And So It Begins…
Hey there! Starting now, for an indefinite period of time (roughly equal to 7 semesters), I’m going to be sharing my life at Vanderbilt with you, the prospective students (“prospies”) and parents, in order to hopefully give you a better understanding of what life here is like and why you should pursue your undergraduate career here.
There are so many things I could write in this first post, but I think the most appropriate would be an introduction:
I am an 18-year-old freshman from Pensacola, FL living in Sutherland House, and I am majoring in Computer Engineering in Vandy’s School of Engineering. I know that sounds like all fun and games to you, but I am very involved in extracurricular activities as well: I am the Patrons Director and Webmaster for The Original Cast, Vanderbilt’s premiere Broadway revue troupe (and the group about which Eileen posted a while back – in fact, I’m the friend she talked about in the post! :D), and I am the Director of Team Management for the Vanderbilt Mobile Application Team (VMAT).
Finally, on top of all of that, I work as a software engineer for the Department of Psychology and Human Development. We are currently developing an open-source project tentatively titled “Experiment Builder” that allows you to do just that: build experiments. In the short term, it will be used for psychological research only, but it is my understanding that we will eventually be expanding the project to other types of research. We’ve been working on the project since October, and I’m still incredibly excited by it and willing to tell anyone who will listen.
I’d love to share all of the details of every single one of those things with you all right now, but that would make this post entirely too long. Plus, I gotta keep you coming back for more right? ;)
One thing I need to leave you with, however, (and something that I will continuously reiterate in each one of my posts in the future) is that Vanderbilt University is a truly magnificent – some would say magical – place. I personally had a long, difficult struggle deciding between Vanderbilt and MIT (that’s a story for another post), but I would be absolutely lying to you if I said that I could imagine myself anywhere else but here. The minute you step on campus, you feel utterly welcome – a feeling that extends to your classes, your professors, and, most importantly, your peers. I could go on and on, and I can’t wait to share my life here with all of you.