Taylor Swift, Chancellor Zeppos, and VU’s ‘Wildest Dreams’
On September 25 and 26, Taylor Swift played a pair of sold-out concerts at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena. As you might imagine, these were some of the hottest tickets Nashville has seen in a long time, and you can bet that there were more than a few Vanderbilt students in attendance. Admissions counselor Annalise Miyashiro was one of the many Commodores filling the arena – you can see some of her excellent concert photos below.
A lucky few VU Swifties received an extra special treat, courtesy of Vanderbilt’s Chancellor, Nicholas S. Zeppos: they joined him to watch the concert from box seats. The students were winners of Vanderbilt’s “Wildest Dreams” social media contest, which asked students to use Taylor Swift lyrics to answer the question, “how has Vanderbilt made your ‘Wildest Dreams’ come true?”
More than 360 tweets, instagrams, and tumblr posts with the hashtag #vuswift rolled in before 20 finalists were selected. Seven winners were then chosen at random and invited to bring a guest to join the Chancellor for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. And the finalists who weren’t chosen as winners were invited to hang with the Chancellor in his box seats for the Vanderbilt vs. Kentucky football game on November 14. How cool is that? No wonder Vanderbilt has been ranked as the happiest student body for 2 years in a row!
Winners of the #VUSwift contest watch the #TaylorSwift concert with Chancellor Zeppos in the Vanderbilt box seats. pic.twitter.com/nSdyfCl9wb
— Vanderbilt (@VanderbiltU) September 26, 2015
So, how has Vanderbilt made students’ wildest dreams come true? You can see a few of the tweets and instagrams from the finalists below, as well as some of the posts from the excited contest winners at social.vanderbilt.edu. But to really answer that question, you need more than 140 characters. Check out the Inside ‘Dores student blog for more perspectives from current students, or visit our Contact a Student page to ask your own questions.
Being at Vanderbilt is “like I got this music in my mind saying, “It’s gonna be alright.” #VUSwift
A photo posted by Clark Stallings (@clark.stallings) on Sep 21, 2015 at 9:19pm PDT
@VanderbiltU: “I don’t know how it gets better than this. You take my hand and drag me head first. Fearless!” #VUSwift #AnchorDown
— Kaitlyn Taylor (@kmtaylor620) September 18, 2015
A photo posted by Kathryn Babbin (@the_life_of_babs) on Sep 19, 2015 at 12:28pm PDT
Spending the last 8 months; Thinking all my research does is break&burn&end; But on a Wednesday, in MRB3, I watched it begin again #VUSwift
— Emily Claire Rockoff (@ClaireEmiwee) September 21, 2015