In our last senior wisdom of the day, Kevin Chu gives us extraordinary insight into the interesting things that happen in the margins, following your passion, and fun classes to take (even though they are outside his major). 

Name, School, Major, Hometown: Kevin Chu, Columbia College, Computer Science, Disneyland California

Claim to fame: For most people on campus, I have been that guy on crutches. For others, I have been the person who appears if you whisper startup three times in a floor lounge.

Where are you going? Wherever I am called.

What are 3 things you learned at Columbia and would like to share with the Class of 2023?

1. When things invariably suck, who can you turn to? Who will show up for you? And for whom will you show up for? Those are the people who matter. Find those people, and take care of them.

And when you don’t feel like believing in yourself, try believing in someone else. Why else are we here, if not to remind each other of our belovedness?

2. The most interesting things happen at the margins. Being at Columbia makes it too easy to feel like you care too much, you feel too much, and you love too much in a place that seems full of people who just don’t. You can do so much better than them. Seek out the counter-cultural, live out your counter-narrative, and dare to imagine better.

3. Forget following your passion, whatever that means. Chase where your curiosity leads you. That’s the only way you can get out of this place with your inner kid alive. Be the person who refuses to not get it. Always be up to something—start something! Show up wherever your curiosity leads you, and be that person who asks too many questions.

“Back in my day…”  RIP Vine (the restaurant and the app alike)

Favorite Columbia controversy? Flint still doesn’t have clean water.

Justify your existence in 30 words or fewer:  Within a month of coming to Columbia, my face was all over Times Square ringing the NASDAQ opening bell. I failed orgo that semester. I’ve had my highs and lows.

What was your favorite class at Columbia?

1. Do your mortal soul a favor before you graduate and take David Kittay’s Reincarnation & Technology or Technology, Religion, Future. You know that Black Mirror episode San Junipero? In Prof. Kittay’s classroom, you will be living its questions.

2. Introduction to Human-Centered Design, sponsored by frog design, gave me a paradigm-shifting toolkit for solving problems and understanding what people want.

3. Laura Neitzel’s Inquiries Into An Interconnected World is the most delightfully interactive course (and Global Core!) I’ve taken. The day our class went on a Jackson Heights food walking tour was the day I knew I just had to stay in NYC after graduation.

4. Denise Cruz’s Late 20th Century Ethnic American Literature is why I wish I had been an English major. Who else closes the first lecture by blasting Janelle Monáe? Or creates a playlist for each text to play before and after class?

5. All the above classes were outside my major—make what you will of that. But I’ll say that Daniel Bauer’s Natural Language Processing course was a joy, seeing everything I learned in the department come together in unexpected, elegant ways.

Would you rather give up oral sex or cheese? No.

Whom would you like to thank? This campus would be nothing without the folks who staff it: Our res hall desk attendants who look out for us (special gratitude to Victor from Schapiro and Barbara from Sulz Tower), our dining staff that we do not deserve (too many to begin to thank), our technical staff who keep things up and running (Rudy from Technical Services for saving countless events from doom, Bernard from CUIT for redesigning the Columbia website—only 90s kids will remember).

Kat, Katie, and Kimberly for believing in me. And Mitski for getting me through a lot.

One thing to do before graduating:  I don’t believe in bucket lists. Do as much as you want, when you want. Take care.

Any regrets? I wish I took more time earlier on to figure out my limitations and aspirations on my own accord, where they fall and where they in fact don’t, instead of accepting what others would try to place on me.

That’s what beginner’s mind is really about: Discovering your own definition of success rather than accepting anyone else’s.

Also, I still don’t know what office hours are.