VanderBabies! (Part 1 of 3)
Almost a year ago, I arrived at Vanderbilt as the only student from my high school class. This year, three students from my high school will be joining the Vanderbilt family. I have personally known these three students for a few years, and I couldn’t be happier that they are attending the greatest school on the planet! To help welcome them to the community, I decided to interview them.
I am devoting a blog to each student (because they are that awesome), so drumroll… meet Janine Smith! Janine graduated from Auburn High School this spring as an IB Diploma Candidate and is attending Vanderbilt as a Cornelius Vanderbilt Scholar. She is a Peabody student double majoring in Secondary Education and Chemistry. Janine enjoys reading, watching Miyazaki movies, and playing ultimate Frisbee. She also loves owls and penguins. I asked Janine a few questions about this summer and the upcoming fall.
1. What do you feel will be the most difficult adjustment from high school to college?
Being away from home. It will definitely be hard to adjust to not seeing my friends and family on a regular basis, and, since I only know 3 or 4 people at Vanderbilt, I will have to find an almost entirely new set of friends. The other difficult thing about being away from home will be adjusting to a new setting, which means not knowing exactly where, or how far away, something is and losing the comfort of familiarity.
2. Speaking of home, what are you going to miss the most from Auburn?
My friends. I have a lot of close friends that are going all over the country for college, and others that are still in high school. I’m going to really miss hanging out with them and having their support and encouragement. Although I have been assured that I will quickly make new friends in college, I will still miss my friends from home.
3. On a brighter note, what are you looking forward to the most?
Ironically, considering my answer to question 1, I’m most looking forward to being away from home. I can’t wait to meet new people, explore a new city, and just experience college!
4. What factors contributed to your decision to attend Vandy?
Vanderbilt has been my dream school throughout the college application process. The first thing that really made me love Vanderbilt was just how beautiful the campus is. Also, my aunt came to law school here, and my mom’s cousin played football at Vandy while getting his Bachelor’s degree and then stayed to obtain a Master’s degree in Business Administration. They both love Vanderbilt! I also decided to go because of the academic challenge and opportunity Vanderbilt would provide, as well as the excellence of the education program!
5. So, you have a summer between high school and college. No intense summer work (well, except for reading Half the Sky of course)! What have you been up to this summer?
This summer I have been traveling quite a bit. I really enjoyed going to a family reunion at Grand Canyon, Zion, and Bryce National Parks. I have also been reading a lot; I finished Half the Sky last week and am working on Shakespeare’s As You Like It and Dune (a SciFi book my dad recommended) at the moment. I’m also helping out around the house a lot since we’re preparing for me to go to college, and we’re planning to get our carpets redone (which means moving a lot of furniture around).
6. As you’ll soon find out, Vanderbilt has a ton of extracurricular activities that cater to a wide range of interests. What clubs/ organizations do you plan to get involved in?
I’m planning to participate in the Spirit of Gold Marching Band (I play Tenor Saxophone). I also want to get involved in some sort of volunteer work (preferably teaching oriented), and I would love to try something new like taking a dance or martial arts course!
