Peer Advisors

Why I'm majoring in Urban Studies: I am not sure what I want to do when I grow up, but every Urban Studies course that I’ve taken seems to introduce me to a new possibility.  After Intro to Urban Studies I considered architecture, after Urban Underclass I was inspired to be an educator in urban America, and after Sustainable Cities I tossed around the idea of working in local government. The urban environment is where my interests lie and I want to fully explore all the possibilities before I go to work there.

What I like best about Urban Studies: A side-effect of the interdisciplinary major is a classroom full of people with a range of interests. I love working on a project or discussing a topic with classmates who think differently than I do and are in the major because their passions are different from mine. This is basically the reality of every urban studies class I’ve taken or major social event (woo! woo!) I’ve attended—and I couldn’t be happier to be a part of the urbs community J!

Favorite class / professor (and why): Urban Underclass/Rosenfeld: Oh, boy. I’ve never read so much in such a short amount of time in my life (except maybe with the Harry Potter Series), but when it was all said and done, the reading and sections and even the exams were all worth it. The urban underclass, the poorest of the poor in America, is not a topic that you can understand by reading a one-page article in a magazine; it took ten weeks to understand the way America works (or doesn’t) in relation to its most disadvantaged citizens. I constantly reference what I learned in this class and I wish it were required for all Stanford students.

Favorite book (and why): My Friend Leonard This novel is not related to Urban Studies (although some of it takes place in Chicago where urban studies was developed), but it is just a wonderful story about life and relationships.

Career goal / Future plans: Unknown…for now

Other academic interests (majors, minors): Not a minor, but I love foreign languages!

Extracurriculars: Club basketball, Tutoring for Community, and Urbanter

Something else you should know about me: Settler’s of Catan is the best!

Why I'm majoring in Urban Studies: I stumbled into Urban Studies halfway through my sophomore year and decided to major in it because it allowed me to take the range of classes that I wanted to take and had a real-world and hands-on approach.

What I like best about Urban Studies: The amazing professors and advisors!  Everyone is super helpful and easy to talk to.  The number of times I've emailed an advisor/professor/TA completely stressed out about research grants, required classes, or planning for next quarter and gotten an immediate and super helpful response is SO MANY.

Favorite class / professor (and why): So many!  Two highlights have been Sustainable Cities (a very hands-on service-learning course) and Social Movement and Collective Action.

Career goal / Future plans: No idea!  Something that involves health and wellness, feminism and activism, and/or improv and the arts.

Extracurriculars: iThrive (formerly Health Promotion Services) and SImps (the Stanford Improvisors.

Something else you should know about me: I'm a peer advisor and would love to grab coffee with you and chat if you're at all thinking about Urban Studies!

Why I'm majoring in Urban Studies:  This is a paper in and of itself, but I’m majoring in urban studies because it brings together the best and most relevant of the social sciences together into a single interdisciplinary field.  If I were to design the most perfect major for myself, it would be called “future studies” and I’d have a concentration in “peace.”  Urban studies is pretty close to that.

What I like best about Urban Studies:  What isn’t there to love about urban studies?  I think I’m drawn to the major because of its scope.  It’s both practical and theoretical; a social science and the humanities.  It’s political science, anthropology, sociology, and history all tied into one, with its own focus.

Favorite class / professor (and why):  CEE 32Q: Place, Making Space Now with Tom Beischer and John Barton.  In this class, we read a lot of crazy philosophers while having tough, heated conversations about place, space, cultural geography, nostalgia, New Urbanism, etc.  My favorite professor, over all, is Michael Rosenfeld in sociology – but you’ll find out why soon anyway, since one of his classes is part of the core!

Favorite book (and why):  My favorite book(s) right now is The Hunger Games (in its entirety).  I’m a huge fan of YA fiction – I believe that YA fiction bridges suspense, adventure, social justice, social commentary, and adolescence together into masterpiece form.  If you want to comment on society today, you need to be reading YA fiction.  I love The Hunger Games, in particular, because it asks the question: what is leadership?  It answers with greed, power, coercion, grace, talent, reluctance, and so many others.  Katniss, the protagonist, is herself a study in leadership and social movements.

Career goal / Future plans:  I intend to get my PhD in sociology and become a professor.  Along the way, I’d like to take a few years to enter the working world in a yet-unknown position while apprenticing to be a volunteer trainer for service dogs.

Why I'm majoring in Urban Studies: The design of the habitats and communities we live in structure our entire life. How cool is that?

What I like best about Urban Studies: There are so many options!

Favorite class / professor (and why): Either Global Human Geography 106a and b with Martin Lewis- I never knew how much I didn’t know about the world; I think I reference something I learned from those classes at least once a day, or Education 103b with Arnetha Ball, if you want to be inspired to be an urban school teacher, this seminar will do it.

Other academic interests (majors, minors): Drama, Education

Extracurriculars: Jumpstart, Alliance Streetdance, seeing as much theater as possible