Bringing the Music to Music City
Coming to college can be overwhelming for a lot of reasons. You’re away from home, you’re living with a bunch of new people, and you’re finally tasting independence for one of the first times in your newly adult life.
When faced with this realization senior year, I decided I would approach coming to Vanderbilt with some strategy. I don’t mean anything fancy or elaborate— I just decided beforehand to really take my time to feel out the school and figure out what I want to do here.
When it comes to classes, I’ve tried my best to get a good mix. First semester I took courses in everything from History of Art to Calculus (not my best idea), and this time around I’m even trying my hand at a few in HOD.
Outside the classroom is where my strategy really came into play though. At Vanderbilt there are so many options when it comes to clubs and activities, and instead of over-committing from the get-go, I tried to find the few I enjoyed most of all to get really involved in.
Obviously, with so many options it wasn’t hard to find things I liked, but it seemed like the one group I was dying to join kept eluding me until a campus-wide email went out three weeks ago.
The head of the Vanderbilt Programming Board emailed the student body about the release of applications for the seven separate programming groups that make up VPB, including the one I had wanted to join since before I even got into Vanderbilt— The Music Group.
As stated on their website, the group “plans, publicizes, and produces several concerts a year for students of Vanderbilt and the Nashville community,” most notably the annual Commodore Quake and Rites of Spring Music Festival.
For music lovers like me, the opportunity that joining the group provides is incredible. You not only get to decide with the group who you want to perform at Vandy, but you also get to work directly with booking and budgeting and learn what it really takes to put on a community-wide event of such a large scale.
After a long application process complete with two interviews, I somehow ended up as a part of one of the coolest clubs at Vandy, and even got a sneak peek at the lineup for this year’s Rites! I’m not technically supposed to say anything, but I’ll let you guys know that when the lineup’s announced on Tuesday you won’t be disappointed.
I can’t wait to enjoy Rites with the group this year, and I’ll be sure to bring my camera to give you guys a look at all the mayhem that goes on backstage!