First. Post. EVER!
Hello Internet world!
This is my first blog post. Ever.
I enjoy reading people’s blogs and exploring blogs online but I’d never thought I’d get to be part of a blogging team. However, last year I heard from Jae Maeng, another Inside ‘Dores blogger, about his “job” for the Vanderbilt Admissions Office: writing blog posts about his life at Vanderbilt. I was very intrigued and thought it sounded awesome especially because he got to write about whatever he wanted to and got to share it with others. As it is, I love sharing my Vanderbilt experience with my friends back home, my family, and really anyone who is interested in hearing about it, even total strangers. (I’ve had some great conversations with people on planes because they’re intrigued by what it’s like to be a student at Vanderbilt.) I asked Jae how I could be a part of the blogging team and he told me that applications would go out at the beginning of this semester.
And now here I am, an Inside ‘Dores blogger. And here this is, my first blog post ever!
In case you have (or haven’t) read my bio I’m going to go ahead and talk a little bit more why I chose Vanderbilt and what I do as a Vanderbilt student.
The first time I heard about Vanderbilt my family and I were on a road trip to Washington D.C. the summer after my sophomore year of high school. We were driving through Nashville and saw an exit sign on IH-40 that had Vanderbilt University written on it. We were in no rush to go through Nashville so we made an impromptu loop around the campus. Later on I researched more about the school and fell in love with Peabody College because I knew I wanted to study to be a teacher and Peabody was nationally ranked the #1 school of education (it’s #2 now but it will always be #1 for me). Plus Nashville seemed like a really great city with lots of life and rhythm to it––both musical and social. The next summer I came back to tour the school and knew it was for me. One of the things that really drew me in was a comment my tour guide had made about how Alternative Spring Break was the largest organization on campus (and still is!) and that the school provided many opportunities for students to do service in Nashville and abroad. I loved volunteering in high school and knew that I definitely wanted to continue it in college. What better than a school whose largest organization was devoted to service?
Now that I’m at Vanderbilt I keep myself busy and involved with a variety of organizations on campus. The first organization I got involved with at Vanderbilt was University Catholic. Coming to college I really wanted to find a Catholic community that would help me to be accountable for and take responsibility of continuing to develop myself as an active Catholic. UCat, short for University Catholic, has been a true blessing in my time here at Vanderbilt. I’m also involved with VIDA, the Latin dance group on campus. In VIDA I’ve become part of another community of people and one where I can live out my Hispanic heritage. It’s been awesome to grow as a dancer alongside this great group of people and to get out of my comfort zone by learning to choreograph and teach choreography and, most fun, to become part of the wider Latin dance community in Nashville. I’m also part of the Alternative Spring Break community on campus––part of the reason I fell in love with Vanderbilt. I was a participant on ASB my freshman year on Like a Prayer in Huntsville, Alabama and was a site leader on Jungle Gym in Kansas City, Missouri as a sophomore. Being part of ASB has been one of the highlights of my undergraduate experience! I love the three pillars of education, service, and reflection that ASB lives and breathes by (we call it “the triangle”) and that it’s a chance to get off campus with a group of people that I would have never met otherwise. I really look forward to being part of ASB once again this year and can’t wait for spring break to be here! Last, but certainly not least, I have recently joined Sigma Phi Lambda––the Christian sorority on campus. I’m really excited to be a part of this group of women who share their sisterhood in Christ!
I’ve also lived in a Living and Learning Community every year. Last year I lived in Mayfield 13 doing a “Stress Less” project with the lovely folks in the picture above. My first year I lived in Sutherland house on the Martha Rivers Ingram Commons, and this year I’m in College Halls at Kissam in Moore College. It’s been great to be a part of an LLC every year so far and I look forward to all the exciting things that are to come of my LLC experience this year!
While this definitely is not a comprehensive list of all of things I’ve done at Vanderbilt stay tuned to more of my blog posts to get a scoop on my day-to-day as well as exciting activities around this beautiful campus. I’m excited to share my Vanderbilt experience with the blog world (blogosphere? I’m still getting used to the lingo) and answer any questions. So please, please, please contact me at aleida.m.gomez@Vanderbilt.edu if you’d like to know more or have any questions. I look forward to hearing from you!