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Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of the hit musical Hamilton, coined a hashtag to use when he does something insanely cool (which is arguably most of the time). He’ll say it’s been a “#bitofaday.” I’ve commandeered his phrase and dubbed my past few days a #bitofaweek.

I’m fairly certain the most famous person I’d ever met was the mayor of my small Midwestern town… until last week. As an American history and government nut, I always look forward to guest speakers with ties to politics. My most recent encounters did not disappoint. I had the chance to meet Vice President Al Gore, Dr. Chelsea Clinton, Mr. Chris Matthews, and Senator Lamar Alexander – four giants of the political world – in the span of three days.

Vice President Gore

I’m lucky enough to be enrolled in the political science course “Presidential Leadership” this semester. Taught by Professor John Geer alongside Professor Jon Meacham, a renowned presidential historian, each class is a #bitofaday in itself. The course also features an array of guest lecturers, from journalists to politicians to a certain university chancellor.

This particular whirlwind of greatness descended Monday when Vice President Gore visited class. He engaged in a discussion with our professors and then took questions from a lecture hall quite literally overflowing with students. He spoke about the qualities of effective leadership, overcoming challenges, the impact of the internet on politics, and the importance of standing up for the rule of law regardless of political consequences.

He praised the students involved in the recent March For Our Lives and was introduced to Abby Brafman, the Vanderbilt first-year and Stoneman Douglas alumna who started Nashville’s March. The Vice President took the time to shake hands with students as they left, even snapping selfies with a few.

Chelsea Clinton

Scrolling through Twitter on Monday morning, I came upon a post from Chelsea Clinton that began with “Hey Nashville!” I read on to discover the First Daughter, activist, and author was doing a book signing that night at Parnassus Books near Green Hills Mall – just down the road from campus. In the spirit of meeting my heroes, I recruited my friend Alice and to come with me on an impromptu adventure to meet her.

Chelsea Clinton has written two children’s books called She Persisted and She Persisted: Around the World recounting the stories of courageous women and girls throughout history. Navigating a sea of middle-aged moms and little kids, Alice and I waited to give our books to their author before she shook our hands, asked us our names, and returned the stories with her name affixed to the opening page.

Chris Matthews

As a part of the IMPACT Symposium and Chancellor’s Lecture Series, Chris Matthews paid a visit to campus last week. Host of MSNBC’s Hardball, this famed political commentator served in the Peace Corps, worked for Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill, and published his most recent book entitled Bobby Kennedy: A Raging Spirit.

His discussion with Chancellor Zeppos and Professor Meacham ranged from historical reflection on the Kennedys to candid comments on politics today. He spoke of the need for more bipartisanship and moral leadership in Washington, telling stories from the Reagan era and crafting creative metaphors to describe present situations.

Free copies of his newest book were distributed and able to be signed after the lecture. I waited in line, befriended the visitors behind me, and eventually made my way to the front. I told Mr. Matthews I’m studying political science, to which he replied “I’ve always said that’s an oxymoron… Have you figured it out yet?” I took my book and left with a grin.

“I’m working on it.”

Senator Alexander

Following Vice President Gore, Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander visited our Presidential Leadership class last Wednesday. Having served as the Governor of Tennessee, Secretary of Education, and now Senator for fifteen years, he had a little bit of leadership experience to share!

The Senator was able to speak about different leadership styles needed in various jobs and situations, as well as how the dynamics of American government have changed over his many years of service. Again taking questions from both professors and the class, he discussed his positions on issues, memorable moments from his career, and the importance of youth engaging with politics.

Hearing his insights capped three days of meeting more famed, accomplished people than I had even thought possible. Evidently my fortune ran out, however, as a ticket to see Vice President Biden alluded me despite earnest efforts. So, here’s to overflow viewing areas… and the genuine thrill of meeting childhood heroes.

Guess what? Here I am in the last month as a freshman at Vanderbilt University! How could summer be so close already?

If someone asked me how I have changed from the first day of college till now, I would not be able to tell. Being in college has made me emotional, anxious, and sometimes depressed, yet it has also given me much more. I have learned how to do things by myself, how to deal with stressful situations, and how to set up goals to achieve—all of these new experiences have transformed me from a naive high school graduate to a mature college freshman throughout my first year.

Throwing back to the first semester at Vanderbilt, as I was an international student from Vietnam, America overwhelmed me. Living half-of-the-globe far from your family was tough. I struggled a lot with how to balance academic life and social life, how to interact with friends and assimilate in a new environment, how to participate in different clubs that I am interested, and even how to get used to American food. Campus seems bigger on the first days than it is now. Weeks seem endless but weekends seem like vacations.

However, things are different now. Though my second semester is packed with 17.5 credit hours, I enjoy my life residing in Commons, chatting with professors during Office Hours, rushing to classes after attempting to use meal swipes in the dining hall, and waving hands to friends on campus. I enjoy observing Vandy trees changing leaves, exploring Nashville nightlife at weekends, and cramming for midterms the night before. All these little things make an experience I couldn’t trade. People often say that April is the month to rescue your GPA, but trust me, save these memories first. They are invaluable.

Now that I have learnt to master my time-management skill and get on track with the fast pace of college, midterms are no longer “scary” as it used to be. Sometimes, I will stay in Commons or the libraries with my dear “colleagues”-friends to study for the tests till midnight and wake up early the next morning for classes. Without a doubt, as I’m pushing myself to embrace my freshman year—to be open-minded and nonjudgmental, I am grateful to be admitted and being a freshman at Vanderbilt. This time next month, after moving out, I will definitely miss my friends, professors, Commons and my life in the United States. But I will come back to Vietnam, recharge my energy and prepare for an exciting sophomore year ahead.

Thus, shout out to all freshmen out there, you are only freshmen once! So please, enjoy the last month of your first year! We still have 3 years of life experiences awaiting!

Oh, but wait, finals await us first!

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This semester, I pursued my passion for mental health resources on campus by joining VSG’s Health and Wellness Committee. Especially with the transition of mental health care at Vanderbilt to the University Counseling Center system, many students–including myself–have been concerned by First-year’s current accessibility to campus resources. Beyond meeting an ambitious group of my peers on this committee, I began to realize the potential for VSG to initiate change on campus, even on the committee level. Recognizing that First-years may not know where resources are located or may want a more discrete way to be exposed to certain resources, a VSG subcommittee, lead by Senior Rachel Smith, answered the call, choosing to initiate a satellite program for these resources now known as “Commons Connect”.

This is Rachel Smith, leader of the Commons Connect Initiative.

“In an early meeting last semester, the idea dawned on us not only to have the CSW present on Commons, but other resources as well. My mind immediately jumped to the Office of LGBTQI Life, because I personally found support from the director, Chris Purcell, early in my college career. We began to assemble a list of offices we thought could be represented on The Commons, and we plan for it to grow in the coming semesters. Countless meetings later, we have the framework for a consistent locale for first-year students to find members of their support system.”

Smith has found her own support system within the campus resources at Vanderbilt and hopes that other First-year will have same exposure to the communities that she did as an underclassman. After months of work and coordination with various resource directors, Smith and her team have completed an initiative many have waited years for.

“Saying more about my experience with Chris Purcell, it is important to find people who push you. To pick yourself up after you fall, to create better conditions for yourself, to be fair to yourself and others. Sometimes, it takes that special person to get you to listen. I want everyone to find their Chris. Maybe your Chris will be that sweet girl you remember meeting in summer Gen Chem, or the compassionate French professor who asks you how you’re doing during office hours and truly means it. Vanderbilt is hard. Being a student here is physically and psychologically taxing. Building your support network is crucial for more than your success- it is critical for your wellbeing. First-years, I hope that you can use Commons Connect as a way to do just this.”

You are welcome to bring any topic you like for discussion, and this service is available to everyone! Consultations will be held on a first come, first served basis and take place in Room 216 (the Study Lounge next to the writing center) in Commons Center.

Current Representatives working with Commons Connect:

Center for Student Wellbeing: Thursdays, 1:00 pm – 2:45 pm

LGBTQI Life: Wednesdays, 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Margaret Cuninggim Women’s Center: Tuesdays, 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Project Safe: Thursdays, 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM

Note: There will likely be expansions of the services offered and their availability in future semesters.

Article co-authored with Rachel Smith.

This past spring break the majority of our freshman class honored the tradition of spending their first weekend of spring break in the beach houses of Gulf Shores, Alabama. You might have heard the rumors and warnings that everyone dies, or at least leads ends up feeling gross and burnt out by Sunday. Don’t worry because I got you covered. Here’s a few tips you should know before going on the trip:

1. Vanderbilt Takeover

Spring break 2018 sent Commons residents on adventures all across the globe. Here are the stories of how four first-year students spent their week away from school.

Seth Drey

A hurricane may have the power to topple trees and upend lives, but it cannot dampen the spirit of an island or deter a first-year Commodore. Seth Drey spent spring break in Puerto Rico, where residents are still recovering from the category-five hurricane that struck last September.

“We stayed in San Juan and spent a lot of time in Old San Juan and also got out to some cool, more remote places,” he said. “Some places were obviously still affected by Maria… it dropped as much rain in thirty hours as Harvey did over the course of three days and destroyed eighty percent of their agriculture.”

Despite the lasting devastation, Drey found some aspects of the island remained unaltered by the storm.

“The people were super friendly, and there was still lots of beauty in Old San Juan and the nature areas,” he said.

This was Drey’s first time in a Spanish-speaking region, and he valued the chance to utilize his Spanish language skills and experience another culture. He visited a variety of places, from the beach to Castillo San Felipe del Morro, a sixteenth-century fort and world heritage site.

“The weather was so nice, but the sun was unforgiving and burned me bad,” Drey said.

Besides a sunburn, spring break left him with memories of “awesome” Puerto Rican cuisine, crystal-blue ocean waves, and the fun of meeting people from a new corner of the world.

Oliver Cenedella

Spring break isn’t always about chasing warm weather. For Oliver Cenedella, it meant braving the cold and hitting the slopes on a skiing trip in Colorado.

“I live in Boulder, Colorado, and I stayed there for a few days until Tuesday, then met up with three friends from Vandy and went to Breckenridge,” Cenedella said.

The foursome brought a range of experience to the mountains. Cenedella, a seasoned skier, had the chance to share one of his favorite pastimes with a friend who had never skied before. Watching his skills progress beyond the bunny slopes quickly became a rewarding part of the week.

“By the fourth day… we took him down a double black,” Cenedella said. “By the end of the day, he was looking really good.”

The group’s accomplishments did not come without challenges. Some initially had trouble adjusting to the higher elevation and harsh winter climate.

“The elements were not on our side,” Cenedella said.

Despite the drop in air pressure, higher altitude brought more adventure for the four Commodores. In addition to skiing, they went hiking in the mountains. Cenadella discovered a few slopes farther from the lifts, where he described the skiing as “excellent.” He documented his run with a Go Pro camera, a sure way to make this break one to never forget.

Amira Vivrette

It’s “The Big Apple,” “The City That Never Sleeps,” and maybe even “The Greatest City in the World.” Whatever you choose to call it, New York City served as a spring break destination for students like Amira Vivrette.

“I went on different tours with Student Media at Vanderbilt,” Vivrette said. “We saw Facebook, CNN, Nickelodeon, and NBC. It was a lot of fun and a great opportunity to meet and talk with Vanderbilt alumni and see future careers in media.”

After traveling with the Student Media group on Monday and Tuesday, Vivrette stayed in New York for the rest of the week to explore the city with a friend.

“We did a lot of tourist things,” she said. “We got to see Central Park, the Met, the LOVE Sculpture, and other cool things we were interested in. We took the ferry and just tried a bunch of new foods.”

Vivrette had the chance to see more behind-the-scenes work on media productions (while also enjoying a few laughs) when the pair landed tickets to the tapings of “Late Night with Seth Meyers” and “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.” Braving the second major winter storm of the week, their ticket numbers were the last two called from the line of people hoping to attend “The Tonight Show.”

“It was very exciting to see the shows produced live… just to see it done and then watch it on TV the next day to see how everything worked out,” Vivrette said. “It was cool to see all that stuff from the media tour actually put into action.”

Sharonda Adams

Vanderbilt proudly hosts the first Alternative Spring Break (ASB) program, an idea created in 1986 that has since spread to universities across the country. ASB provides students with the opportunity to participate in service projects during their break, all working on different causes in various locations nationwide.

Sharonda Adams traveled to Utah last week on an ASB trip focused on environmental conservation.

“For my trip, I helped to remove invasive species from the Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument,” Adams said. “I camped with eleven other Vanderbilt students, and each day we would chop down Russian olives.”

The Russian Olive Tree is an invasive species which poses a threat to the health of the Escalante River and its watershed. In collaboration with the Escalante River Watershed Partnership, ASB students worked to remove the trees and restore parts of the monument’s two million acres to their natural ecological conditions.

Adams found the trip to be not only beneficial to the environment, but also a personally rewarding way to spend a week of spring break.

“The beautiful views and major bonding with my other site members made it a true week to remember,” she said.