“Go crazy! Go stupid!”

Name, School, Major, Hometown: Nikita, Columbia College, Comparative Literature & Society + Computer Science, Boston, MA 

Claim to fame: Never having studied in the dark abyss of depression that is Butler even once in my four years at Columbia and have literally been inside a total of 3 times. Seriously – if you threw me in Butler and asked me where to find something right now, I’d get lost within a matter of minutes and a search party would need to be sent to help me make it out alive. 

Where are you going? Analyst at…somewhere because I’m still deciding between two companies but I will definitely be in NYC still (can’t get rid of me that easily!!!) and will basically be doing data analytics on a day to day basis.

What are 3 things you learned at Columbia and would like to share with the Class of 2026?

Oh boy, does little old me have some advice for you youngins…

1. Do reach out for help no matter how scary that may be as a little freshman, whether that is help with academics,  learning how to navigate the social intricacies of the Columbia community, prioritizing your physical health, and last but certainly not least, your mental health! I will admit asking for help has never been my thing as I am stubbornly independent, but you will learn that no matter how independent you are, you can’t do everything by yourself. I really want to reemphasize prioritizing your health, especially mental health  – GO TO CPS. PLEASE. I’M BEGGING YOU. No matter how mentally stable think you are, everyone could benefit from a little bit of therapy. Just try it out. If you don’t like it, at least you tried. You don’t want to end up like Tinder Chad who emotionally dumps on every woman he meets. You are better than that.

2. Try new things but also don’t try to discard everything you were/did in high school for the sake of self-reinvention. Basically, don’t try new things out of peer pressure because you want to be cool or popular or whatever – being cool is extremely relative and popularity doesn’t exist except to those who care because they have nothing else better to care about. Try new things that YOU are actually interested in. 

3. Go crazy! Go stupid! These four years will go by in the blink of an eye and before you know it, you’ll be thrown into the flamin’ hot cheetos chaos of the adult world, not that Columbia isn’t that…it’s just more of a flamin’ hot doritos doom type of energy instead :) But please, HAVE FUN. You’re literally in the greatest university in the greatest city in the world – how could you ever be bored!?!?!? 

“Back in my day…” JJ’s used to be open 22 hours a day. Ah, the glory days, how I miss them!

Favorite Columbia controversy? The looting of the Prezbo cardboard cutout. Also that thing was really creepy lol.

What was your favorite class at Columbia? It’s a tie between Dr. Isabelle Zaugg’s course, Multilingual Technologies and Language Diversity, because without it I would not be on the career path that I am on now (truly a life changing class!) and Professor Caio Ferreira’s Monsters, Fairies, and Curses because the class super fun and he’s an amazing professor (also he was neighbors with Vincent Cassel at one point!??!)

Also a fun throw in if you’re into dance: Cynthia Anderson’s Ballet IV class (or really any ballet class taught by her). She’s so sweet and probably one of the best ballet teachers that I’ve ever had!

Would you rather give up oral sex or cheese? Oral Sex. Why, you may ask? Well, cheese NEVER disappoints you, but people sometimes do *cough* mEn *cough*

Whom would you like to thank? My family and close friends from home and Columbia of course, Deantini for giving us the P/D/F option for multiple semesters and for just being awesome in general, all the amazing professors that I’ve had, the lovely dining hall staff, water bottle man, and myself for not dropping out the many times I considered it.

One thing to do before graduating: the subway party!!!1!!!1!1 but the only way to do it right is to take it all the way to coney island and go skinny dipping…otherwise what was the point??? or honestly just take a spontaneous trip to coney with ur besties and have a beach party 

Any regrets? Not ******* in Butler stacks for the meme…if anyone is down & wants to hmu before I leave campus May 19th, pls find me lol

Portrait via Nikita