Not sponsored by AMC.

Name, School, Major, Hometown: Shea Vance, Barnard College, American studies, Littleton, Colorado 

Claim to fame: 149th editor in chief and president of the Columbia Daily Spectator

Where are you going?: Washington, DC, to report for the Chronicle of Higher Education

What are three things you learned at Columbia and would like to share with the Class of 2030?: 

  1. If you have a question, ask it! You’re probably not the only one wondering.
  2. You just might have a slight regional accent you’re not aware of. Your peers will make you aware of it.
  3. It is possible to meet some of your best friends during NSOP. I’m living with two of them!

“Back in my day…”: You could get onto Barnard’s campus through the quad. The gate closure nobody talks about…

What was your favorite class at Columbia?: This may be recency bias, but I’m inclined to say Sharon Marcus’ “Bildungsroman: The Coming of Age Novel” in Columbia’s English department. 

Whom would you like to thank?: I’d like to thank my friends, who graciously put up with my Spec mania for four years, my roommates, who are utterly generous and empathetic, my various editors (at Spec and elsewhere), who have given me every opportunity imaginable, my professors, who taught me to think, and my peers at Spec, who have been an absolute pleasure to work with these four years.

One thing to do before graduating?: Become an AMC A-Lister if you want to see two or more movies in theaters every month. You can see up to four movies a week for $28 each month (I think it’s going up to $30 in July), which is basically the price of one ticket to a movie in Dolby Vision. You can use the subscription on any screening format at AMC (including IMAX at Lincoln Square, which is the largest IMAX screen in the country). The subscription basically pays for itself and it’s the driving force behind more than one of my friendships. If several of your friends become A-Listers you can add them to your AMC “entourage” on the app and easily book tickets for the whole group. That means you basically get to see free movies whenever you want with your friends at the best AMC in the United States without the hassle of booking individual tickets. I was not paid for this Senior Wisdom.

Any regrets?: Only that I didn’t spend more time in the Spec office hunched over my computer with no end in sight. 

Shea Vance via Zohar Ford