The Vanderbilt Story

Students who are the first in their families to graduate from college defy easy categorization. Nearly 40 percent of undergraduates at four-year colleges in the U.S. are the children of parents who did not attend college, transcending clear lines of race, geography and gender. And while the median household income of first-generation students tends to… Read More

A simple quest for new sheets a few years ago led to the creation of an international luxury brand—Boll & Branch—a company as well-known for its ethical practices and philanthropy as it is for the quality of its products. Read More

In the latest VUCast: Learn how researchers behind a life-saving social media campaign are promising #WeWillNotGiveUp; find out how your brain "sees" in the dark; and hear about the No. 1 ranking that's making Vanderbilt students happy. Watch now! Read More

Helping young Americans succeed in a global environment is both a vocation and a passion for Mohamed Abdel-Kader. “Students and business people need a global understanding and mindset to exist in the world today,” says Abdel-Kader, deputy assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of International and Foreign… Read More

Round in his vivid yellow topcoat, white bars on his gray wings, the songbird hops in tree-limb shade in New York’s Central Park. It’s early spring, and Kellye Rosenheim, director of development at New York City Audubon, has a catch in her voice as she points him out—indicating where to… Read More

On June 20, 1877, just two years after it opened its doors to students, Vanderbilt University granted its first undergraduate degrees during a grand Commencement ceremony held in the chapel of Kirkland Hall, which was known in those early days as Main Hall. Read More

Recruiting student athletes may seem like a no-brainer: Find the most talented players on the field, then make sure they can manage a demanding academic load. But for Vanderbilt baseball’s head coach, Tim Corbin—“Corbs” to his players—desirable stats and good grades aren’t quite enough. Corbin, who was named College… Read More

Before winning NBC’s The Sing Off last December with his fellow Melodores, Ted Moock, BS’15, had already been cast to play a Treblemaker in the movie Pitch Perfect 2, currently out in theatres. Read More

Liz and Russ Fleischer are living a Vanderbilt Owen love story. What began as a chance meeting when they were paired as foursome partners at an Owen-sponsored golf tournament in the summer of 1990 soon blossomed into a relationship set against the backdrop of study sessions for finance class and… Read More

Paul Turczynski graduated Vanderbilt University in 1990 with dual undergraduate degrees in electrical and biomedical engineering and a plan to go to medical school. Today, he’s the director for The Boeing Company’s Solution Architectures Group with the Electronics & Information Solutions unit. Read More

Here are some of the things Adrian Reif has done since graduating from Vanderbilt eight years ago: Taught English in China. Started an environmental consulting company. Worked for a wealth management company. Trekked Nepal and climbed Mount Everest. Brewed his own kraut, kombucha and kefir. Been featured in Martha Stewart Living. Read More

In early September 2014, Ian Crozier, M.D.,’97, supervised the jet evacuation of a critically ill patient from Kenema, the epicenter of the raging Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone. An exhausted Crozier told the medical team that he hoped he didn’t have to see them again. One week later, he did. Read More

Oliver Luckett, BA’96, never saw it coming. When he stepped off the curb to cross the busy San Francisco street, the taxi cab was moving much too fast for him to react. And in the blink of an eye, his life was never the same. Read More

They walked up to us, one by one, for nearly two hours, many of them with tears in their eyes. Then they looked at the man seated next to me, clasped his hands, and spoke from the heart. I’m sorry for what you went through. I could have done more… Read More

Jack Minardi’s work represents a huge step in a technology known for making giant leaps. Minardi, BE’12, is co-founder and software engineering lead for Voxel8, developer of a custom-electronics-producing 3-D printer that is a darling of tech media, attracting attention from Wired and Popular Mechanics. Fast Company named it one of The 9 Best Ideas… Read More

A service leader who spent last spring break in Ghana. A younger brother and Best Buddies member. A mass transit planner. And a spinal-cord injury researcher. Four undergraduate students—each a scholarship recipient, each enriching the Vanderbilt community. In the midst of the financial collapse of 2008, Vanderbilt took a bold… Read More

Jameson Norton clearly recalls the event that would determine the course of his life before his career had even started. He was sitting in his senior English class at Nashville’s Montgomery Bell Academy. First class of the day. Eight-thirty a.m. Sept. 11, 2001. “The dean of students interrupted the class… Read More

Seven years ago, The Martha Rivers Ingram Commons did not exist. Now, “The Commons” says goodbye to its inaugural dean, opening a new chapter in Vanderbilt history. “We all have to remember that before Dean Wcislo, no one had an idea what The Commons was, or could be,” said Professor… Read More

It’s a story of love and determination and a debilitating lifelong disorder. A son’s rare genetic disease has led his mom to become a scientist at Vanderbilt University. Watch this VUCast Extra and a mom’s race against time. Read More

Hear how a talented student is earning accolades in Vienna; see what an engineering student built to advance biomedical research; and celebrate with the newly accepted members of the Class of 2019. Watch now! Read More