Commodores in Spain

Since my parents left last week, I’ve been experiencing the pains of homesickness a little more strongly. Their visit brought me a little taste of the United States (and banana bread!), and that little taste left me wanting more. Luckily for me, that something more came in the form of a whole bunch of ‘Dores coming over to Madrid, bringing with them that welcoming and comforting aura of the sometimes-ridiculed but always-enjoyed “Vanderbubble.”

With Vanderbilt on a mission to internationalize its undergraduate population, raising the percentage of international students from its current 3% to 8%, the admissions folk are not letting any opportunity go to waste. There was a conference of English-speaking international college counselors in Madrid this week and Vanderbilt captured their attention by hosting an after-conference reception, full of endless platters of hors d’oeuvres, free-flowing wine, delicious meals, and, of course, speeches and videos showing them just how vibrant and cosmopolitan Vanderbilt is.

Those of us students who weren’t traveling this weekend (long essays in Spanish on obscure literature topics tend to prevent that…) had the opportunity to help out at the reception, giving the counselors the chance to grill us on whether we really like Vanderbilt or not. My first duty was manning the shirt table, where each one of the 140 guests (and a hotel security guard!) got a pretty sweet black Vanderbilt polo shirt and a goody bag with information and stats on Vanderbilt. The other students manned the lobby, gave directions, mingled, and occasionally brought Sarah and I some of those delicious hors d’oeuvres to get us through until dinner.

Holly and Sarah at the shirt table

Next we all moved up to dinner, where admissions counselor Shari gave opening remarks, followed by Director of Admissions John Gaines, and then a little bit later by Associate Provost and Dean of Admissions (and a whole lot of other titles I can’t remember) Doug Christiansen. In the meantime, we all spread out to individual tables to avoid “clumping” and to maximize the mingling factor. When I say these counselors were international, I’m not lying; at my table they were from places as varied as Toronto, Milan, Switzerland, and India.

Left to Right: Amy Smith, John Gaines and his wife, Doug Christiansen and his wife, Carlos Jauregui (the Vanderbilt-in-Spain director) and his wife Tatiana, and Shari Sutton (not shown are Mike Drish, who coordinated all this, and Roberta, who volunteered time from her vacation to help out)

To wrap up the night, we watched a great short video covering the joyful time of graduation, which was apparently so moving that some of the women counselors shed a tear or two.

Hopefully our efforts will persuade these counselors of the magnetism of Vanderbilt so they can give us a strong recommendation to their students, helping us to make even more great strides towards a completely diversified student body!

From left to right: Sarah, Arielle, Holly, Vanessa, and me