This is the fourth post in the senior wisdom series. Read the rest here.

Montse Ferrer, CC ’06.
Claim to fame: Community Service Guru.
Post-grad plans: Bogota, Colombia for the summer to work with a program that is demilitarizing paramilitaries and then starting law school in the fall– still not sure about where.

Preferred swim test stroke?

Still haven’t taken the swim test… ooops. Will be able to answer this question when I realize I never got my diploma and have to come back in the fall for the swim test!

What are three things you learned at Columbia?

1. There are A LOT of weird people at Columbia (I tend to include myself there too), much more than any average liberal arts school… BUT THAT’S WHAT I LOVE ABOUT THIS SCHOOL.
2. If you come to Columbia and you see there’s something you want to change, something that at the beginning seems impossible to change, no worries– things DO change at Columbia, but they require three things: a lot of time (grad school here too haha), a lot of effort from your part (Fight, fight, fight), and allies within the administration. I recommed working THROUGH and WITHIN they system to change it and not the inverse.
3. LSAT is the ONLY thing that matters when you apply to law school (GPA is important too, but LSAT is the priority)… with the good exception of Yale. So, if you want to go to law school being editor-in-chief of a journal, president of that, and leader of that… they’re not near as important as the LSAT (is that the American expression??). That’s not cool but that’s the reality.

Justify your existence in 30 words or less.

I’m no different to anybody else—just one more of the many ants. But since I’m here, I hope to plant one more tree…

What was your favorite controversy in your time at Columbia?

Favorite: “I am being silenced” protest (Spring 2004). I have truly learned so much from that rally. I remember coming into CC class that day and asking if we could discuss what was happening outside. I’m an international student so I wasn’t too aware of the racial differences in this country. We never discussed that rally in CC class. And yet, since then, this controversy has come up in so many conversations, and I’m happy to say it has taken me places where I never thought I would go. (I wonder what would have happened if we would have discussed it during CC class.) Thank you to those who were there, dressed in black, with a sign, I AM BEING SILENCED.

What Columbia memory best exemplifies your college experience?

Pulling an all-nighter on the 4th floor of Butler and by 5 a.m. turning the music on so loud celebrating I was alone in this gigantic room that is always cohabited by asian grad (and more recently undergrad) students!

Which Prof do you think would be the best kisser?

A blond guy who teaches political phiolosphy… a GS-only class. But I went there on the first day of class and melted.

What percentage of seniors do you think are virgins?

If I base it on my own friends, the percentage goes up high, so I don’t think my estimate is too accurate… being generous to what my European friends told me when I left Spain, I’d guess only about 20-30 percent… but that would be CC. SEAS may be higher.

Would you rather permanently give up oral sex or cheese?

No doubt, AND I MEAN NO DOUBT, oral sex. I eat cheese three times a day!

Days on campus memory?

Never came ;-( International students…

Regrets?

Everybody tells me I should regret having spent half my life in Butler/Lehman libraries and the other half in a Lerner room planning events… but that’s BS (Jenny J., agree??). But I do regret one thing: always rushing when I would meet with friends, cancelling on them, always telling them I had a meeting. That I regret for them but especially for me. I’m sorry to all of those I did that (majority of my friends!).