I'm from Houston, Texas, and I first learned about New College when I was in the seventh grade. By that time, I had been in 10 different schools and had experienced lots of different types of education. I'd been in classrooms with 10 students. I'd been in classrooms with 35 students. I'd also been in schools where they give you a lot of independence. And because of that, I realized that independence and personal attention are of paramount importance to me. In choosing a college, academic freedom was definitely a priority. New College was the natural choice.
As I was making my final decision, I visited campus. I remember one guy discussing birdcalls and how this one type of bird was outside his room at a particular time in the morning – that was great. After that trip, I got lots of personal notes and letters from students and admissions. I knew this was the place.
I study Spanish and Literature. When I first came to New College, I didn't speak a word of Spanish, but the program here is incredibly intense. Now I have a concentration in Spanish and I'm writing a senior thesis where I'm reading five Latin-American novels in Spanish. My advisor, an associate professor of British and American literature, specialized in 19th and 20th century America fiction. Her interests included African America literature and the city in American literature and film. These are areas that fascinated me too.
One of my favorite campus happenings was a "poetry slam" at the Four Winds Café, which was started and run by students. The best thing my friends and I like to do in Sarasota is to go thrift-store shopping. My favorite food in town is at a restaurant called Bangkok Thai.
My goal is to go into education and teaching. I'd like to open up a charter school. I am particularly interested in teaching high school literature. I'll probably teach in a very, very urban environment.
