs that led him to where he is today.

Nakashian is the dean of the honors college and professor of history at Texas A&M University-Texarkana.

“I like to tell this story because it’s not a story of resilience. It’s a story of stubborn petulance, and sometimes that pays off,” Nakashian said.

After graduating from his masters program in Durham University in England, Nakashian applied to several schools in hopes of entering their Ph.D. program in history. He was rejected from them all, including his top pick of the University of Rochester.

Dejected, Nakashian reached out to the university to understand why. An email back from a Dr. Tim Brown, the chair of the history department, explained that they had several good applicants and limited space, but that he was certain Nakashian would be successful wherever he was accepted.

“At this point, I figured my life’s over. What do I care? I want to be a professor, I need a Ph.D. to get to be a professor. Can’t get a Ph.D., can’t be a professor … Whatever my life’s over. So I wrote this incredibly condescendingly angry email to this random chair of a department at a top research university in America,” Nakashian said.

“I remember hitting send and thinking, ‘Well, that’s that. I wonder if they’re hiring for assistant manager at the liquor store where I am.’”

It was a follow-up reply from Brown that changed Nakashian’s life.

“The only reason I’m sitting here is because he responded,” Nakashian said.

The email chastised him for his approach but explained in depth why he was not accepted.

The following year, Nakashian reapplied and was accepted into Rochester.

It was the “grace” Brown showed Nakashian in giving him a second chance that he said he has tried to emulate in his career.

“Life sometimes gets in the way of what we want to do and we may not react to it as well … But I always try to remember that to kind of ground myself. If he hasn’t shown me that grace, I’d like to think I’d be manager of … another liquor store in Western Massachusetts. I’d be the most bitter, well-read manager you had,” Nakashian said.