Dinner with the Winners

I walked towards the Bart Station with my father and suddenly the nervousness crept to me. What if I embarrassed myself horribly in front of all these important alumni and sponsors? I pushed it aside as I met my chaperone, Alexis Thomas, and began talking to her. Soon everyone else arrived and we were on our way to San Francisco. I sat with our chaperone on the way there and we had a lot of fun talking about traveling, clothes, and other random things. 

We got to the restaurant and the alumni slowly started to pour in as we talked to each of them. As they all introduced themselves with their successful and inspirational careers, the nervousness for my speech came back again. 

Talking to alumni

However, the speech went well, and I was happy with the result. The others began with their speeches and I found Eppa Rixey's speech on how his personal life was changed from Vanderbilt to be very influential. At the table, I sat directly in front of him and Lucas Scholl. Eppa Rixey and his adorable fiancé, Maggie Durlacher, are both engineers in fields that I am very interested in.  Eppa Rixey is a mechanical engineer, but he currently works as someone who solves marketing issues for companies. From Maggie Durlacher I learned that you could choose and create your own path in engineering at college. She had taken this route because she loved biology and engineering, which are two fields I also can't choose between sometimes. I also spoke with David

Eppa Rixey giving his speech

Sanchez, someone who had changed his major three times at college. It made me realize that not all plans have to be set in stone since the beginning in order to be successful. 

I learned about the application process and eventful college life at Vanderbilt from all the alumni.  They all also told me hilarious stories from their college years, which made me even more excited to attend college! 

The Vanderbilt alumni and my cohort