Hey Novel Hand readers! You might know that a few of our team members just graduated from Vanderbilt University. We wanted to celebrate them and their achievements! Read on to hear about each of our graduates, what they learned in college, and what they’re planning on doing next.
Alexa Bussmann
At Vanderbilt, I majored in Political Science, Economics and Spanish. I also minored in Latin American Studies and took language courses in K’iche’ Maya.
During college, I often felt like I struggled to maintain a balance between academics, extracurriculars and my social life. Through several years of almost constantly feeling like I was falling behind in one (or all) of these areas, I learned that while work and productivity are important, people are always most important. That’s a lesson that I’ll carry into the next season of life: always put people first.
I’m excited to continue developing Novel Hand! We have a lot of exciting things in the works. Often over the past several months, I’ve wished that I could have more time to spend on Novel Hand– and now I have that time!
Angel Asirvatham
It’s unbelievable to think that I have spent four years at this challenging and supporting university. At Vanderbilt, I majored in Economics and took many courses in the pre-medical and pre-nursing tracks.
I mention this variety of courses because I’ve always had random, yet passionate, interests and college was a wonderful time to dive into them all and spend some intentional time figuring out what I loved to do. In the end, I’ve decided to switch everything up and pursue my love for photography by becoming a Nashville-based wedding photographer. If you’re interested, you can check out my work at my website!
All in all, I think the biggest lesson that I learned in college was to savor every moment. College truly flies by so fast, and I wish I had sat and enjoyed it more, instead of stressing over every single detail and making sure everything was perfect. I wish I had gotten more meals with people. I wish I had stopped in Rand and talked to that person once more. I wish I had just enjoyed the moments instead of worrying about the future and all of the uncertainties (cue COVID-19). I think that’s one of my biggest reasons for pursuing wedding photography — I want to tell stories so that people can savor the moments and remember the emotions and feelings of their wedding day. I’m excited to move forward, take this lesson from my time in college, and carry it on to my future and career.
Grace Adcox
Throughout my four years at Vanderbilt, I often felt torn in multiple directions. Majoring in Political Science and Asian Studies allowed me to pursue my passion for languages and international politics, while writing for Vanderbilt Political Review and Novel Hand and volunteering with organizations like Next Steps at Vanderbilt or the Vanderbilt greenhouses enabled me to serve others and develop strong communication skills.
At times, I worried that I would miss out on some of my passions in a future career, but my experiences in research at Vanderbilt demonstrated that I could develop my own path, integrating each of these passions with the skills I developed in undergrad. As such, I will be continuing my education at Vanderbilt this year to complete a MA in Political Science before beginning a PhD program next fall.
Ultimately, at Vanderbilt I learned to dive deeply into each of my passions. Though I could have picked just one to follow and to pursue in a career, the vast number of organizations and disciplines represented at Vanderbilt gave me the opportunity to explore all of my interests. Rather than sacrificing some of my goals to hone in on one passion, instead I learned that I could embrace all of my interests and develop my own path forward — one that includes my love of languages and world politics, writing and teaching, and serving others.
Emma Stapleton
My college experience has been a non-traditional one. I spent my first two years of college at Middlebury College in Vermont where I created my own Independent Scholar major in Domestic Public Policy so that I could study criminal justice issues. I also had the privilege of participating in Middlebury’s Privilege and Poverty Academic Cluster. I transferred for personal reasons but was so blessed to find an incredible Public Policy program here at Vanderbilt University. Little did I know that Vanderbilt also had a very strong criminal justice advocacy community that would change my life.
I’ve been lucky enough to get an incredible education at not just one, but two, incredible schools. Whether it was racing to the ski mountain in between schoolwork in Vermont or attending execution vigils at Riverbend Maximum Security Prison in Nashville, my college experience has continued to remind me of my many blessings and privileges. I continue to be awed by the stories of the wonderful people I’ve met here in Nashville who persevere through the great injustices of the criminal legal system.
Theologian Fredrick Buechner says that true vocation is where your deep gladness meets the world’s deep hunger. While pursuing a life as a professional ski bum does sound appealing, I feel that doing anything other than pursuing my passion for advocacy would squander the valuable gifts that I have been given. In that spirit, amongst the troubling covid-19 job market, I’m hoping to spend this next year advocating for and uplifting the visions of change held by incarcerated individuals in our nation. After that I hope to continue to law school. They are the future of criminal legal change in our country, I just hope to help along the way.
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Congratulations and all my very best wishes to some amazing, inspiring women!