Ashton Sweeney; English, Welsh, and German descent (distant Sorbian and Channel Islander ancestry); Dr. Ashton Sweeney is an outwardly pleasant, kind, mild-mannered, and intelligent psychology professor who teaches Emma Tran's cognitive psychology course at New York University. Although he is usually easygoing and forgiving and offers leniency with some of his assignments, he is occasionally short-tempered and impatient, if somewhat neurotic when under stress, though such emotions are usually warranted. A graduate of Colgate University, he takes his subject matter very seriously and has high expectations for each of his pupils, encouraging maturity and responsibility in everyone who enrolls in his course. He often tries to challenge his students and sharpen their memory by compelling them to study for his class through his continuous pop quizzes and examinations, which could sometimes prove overwhelming to Emma with her lack of focus on the material being taught after experiencing a difficult time of loneliness and isolation in her life. Dr. Sweeney has great metaphors in his head for explaining what life is, as his ideals in life become helpful in giving inspirational speeches and pep talks. He nevertheless tries to be receptive to his students and be available when needed and is a trusted resource among many of the psychology majors at the university. He is generally well-liked and respected by both the college's faculty and student body, being characterized by his charm and quick wit. His charisma is most evident when he is giving instruction to his students, who often claim he can easily simplify complicated material and explain concepts with clarity when approached in between classes.
Professor Sweeney is also a composed person who tends to approach things through a neutral state of mind, although he has a habit of cracking cat-related jokes and puns. Regardless of his usually bright and even-tempered demeanor, he was not above displaying favoritism among some of his students, a habit that appeared unfair and unethical to many of them after becoming aware of this behavior. He also tends to quickly form strong opinions and jump to conclusions about his pupils, causing him to act in a somewhat elitist fashion when boasting about his accomplishments and subconsciously look down upon students who failed to grasp his teachings as quickly as he'd anticipated. Emma's excessive attempts at trying to socialize and pursue empty one-sided friendships with other students in the class, especially males, made her deflect attention away from her studies and fail to maximize her potential when receiving mediocre grades on tests and assignments. This further prompted Professor Sweeney's erroneous assumption that Emma was simply incompetent in learning his material and unmotivated as a student. Among his favorite students were the smart and diligent Otto Baumgarner, whom Emma secretly fancied and admired for his knowledgeability and deep comprehension of the subject matter being taught. In the meantime, another student, Rolando Oranday, made continuous attempts to ingratiate himself to the professor in an often affected, exaggerated way to earn a better grade in the course. Emma consistently proved to be a challenge to him however due to her struggles in effectively mastering the expected writing style for his courses. She turns in a disastrous research paper upon enrolling in a second course of his, Experimental Psychology, culminating in her receiving a C average towards the end of the term.
Her time spent enrolled in Dr. Sweeney courses proved to be strenuous for her, particularly as she tried to overcome her personal struggles with social anxiety and depression. She nonetheless gained a heightened perspective on the structuring of academics at the university and felt motivated to prove her professor's false perception of her to be incorrect. Emma vowed to succeed in her future psychology courses to come, and Dr. Sweeney tried to balance married life with his wife in the meantime. She was a post-doctoral fellow with aspirations of working in psychological research, with new job opportunities as he worked sporadically. He taught at the university and conducted research himself at a public health science center in Buffalo and normally wore smart casual attire and is around average height and build at 5 ft. 8. He has short blonde hair and a receding hairline, along with grayish-blue eyes and a fair complexion, and he contains many cat posters in his office, with many of his students and colleagues joking that he resembles "The Grumpy Cat". Dr. Sweeney later faces a lawsuit at his university when a student alleges that he made an inappropriate comment regarding Palestinian women and the ongoing Israel-Hamas War. He is suspended from his teaching duties until the matter is fully resolved, although it is later discovered that there is no evidence to the claims that were made. He ultimately transfers to Auburn University in Alabama, his home state, to be closer to his parents who live in Montgomery and is a regular at Specs. He tends to enjoy rugby and listening to heavy metal music in his spare time, with his favorite musician being Rob Zombie, in addition to driving an old four-door stick-shift Honda. ENTJ 3w4
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