The Vanderbilt Story
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Rising Star: Jedidah Isler is forging new paths in astrophysics—and diversity among aspiring scientists
As a little girl growing up in Virginia Beach, Virginia, Jedidah Isler was obsessed with the sky. “I really just thought it was beautiful,” she says, “and I remember feeling a sense of calm whenever I looked up.” Today that same sense of calm and wonderment continues to help fuel Isler’s… Read MoreJun 22, 2016
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’Dore of Opportunity: Parents’ Example Sparks a Major Commitment to Students’ Financial Needs
Hoping to ensure that the door to a Vanderbilt education is open to every talented student inspired Board of Trust member Dr. Robert Schiff Jr., BS’77, a Cincinnati pediatrician, to make a transformative $10,000,000 commitment to Opportunity Vanderbilt. Begun at the outset of the financial crisis in 2008, Opportunity… Read MoreJun 18, 2016
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Kate the Wasp
Kate Hendricks’ career in comedy started off slowly. In fact, she only realized she wanted to pursue comedy during an interview for a job at an ad agency. So she did what a lot of self-respecting comedians do: She moved to New York City and performed anywhere that would have… Read MoreJun 10, 2016
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Asheeka Desai: Communication Studies Major and Head Resident, Hank Ingram House
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. After my first year I became… Read MoreMay 12, 2016
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Class of 2016: Deya Maldas merges her passions for service and music
When Deya Maldas signed up to be a tutor at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Middle Tennessee, she didn’t know she was about to have the most transformative experience of her freshman year. Read MoreMay 9, 2016
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Class of 2016: Sam Reilly turns his love of fine coffee into a social media app
Sam Reilly does some of his best thinking when he’s out for a run with his Vanderbilt cross-country teammates. It is one of the rare moments in his busy schedule when he can stretch his mind along with his legs. Read MoreMay 9, 2016
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Class of 2016: Sam Hoskins finds identity and purpose in mentoring first-year students
Sam Hoskins has spent the last four years living on The Martha Rivers Ingram Commons. From his introduction to the residential community as a first-year student in Gillette House to his last three years as a resident adviser in North House, Hoskins says The Ingram Commons has played a significant role in his journey of self-discovery. Read MoreMay 5, 2016
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Class of 2016: Michaela Novakovic mixes music and science
Michaela Novakovic’s majors take her from the grand to the microscopic on a daily basis. The Sorrento, Florida, native and Blair School of Music senior is a double major in harp and molecular and cellular biology. Read MoreMay 5, 2016
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Class of 2016: Connor D. Henderson advocates for human rights and the arts
In his four years at Vanderbilt, Connor D. Henderson has become a strong advocate for expanded campus space and resources for student productions. Some of his favorite memories are of cultural showcases by the Vanderbilt performing arts community filled with music, dance and food. Read MoreMay 4, 2016
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Class of 2016: Gabrielle Tate is designing cars—and her future
School of Engineering senior Gabrielle Tate—Gabbey to her friends—has the drive it takes to make U.S. automakers take notice. Read MoreMay 4, 2016
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Class of 2016: Jack Coen creates a song cycle—from scratch
On Leap Day—Feb. 29—Blair School of Music senior Jack Coen took a leap of faith. That night Coen, a composition and theory major, premiered his capstone project "Folk and Flora"—a song cycle based on flowers and how people relate to them—in Sarratt Cinema to a full house. Read MoreApr 29, 2016
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Class of 2016: Safiah Hassan celebrates diversity and champions cultural exchange
Growing up in small-town Kentucky, Safiah Hassan longed to live in a larger city with a diverse population. After coming to Vanderbilt, she made seeking out diverse communities a hallmark of her university experience. Read MoreApr 29, 2016
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Class of 2016: Pranjal Gupta pursues chemical engineering, pre-med, film and more
There’s the Pranjal Gupta dressed in kurta and pyjama, his feet keeping time with an impossibly fast Indian dance tune. And then there’s the Pranjal Gupta in a lab coat, peering through glasses at data on how children with autism integrate sight and sound. Read MoreApr 21, 2016
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Class of 2016: Eunice Jun uses design to communicate visually and virtually
Like many little girls, Eunice Jun was a ballerina growing up. But by the time the Los Angeles native arrived at Vanderbilt four years ago, she had traded in her toe shoes to cultivate twin interests in graphic design and technology, pursuing double majors in cognitive studies at Peabody College and computer science at the School of Engineering. Read MoreApr 20, 2016
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Class of 2016: Ariel Helms’ past inspires her path for the future
For Ariel Helms, a genealogy search when she was young revealed a long-kept secret: Her ancestors were Cherokee Native Americans. Read MoreApr 20, 2016
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Class of 2016: Rani Banjarian discovers America—and his voice as a writer
For Rani Banjarian, the summer of 2006 was the defining moment of his young life. For a month that summer, artillery and airstrikes were a daily occurrence as the unrest between his home country of Lebanon and neighboring Israel grew into the July War. Read MoreApr 20, 2016
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Dr. Annabelle de St. Maurice, MPH’15: Disease Detective
Dr. Annabelle de St. Maurice rapidly is ascending to the cutting edge of addressing the practical problems of world-impacting diseases. After earning her master’s degree in public health at Vanderbilt, in July 2015 she began work in Atlanta at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as an Epidemic… Read MoreMar 24, 2016
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No Biz Like Show Biz: Vanderbilt Alumni Are Ubiquitous in New York Theater
Vanderbilt alumni are making a splash on Broadway, as evidenced by several recent graduates currently working both behind the scenes and in front of the lights in New York City productions. Many of them worked together as members of Original Cast, Vanderbilt on Broadway and Vanderbilt University Theatre. Some are… Read MoreMar 21, 2016
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James H. Hill is one of the youngest African Americans to become a tenured professor in computer science
James Hill, an associate professor of computer and information science at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis, is one of the youngest African Americans to become a tenured professor in computer science at a research university in the United States. He gained the distinction last August, when his tenure appointment in the… Read MoreMar 20, 2016
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10 Questions with Jeremy Price, English major, tour guide and premier “tricker”
Meet Jeremy Price: the senior English major, Tour Guide exec member, and premier “tricker” who (when not in a cast) can be seen doing backflips on Alumni Lawn. The Hustler sat down with Jeremy to hear about his unique amalgamation of majors, what exactly tricking is, tour guide escapades, his… Read MoreMar 18, 2016