Department & Program: Biomedical Engineering

Hometown: Nashville, TN

Outside interests/activities: VUcept executive board, training co-chair, Commodores in the Community chair VSVS, volunteer teacher, team leader Layout editor, Vanderbilt Review Undergraduate research in image-guided therapy Grader for Biomechanics (BME 101) Homecoming Committee Information-desk attendant, Commons Center.

Why Vanderbilt: Having grown up in the South, I’ve noticed generosity pops up about as often as a magnolia tree or a Cracker Barrel.  It’s just one of those tried-and-true virtues that saturates Southern culture and hospitality.  And as a premier educational institute of the South, Vanderbilt’s certainly not an exception when it comes to generosity.  Though I wanted to move away from home, Vanderbilt extended me a very ample opportunity to learn from some of the country’s finest purveyors of knowledge.  By providing nearly a full scholarship, Vanderbilt magnanimously afforded me the chance to pursue my passion for science – and all corners of the liberal arts realm, too – at a top school without the weighty burden of money on my shoulders.  Beyond financial generosity, Vanderbilt has been more than willing to share its wealth of scholarly, cultural, and social activities with me, allowing for my personal maturation as a student, teacher, and leader.

Likes best about Vanderbilt Engineering: Approachability almost comes off as the ultimate cliché when talking about professors.  But if it weren’t a huge issue for undergraduates, it probably wouldn’t be beaten to death!  Vanderbilt’s engineering faculty (though not to exclude other professors I’ve encountered) always props open office doors and invites visitors, spanning that sometimes-intimidating chasm between the trembling undergraduate and the hardened PhD.  How many other times will I be able to say I went out to lunch with and drank an ale in front of a professor who an hour before was proctoring a ten-page cardiac physiology exam?  These kinds of interactions exist at Vanderbilt, and truly richen the academic experience for me.

Copyright © 2007 Vanderbilt University. For more information, please contact the webmaster.