What's your name again?

It is really hot outside right now. Not the kind of hot where a dip in the pool can cool you down, but the kind where even the pools reach bath water temperatures and offer no relief from the heat. Welcome to the great state of Florida, where I spend my summers (when I’m not at Vanderbilt doing research), spring break (when I’m not doing spring training with the crew team), Christmas and Thanksgiving (luckily, both at home). Even though my home state of twenty years does offer some amazing perks like the beach ten minutes from my house and an ever-increasing number of amusement parks just an hour drive away, my allegiance has shifted since coming to Nashville. These pictures of campus should help you guess why.

A shot of the central library, from Harold's statue

The "peppermint" near Rand

My name is Chris Adkins, and if you haven’t guessed by now, I am a Commodore through and through (I have plenty of Vanderbilt t-shirts to prove it!). I came to Vanderbilt in the fall of 2005, which would make me a Junior in the Class of ’09. I’m a double major in Biology (Molecular and Cellular Biology, if you want to get specific) and Spanish (with a concentration in Spanish language, linguistics, and culture). Although I risk ruining your image of me, I do have to confirm that I am in fact a premed, which will probably explain any OCD behavior you see from me over the span of this documentation of my adventures at Vanderbilt and beyond. I add the “and beyond” part because I’ll be studying abroad in Madrid this fall, which will hopefully make my ramblings here exciting for you to read.

Before I get into that, though, I'll get even more into "about me" mode and tell you about a few activities that I do that I really think define and reflect who I am so you can get to know me a little better. First off, as you no doubt figured out from the first paragraph, I’m a member of the crew team (technically the “Vanderbilt Rowing Club”) along with about twenty other students who are so amazingly talented, committed, and hilarious that I am motivated to wake up at 4:38 every morning (timed to the minute to maximize sleep) just to practice with them.

The crew team at SIRA last spring

Second, I have been doing research on telomerase in Dr. Kathy Friedman’s lab for the past year and a half or so, starting the summer after my freshman year. You’ll probably hear a bit about this in the future, as we’ll soon be submitting a paper that lists me as a second author, which obviously makes me really, really happy. Last but definitely not least, I’m a translator at Matthew Walker Comprehensive Health Center, which is a low-cost clinic in downtown Nashville that serves the surprisingly large population of Latinos in the city as well as other underprivileged residents. It’s an unbelievably rewarding position to offer my skills as a premed and a Spanish speaker to those who really need it.

Seeing as I’ll be abroad this semester, though, all of these things that I’ve grown so involved in will be pushed to the backburner temporarily while I explore the wonders of Spain along with twenty five other Dores through Vanderbilt-in-Spain, part of Vanderbilt’s huge offering of study abroad programs. I leave September 1^st, so I’ll probably be crazy busy until then getting all the last-minute preparations done for my three and a half months living internationally. That means I probably won’t be posting until then, but rest assured that first post will include some pretty sweet pictures and, hopefully, no stories of delayed airplanes or awkward strip searches at customs.

I welcome any questions about anything related to myself or to Vanderbilt, so please post them in the comments section and I’ll do my best to answer them in my next post!

Until Spain,

Chris