Alumni
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Aidan Pace
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Aidan Pace is from Fayetteville, TN, and is a senior in the School of Engineering majoring in biomedical engineering. Although he has long aspired to a career in STEM, many of Aidan’s activities in high school sought to address educational disparities and youth maltreatment in his community. During his junior year of high school, Aidan joined the student advisory board for Junior’s House Child Advocacy Center, which provided resources for the victims of child abuse and neglect. He also heavily invested in mentoring and tutoring students at a local, Title-1 elementary school during his junior and senior years. These experiences granted Aidan insight into the structural disadvantages experienced by under-resourced youth in his community and pushed him to pursue equality in opportunity on behalf of such individuals.
During his time at Vanderbilt, Aidan has focused his service around health care and education access. He works with Project C.U.R.E. by leading engineering groups to clean and test C.U.R.E.’s medical equipment before distribution. He also volunteers at ACEing Autism where he serves as director of the Nashville branch. Additionally, he supports Preston Taylor Ministries (PTM) through service, especially admiring the way PTM encourages learning and character development in its students via love, inclusion, and extensive mentorship.
Aidan conducted a summer project with PTM the summer after his freshman year. PTM noted a desire to bolster resilience in its students and described a disconnect for students transitioning from the elementary program into the middle school program, and Aidan addressed these issues by creating and implementing a curriculum aimed specifically at PTM’s rising fifth grade students. He designed the program to prepare students for the confusing transition to middle school and encourage continued involvement in PTM past elementary school. The project did so via activities, games, and reading which educated students on resilience in the face of change. At the end of the summer, Aidan submitted the curriculum he created to PTM for modification and reuse in subsequent years.
Aidan attributes his passion for empowering students and communities to his Catholic background and the responsibility required in caring for his younger siblings. His fellow Ingram Scholars constantly impress him with their motivation and passion for social progress while pushing him to greater ambition and consideration for the welfare of others. Aidan is honored to be a member of such an incredible group of students for the duration of his Vanderbilt undergraduate career.