P.O.V.

Brian Jones, BA’02, writes about how traveling the world has changed his life. Read More

By Bryant Palmer, BA’95 JON KRAUSE   It’s 1994, and I’m in the offices of the Vanderbilt Hustler at 10 a.m. on a Wednesday. I spend as much time here as anywhere else on campus, but not usually this early. I’ve got a phone interview, not with a dean… Read More

Vanderbilt Divinity School received a $1 million grant from the Henry Luce Foundation last December to establish the Public Theology and Racial Justice Collaborative. Dean Emilie M. Townes is serving as the project’s director. Read More

In 2009 three friends and I co-founded Plastic Pollution Coalition at my dining room table, adding a fourth “R”—Refuse—to the traditional three: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Why “refuse”? Because disposable plastic is made from petroleum, is used for only brief periods and lasts forever, causing great harm to wildlife and humans. Read More

Many people leaving prison face insurmountable barriers to obtaining basic necessities like housing, employment and driver’s licenses. Despite the types of offenses on their record, the length of time that has lapsed since their last offense, or overwhelming evidence that they have reformed, their criminal history often is the only thing that matters. Read More

Professor Marshall Eakin discusses how the Zika epidemic, a divided political atmosphere and a weak economy are plaguing Brazil in the lead-up to the 2016 Summer Olympics. Read More

I’m graduating in May, and while it will be hard to leave Vanderbilt, it will be even harder to leave The Commons. The Commons has been such a defining part of my Vanderbilt experience, and has been my home here since day one. Read More

Consider inviting a student into your home to spend a holiday with you. It may seem daunting, but it’s not difficult. And it’s well worth the effort. You’ll certainly make a difference in the student’s life—as well as your own. Read More

Where did I learn to write? I didn’t learn to write in one semester, but I learned to ask for help—and I’m still asking. Read More

Being denied admission to Vanderbilt was more painful for us than our kid’s first trip to the emergency room. We agreed to write this in the hope that our family’s story might be helpful to some fellow alums. Read More

As parents we were proud of Sara’s curiosity, boldness, openness to new experiences and thirst for life. And we were even more proud of the woman who returned to us from France after her junior year, more self-confident and aware of the world around her. Read More

To date, Rosevelt Noble has completed roughly 150 various interviews relating to his project and has taken more than 175,000 photos documenting the experience of African Americans on campus. Read More

As we have traversed these past 10 years after college, each relationship plays a part in our lives, whether as an active participant or as a meaningful memory. Through these interactions we may find a few people who link themselves intricately to our lives—those rare “lifelong friends.” Read More

Andrea McDermott Sanders, MEd'06, has run in 10 consecutive Music City Marathons to raise money for the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center Reading Clinic. Her inspiration? A young man with Down syndrome named William Spickard. Read More

My dad used to tell me I took things for granted, especially on my birthday or Christmas. I always thought he was just a party pooper. But of course, you should never ignore what a wise Chinese man has to say. Read More

In 2004, Kristin Fleschner began a year as a Vanderbilt Michael B. Keegan Traveling Fellow, journeying to Africa to study sexual violence against women and children. Now a student at Harvard Law School, Fleschner received a pancreas transplant in 2007 and started experiencing vision loss in 2008. Read More

Credit: Daniel Dubois By Michael Pollack, Class of 2016 I had a recurring dream when I was a child. I would sit at my piano, close my eyes, and my living room would transform into a stadium or concert hall. One of my favorite artists would be… Read More

Credit: GORDON STUDER BY PROFESSOR DOUGLAS C. SCHMIDT During the past decade I’ve taught software design and programming courses to roughly 600 undergraduate and graduate students at Vanderbilt. Our low faculty-to-student ratio is one of the reasons I like my work—it’s gratifying to watch students’ progress and envision… Read More

Students from Birmingham, Ala., arrive at the Beijing airport during the summer of 2012. Wyatt Smith is in the middle of the back row holding the pink sign. (Courtesy of Wyatt Smith)   BY WYATT SMITH, BS’10 Three months into my Teach For America experience, I received a phone… Read More

Roy looked like he was 15 at most. He looked like a water boy for a varsity sports team. But without him, my platoon was culturally blind and deaf. Read More