Many Voices, One VU
From D to Dean
May. 2, 2017—Vanessa Beasley, Ph.D. Dean of The Martha Rivers Ingram Commons When I remember it now, I can still hear the sound of my mother crying. In the 1980s, when I was a Vanderbilt undergraduate, your final semester grades were sent home via the mail. There was no way for students to look up your final...
Identity, Adversity, and the Weight of Conforming
May. 2, 2017—“…I thought he was gay…”—five words that haunted me for the first twenty years of my life. I heard them whispered through the halls of my middle school by the “popular kids” that I wanted so badly to impress. I felt their scornful and demoralizing intentions in the concerned words of my Sunday school teachers...
Double-Majoring in Blair
May. 2, 2017—The start of my college experience was far from glamorous. I was enrolled in 16 hours but had class for twice that amount of time. Being a part of a campus that felt off the beaten path and practicing hours a day isolated me and skewed The Commons experience I hoped I would have. I...
Losing a Loved One
Apr. 27, 2017—Haneesha Paruchuri, ’19 College of Arts and Sciences I woke up early one summer morning with a sense of unrest. Only a few hours previously, we had celebrated my friend’s twentieth birthday; yet, for some inexplicable reason, I felt lonely with a sense of longing for home. Having only been home for three weeks this...
Get Connected: The Many Faces of Vanderbilt
Apr. 27, 2017—Henry Bristol, ’19 School of Engineering When I got to Vanderbilt my freshman year, I had no idea what to expect. Frankly, I had set foot on campus just once before, and made the decision to come here because I couldn’t convince myself out of it. I was hesitant. I still vividly remember that first day...
Constant Conversations
Apr. 27, 2017—Audrey Glover, ’19 College of Arts and Sciences, Writing Studio Consultant I took every single paper I wrote freshman year to the writing studio. I loved having the space to talk about and improve my own work and have someone engage deeply with my ideas. It wasn’t until a consultant once encouraged me to apply...
Finding Purpose at Vanderbilt
Apr. 27, 2017—Krystal Clark Director, Office of Student Leadership Development Purpose is central to intentional action and it is one of the hardest but most fulfilling things to uncover. I say “uncover” because I believe that it is already inside of us, but it’s buried underneath a need to learn, grow, experience, fail, resist, laugh, compare, trust,...
Over-Involvement
Apr. 27, 2017—Do you know that feeling when your hands aren’t doing anything? You know, the one that they should be doing something? That’s how I felt on August 22, 2014, which was the date of the Student Organization Fair on The Commons. It was intense and overwhelming, but wonderful and exciting at the same time, and I...
Reflections from a Graduate HR
Apr. 27, 2017—Emily Thompson, ’19 Vanderbilt School of Medicine, The Graduate School Welcome to Vandy, Class of 2021!! From Fall 2015 onward, I have received the phenomenal privilege of serving as Head Resident Advisor for Gillette House – an incredible honor and dream come true! A New England native, I graduated in May 2015 from the University...
The Essence of The Commons
Apr. 27, 2017—Gabi Grys, ’18 Peabody College The word tradition means “the handing down of statements, beliefs, legends, customs, information, etc., from generation to generation, especially by word of mouth or by practice.” My first year of college was marked by one tradition in particular: on Thursdays, I ate pancakes. Now this was not just a regular...
LOSING A LOVED ONE
Mar. 29, 2017—Jackson Vaught, ’16, College of Arts and Science The first year of college can be difficult for anyone—moving away from home, finding new friends, adjusting to class…the list can get quite lengthy in terms of what can complicate the transition. During the spring semester of my first year at Vanderbilt, I experienced something unexpected that...
FAILURES IN A BOTTLE
Mar. 29, 2017—Andrew Brodsky, ’18, Peabody College, Student VUceptor At times, it seems the problem on our campus is that everyone is just too talented. There is someone here who is better than you at everything, and without any effort at all. They’re double majoring in chemical and biomedical engineering, studying abroad, and feeding 2,000 starving children...
ALMOST TRANSFERRING
Mar. 29, 2017—Anonymous I could not have been more excited to come to Vanderbilt. My brother, cousins, and older friends loved their experiences, and this was MY TIME. Everyone seemed certain I was going to love everything about school, so it never occurred to me that this might not be the case. Unfortunately, my first semester at...
EMBRACING INTERSECTIONALITY
Mar. 29, 2017—Kenya Wright, ’18, College of Arts and Science, VUcept Executive Board I am a Black Hispanic. That is who I am, who I’ve always been, and who I’ll always be. My culture is a mixture infused with Latino and Caribbean elements. Growing up, my home was filled with a tangle of accents and languages, an...
ACCEPTANCE
Mar. 29, 2017—Farishtay Yamin, ’17, School of Engineering I tolerate a fly buzzing around a room. I tolerate an electricity outage. Maybe I complain, but I’ve learned to become patient. The fly irritates me, but I have to deal with it. It’s a fact of life. My freshman year I prayed somewhere in the stacks of Peabody...
TOKENISM
Mar. 29, 2017—Lauren Pak, ’17, Peabody College As the daughter of first generation immigrants, coming from a high school where over half the students spoke a language other than English at home, my transition to a rather homogenous college campus where my ethnic immigrant experience was in the minority, was difficult. During a discussion section in my...
MICROAGGRESSIONS
Mar. 29, 2017—Aaditi Naik, ’18 College of Arts and Science With debates on freedom of speech throughout the last year, I’ve watched this campus struggle with microagressions again and again. These conversations can’t capture the reality of microaggressions– the subtle, nuanced sexism from a professor or peer. It’s so easy for people to tell me to let these things...
PRIVILEGE
Mar. 29, 2017—Nick Sparkman, ’17, School of Engineering “So… what are you?” This question, asked by a white student, was posed to a person in my house who identifies as biracial. I watched my friend hesitantly fielding the question. I cannot truly understand what he felt as he was (under social pressure) forced to explain his racial...
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
Mar. 29, 2017—Julian Sun, ’17, College of Arts and Science One night last semester, I went to Kissam’s Munchie Mart to get my routine midnight swipe: blue Powerade, a bag of chips (barbeque flavor), and the best red apple I could dig out of the remaining bruised ones. This was so automatic for me that I didn’t notice there...
ACCESSIBILITY: PHYSICAL AND OTHERWISE
Mar. 29, 2017—Jesse Bennett, ’19, College of Arts and Science I thought I would have an easier time adjusting to Vanderbilt than most students. I grew up in Green Hills, after all, and attended USN, minutes away from The Commons. Still, I found a campus that was more challenging, exciting, and rewarding than anything I could have...
STEPPING OUTSIDE MY COMFORT ZONE
Mar. 29, 2017—Ben Taylor, ’15, School of Engineering Looking at my journey through four years at Vanderbilt, the graduating senior who I am now would barely recognize the homeschooled high school senior who came here in fall 2011. While it may seem as though I now have it “all figured out,” I was quite the opposite when...
P.S.: STRUGGLING WITH COMING OUT
Mar. 29, 2017—Tom Agger, ’17, School of Engineering When I finally came out to my parents, I was relieved. “Finally, I’m done with this” I thought to myself. I had started writing them a very generic camp letter. I don’t know who came up with the idea that kids and parents would both rejoice at the exchange...
MAKING IT WORK
Mar. 29, 2017—Georgia Murray, ’19, College of Arts and Science Jordan Barone, ’16, College of Arts and Science “Oh, you work at the Pub, right?” Second only to “Aren’t you the British one?” this is the greeting I’m most used to when I meet new people on campus. Honestly, I hadn’t expected these two little facts to...
FINDING COMFORT IN IDENTITY: LIVING WITH AUTISM
Mar. 29, 2017—Emelyne Bingham, Senior Lecturer in the Teaching of Music, Blair School of Music, Faculty VUceptor Kyle Schwartz, ’19, College of Arts and Science Thanks to Vanderbilt Visions, we were fortunate to have formed a friendship through the common experience of living with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). While we received our diagnoses at different ages (Kyle at...
TO BOLDLY GO WHERE YOU HAVE NOT GONE BEFORE
Mar. 29, 2017—Nadiah Nordin, ’16, School of Engineering The first eighteen years of my life were spent in Malaysia, the land I was born in. Even then, I had always dreamed of going abroad for studies or on vacation. My parents, two high school teachers with four children to feed, could never have afforded it, although we...