Seniors-2017

When Akaninyene Ruffin was announced as Vanderbilt’s Outstanding Senior for 2016-17 during Homecoming last fall, it marked a long journey from freshman year, when she struggled to make friends and suspected her African American heritage rendered her invisible to some of her peers. Read More

Moving a mile and a half of PVC pipe along unpaved, winding roads in a small pickup truck—in a foreign country, no less—is no easy task. Ryan Sullivan, known as “Sully” to his professors and friends, knows this firsthand. Read More

When China native Cici Xuning Zhang first started searching for colleges, a university in Nashville, Tennessee—or even one in the United States—was far from her mind. Then an iconic image of Vanderbilt’s Kirkland Hall popped up on her computer screen. Read More

Growing up in Homs, Syria, Musbah Shaheen excelled in science, eventually enrolling at Damascus University Medical College at 17. After two years, he wanted to “stow away” that chapter of his life in the war-ravaged nation and explore something different. Read More

When Boston native Jarrod Shilts arrived at Vanderbilt, he brought with him a strong interest in synthetic biology—a discipline devoted to designing and creating biological molecules that don’t exist in the natural world and using them to redesign existing biological systems. Read More

Growing up outside Houston, senior Paloma Mendoza did not know a single engineer, though she knew she wanted to be one. Read More

Oren Burks is not afraid to step up when called upon, even when stepping up requires stepping out of his comfort zone. Read More

Marc Chen wants to use data to make cities work better for everyone. Chen, a math and economics major, believes there’s a wealth of untapped data out there waiting to be mined that could help public policymakers understand how their decisions affect the well-being of city residents. Read More

Senior Michael Umenta, a computer science major, has a tough decision to make. Does he accept the software engineering job at Google, or does he partner with friends to launch a startup? Read More

Lauren Pak’s passport is a map of injustices around the world. She has spent much of her undergraduate career learning about conflict resolution—not just through classroom lectures and reading, but also by doing hands-on, university-funded research on five continents. Read More

The combination of music, high academic standards and an openness to explore is what brought Blair School of Music senior Nicole Long to Vanderbilt. She knew from the beginning she wanted to double major in percussion and something academic, though she wasn’t sure what her second subject might be. Read More

After hours of thinking about theoretical physics, senior Zachary Bednarke relaxes by playing his trumpet. While running through scales on the instrument, he is also, technically, still doing schoolwork. Read More

Losing her sight at age 3 was no match for Peabody College senior Stephanie Zundel's competitive spirit. While at Vanderbilt, she took up marathon running and completed the 2017 Boston Marathon on April 17. Read More

The current discourse in this country about immigration policy and reform is much more than political rhetoric for College of Arts and Science senior Melissa De La Torre. Read More

A busy hospital emergency room—filled with life and pain and death—is not where you’d expect to find a Vanderbilt undergrad taking a class. But that is where you find Kate Sborov. Read More

Blair School of Music senior David Rodgers is graduating with a newly released album of jazz originals he composed, arranged and performed, as well as a spot in the touring band of Grammy Award-winning blues musicians Keb’ Mo’ and Taj Mahal. Read More