The Vanderbilt Story

If you’ve ever spent time in a major city, chances are you’ve come face-to-face with someone who is experiencing homelessness. Most people might walk straight past these individuals. Some might give a dollar or two. But for the average pedestrian, anything more than a small handout is too tall an… Read More

In the latest VUCast: One Vanderbilt student plans to help the world's poor; take a tour inside the new Recreation and Wellness Center; and learn how Vanderbilt experts are reaching millions. All this and more in the latest VUCast, Vanderbilt's online newscast. Watch now. Read More

Vanderbilt alumna Leslie Labruto’s early career trajectory illustrates just how many ways a young civil environmental engineer can accommodate both her heart’s leaning and her tangible talents – in as many places as possible. Before she graduated from the School of Engineering in 2011, Leslie’s studies and service work had… Read More

Anchor Down and watch Derek Mason's first 24 hours as the Commodore Nation's new head football coach. Read More

Todd Jackson, BA’96, EMBA’08, is the recipient of the Vanderbilt Alumni Association Board of Director’s new Alumni Volunteer Award. As founders and co-chairs of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center Young Ambassadors, Jackson and his wife, EB, have helped raise $250,000 and award seven Discovery Grants to innovative cancer… Read More

Long before there was a Student Recreation Center or any of the adjacent outdoor facilities, Sam Hirt was doing what he could to promote sports activities on campus, initially as Vanderbilt’s first full-time intramural director and then as head of the physical education department. In short, Hirt was Campus Recreation before there was even such a thing. Read More

What would you do if you were out with your family one day and suddenly you found yourself in the middle of a personal horror and an international news story? Where would you be, physically and reflectively, nine months later? Kevin White, MBA’10, can tell you. Read More

As Lolita Olivo carefully feeds the Vanderbilt T-shirt through her sewing machine, she dreams about building a decent house for her elderly father and three small children. Her dream soon may come true, thanks to the efforts of Joseph “Joe” Bozich. Read More

I’m leaving Africa with a heavy heart and a monumental task before me. When saying goodbyes at the Center for the Rehabilitation of Child Soldiers, Edna [not her real name]—an 18-year-old who was abducted by Ugandan rebels at the age of 12—asked me to promise her two things. First, not to forget the experiences and lives of the women I had been working with for the past year. Second, that I would use my voice to create positive change. Read More

A framed photograph, roughly 3 feet wide, hangs above the couches in the Lims’ living room. Within the frame, more than 1,000 tiny figures clad in light yellow T-shirts stand in a formation resembling the number 2012 — the graduating year of The Martha Rivers Ingram Commons’ inaugural class. The… Read More

Moving away from friends and familiar faces. New classrooms, new campus, new city. A whirlwind of introductions and different student groups to join. For most students, these sensations only hit once: at the beginning of freshman year. But for transfer students, a new school means navigating the same set of… Read More

Jae Lee, a senior majoring in political science and philosophy, may at first glance look like any other student at Vanderbilt. But at 24 years old, he has job experience that few other seniors can claim: two years of service in the South Korean military. Read More

Vandy’s supporting role in hit show Nashville Who is that with actor Alan Alda? And the sound of music for the Mighty Sky   All this and more in VUCast, Vanderbilt’s online newscast. Watch now.   [vucastblurb]… Read More

The Vanderbilt chapter of GlobeMed was founded three years ago to pursue the national organization’s goal of global health equity. With 35 current members, the group works to provide health care services to a local clinic in Paracas, Peru. GlobeMed requires each university chapter to partner with a unique organization. Read More

On Oct. 14, Vanderbilt students will finally join neighboring universities like Belmont and MTSU in providing opportunities for students to gain experience in the commercial music industry. Founded under the umbrella of Vanderbilt Student Communications is a new media enterprise: RVU Records, a record label and recording studio that will… Read More

What began in 2000 as an effort to fuse community service and academics has now evolved into a popular course in the Spanish department: Spanish for Oral Communication through Cultural Topics. To date, 695 undergraduates have taken Senior Lecturer Elena Olazagasti-Segovia’s Spanish 202 course, which focuses on connecting students to… Read More

If Kristen Findley had gotten her wish, she might never have set foot on a track, or at least not to compete. Growing up near the snow-capped mountains of Boise, Idaho, she dreamt of becoming a downhill skier one day. She was so taken with the idea, just about the… Read More

Will Tarnell is a junior economics and history major from Westwood, Mass. This excerpt is from his short story “Pig and Plume,” his entry competing for the 2013 Dell Magazines Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing. He won honorable mention. Read More

The process of applying to college is memorable for many reasons — filling out pages and pages of applications, nervously waiting to hear back from admissions offices, making difficult decisions — but for freshman Bryan Stromer, there was an added layer: He blogged about his experience for one of the… Read More

Drive about 20 miles west of Nashville on I-40, wind around on some country roads, turn up the shady lane marked Aden Branch Farm, pass the two-room, pre-Civil War-era log cabin and pull up at the barn. This is where Lola Chambless, M.D., ’05, trades her blue cotton scrubs for… Read More