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tuftsdaily.com
Fresh faces from the Class of 2017 Erynne Van Zee: a renaissance woman by Shannon Vavra
Daily Editorial Board
While many high school seniors have their sights set on Tufts, only a small number of students received acceptance letters to join the Class of 2017 in the first round of Early Decision on December 15. One of these incoming freshmen, Erynne Van Zee, cannot wait to join her class and the Tufts community this fall. Van Zee, who hails from Corvallis, Ore., decided on Tufts because of the strong support she expects from students, administrators and faculty in anything she decides to pursue on the Hill. “I identified with the individual passions of each student in a collaborative pursuit for local and global impact,” Van Zee told the Daily in an email. “When I visited, everyone I talked to loved Tufts so much and seemed so happy there.” Van Zee, who was born and raised in Corvallis, is ready to build on her considerable accomplishments there. She is currently the Student Council treasurer for Crescent Valley High School and the co-president of her school’s Students for Environmental Awareness chapter. Van Zee races with a Nordic ski team and plays the cello in the Corvallis Youth Symphony. “Music has been a passion of mine for about nine years,” Van Zee said. “I rely on my cello to do a lot of community service around Corvallis, such as playing quartet music weekly at a soup kitchen for the homeless.” Van Zee hopes to continue to play the cello, ski and work on environmental activism on campus next year, while exploring new activities. “I also want to take my four years at Tufts as an opportunity to try something new and find new interests,” Van Zee said. She is interested in joining Tufts Engineers Without Borders and Tufts Global Health Network. While Van Zee does not know yet in which major she will declare, but she is considering studying both environmental engineering and community health. She also has experience with multiple languages. Van Zee studied French from kindergarten through seventh grade, has studied Spanish since eighth grade and participated in an exchange program in Paraguay for two months in 2010. At Tufts, she is interested in adding Arabic to her resume. Van Zee is considering studying abroad in Chile or Peru, to continue practicing Spanish, as well as in Morocco, to perfect her French and improve her Arabic. She eventually wants to look into a career in sustainable development and hopes to pursue this interest in these countries. “I also saw Tufts has an exchange program to Nepal, which also seems very interesting and completely different from anything I’ve ever experienced before, so
Newly accepted Jumbo Erynne Van Zee’s interests include cello, Spanish and environmental activism. maybe I would go there instead. Who knows?” Van Zee said. “There are so many places to choose from.” Because of her wide variety of interests, Van Zee’s largest concern about adjusting to college life is balancing
courtesy of erynne van zee
everything she wants to do. “Tufts has so many things going on that I want to join or experience, I just don’t know how I’ll fit it all in,” Van Zee said.
Céili Hale: not a typical southern belle by
Charlotte Gilliland Daily Editorial Board
Incoming freshman and Missisippian Céili Hale was not originally drawn to Tufts for its reputation or rigorous academics. Rather, she was attracted by a certain elephant mascot at a college fair at her high school. “They came down here with a couple of other schools my junior year. The first thing that caught my eye was the Jumbo mascot,” she said. After that memorable first impression, Hale researched Tufts and decided it was the school for her. She was accepted in the first round of Early Decision applicants. Several aspects of Tufts appealed to Hale, including its take on experimental learning and the university’s academic range. “I like the Experimental College, and I want to study English,” she said. “When I looked at the English courses, I noticed that there were interesting classes. More than just Shakespeare.” Hale has many aspirations for her career both at Tufts and beyond. “I want to minor in Film Studies and be a screenwriter for television shows or movies,” she said. Hale toured the campus over the summer and was struck by the view of downtown Boston from the Tisch Library roof. “It felt . . . like immediately where I wanted to be,” she said. Hale originates from Gluckstadt, Miss., a very small town about thirty minutes from Jackson, Miss. “We have a Krystal [restaurant], two gas stations and four stop lights,” she said. Hale says that she is not a typical Southerner, in that her opinions differ from those of her environment.
“I used to really hate it,” she said. “I actually wrote about this in one of my essays. It helped me learn how to talk to people who are different from me.” According to Hale, most of her differences stem from her opinions about religion. “We have a lot of Southern Baptists. I’m an atheist and people really don’t know that,” she said. “Anytime I try to bring it up, people will try to convert me.” At Tufts, Hale is looking forward to being in a new environment, where she hopes that her peers may share some of her values. “I know that up North in general is more compatible with the way I view politics and religion,” she said. As one of the few from her hometown who have heard of Tufts, let alone considered applying, the transition from Gluckstady to a city like Boston will be daunting. “Even though Tufts isn’t right in Boston, it’s close to Davis Square, and I’ve never even been around something that big,” she said. She said her parents have expressed the usual sentiments of uncertainty at having their child go to school far away, compared with most of her friends who will attend Mississippi State or the University of Mississippi. “I think that they have always known that it’s something I wanted to do. They’re really nervous. The more they learn about Tufts, the better it gets,” she said. Although the transition from her hometown in Mississippi to life in New England holds some trepidation for Hale, she seems overjoyed at the thrill of her start at Tufts, and is excited to arrive on campus in fall 2013 and begin life as a college freshman. “All my friends get kind of annoyed because I talk about it so much,” she said. “I kind of, like, stalk Tufts.”
Courtesy of Ceili hale
Hale, a native Mississippian, is excited for life on the Hill.